HELP: We are just beginning an Australia/New Zealand tour and my D5300 with New Tamron 16-300 is already acting up. AF and VC were both on. It happened first after a burst shot.

tonyjag Loc: Bolton, Ma.

We are just beginning an Australia/New Zealand tour and my D5300 with New Tamron 16-300 is already acting up. AF and VC were both on. It happened first after a burst shot. Nothing happened when I pressed the shutter release. The battery was down by 1 bar. So I changed it and it was OK for maybe 50 shots. Then it would auto focus, but not shoot, even with all bars of the battery indicator lit. I turned it off then on and it was OK. We were in a humid rain forest, so that may have contributed. Any advice will be much appreciated!

SteveR Loc: Michigan

In the menu somewhere there is a choice to make on focus of whether to allow the camera to shoot only when perfect focus is achieved or when less than perfect focus is achieved. It is possible that you have perfect focus checked in your menu. If so, that could esp. affect burst shots.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Could it be that the camera is a bit slow to clear the buffer after a burst shot?

Bipod

tonyjag wrote:

We are just beginning an Australia/New Zealand tou... (show quote)

I know nothing about the D5300 and the symptom is very general. However:

As a temporary work-around, turn off everything that isn't absolutely
necessary and pulls power: burst mode, IS, live-view, etc.

Possibly the battery has a poor connection that is causing the intermittant failure.
Check battery and battery compartment terminals for corrosion. They should
be bright and shiney, not green. Make sure the battery door is latching.

Also check the electrical connections on your lens and camera's lens mount--
just to be sure.

At night, leave the camera out of its case in your hotel room so it
can dry out thoroughly. ( If PC boards are not perfectly clean, then
condensation can short out traces on the board.)

BTW. keep your camera well away from salt water spray--it's absolutely deadly
to cameras.

Bipod

P.S. If all else fails, they do sell disposable cameras "Down Under"--
it might be a relief "no worries".

Quite a selection, actually:

Kodak Fun Saver -- Color negative film ISO 800, 27 exp. (C41 processing)
Fujifilm QuickSnap -- Color negative film ISO 400, 27 exp. (C41 processing)
Ilford XP2 -- B&W chromogenic negative film ISO 400, 26 exp. (C41 processing)
Ilford HP5 -- B&W print film ISO 400, 27 exp. (B&W negative processing)

The lenses are all plastic: The Kodak is a 2-element, the rest are all 1-element.
All with built-in flash. And unlike your D5300, all are "full frame".

tonyjag Loc: Bolton, Ma.

Bipod wrote:

I know nothing about the D5300 and the symptom is ... (show quote)

Thanks to all who replied! The camera is drying out in the room A/C. I will try some other suggestions if it happens again tomorrow.

tonyjag Loc: Bolton, Ma.

The disposable solution is what we did when first my primary Minolta SRT 102 died (stripped gear in the film advance), followed by the backup Samsung point and shoot (broken flex circuit in the zoom lens) failed during a 1999 Alaska cruise. I finally bought a Nikon camera in Juneau.

But now I have a Nikon p500 and a Samsung Note 8 Android phone (which has 3 cameras) for backup.

Thanks for your reply. I am amazed that you can still buy disposable 35mm film cameras!

Largobob

Good luck. Intermittent issues are hard to diagnose. I would agree with SteveR, it may have to do with the "focus lock" setting. I know with both my D810 and D500, in single-servo AF, the camera will only fire if the "in-focus" indicator appears in the viewfinder. So basically, if the focus point is not locked in, the camera will not fire. It is really disturbing when it happens....but it can be controlled if you know why it is happening.

Bipod

Largobob wrote:

Good luck. Intermittent issues are hard to diagnose. I would agree with SteveR, it may have to do with the "focus lock" setting. I know with both my D810 and D500, in single-servo AF, the camera will only fire if the "in-focus" indicator appears in the viewfinder. So basically, if the focus point is not locked in, the camera will not fire. It is really disturbing when it happens....but it can be controlled if you know why it is happening.

Wow, what a "gotcha" of a "feature".

I've often thought, wouldn't it be nice if AF displayed a confidence level
in the viewfinder? It knows when it's having trouble getting a good fix.
In some modes of some cameras, you can see the lens hunt.

Largobob

Bipod wrote:

Wow, what a "gotcha" of a "feature".

I've often thought, wouldn't it be nice if AF displayed a confidence level
in the viewfinder? It knows when it's having trouble getting a good fix.
In some modes of some cameras, you can see the lens hunt.

Ya....a real "gotcha" sometimes. I believe it can be turned off (over-ridden) in the menu...but I have not looked further.

ELNikkor

Try putting everything, including the lens, on manual. IF it works, you will at least get some shots the old fashioned way.

tonyjag Loc: Bolton, Ma.

Thanks again for all the feedback. It behaved much better yesterday and I used burst mode a lot. A couple if times I just had to power it off then on again. But I much appreciate all of the advice. I couldn't find how to make it not hold off until perfect focus..the D 5300 user manual is very skimpy on focus.

latebloomer Loc: Topeka, KS

SteveR wrote:

In the menu somewhere there is a choice to make on focus of whether to allow the camera to shoot only when perfect focus is achieved or when less than perfect focus is achieved. It is possible that you have perfect focus checked in your menu. If so, that could esp. affect burst shots.

That is what happened to my D500

Rickoshay Loc: Southern California

Maybe a “reboot” is in order?