Is this picture in focus

[Albin]

Is this picture focused or not? It's suppose to be focused in the center, which is where the top black box with 3 lines. I think it's focused on the arm of the light, but this is what Nikon sent me to show me that the 17-55 is working with my D7000.

Click the picture to view larger sizes.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7161/6473527477_bcab809f6f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14219471@N06/6473527477/lightbox//)
Img0402 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14219471@N06/6473527477/) by Bendy Binder (http://www.flickr.com/people/14219471@N06/), on Flickr

[MrBurns]

Parts of it are.

[Albin]

Parts of it are.

Which part, the arm of the light?

[Xeros]

Are the boxes and the arm of the light on the same plane?

PS: Does anyone else see a face in the light?

[Albin]

Are the boxes and the arm of the light on the same plane?

PS: Does anyone else see a face in the light?

I would assume that it is not, I believe the arm is used to light up the box so it must be in front.

I see the face, looks like Ironman

[Ethan15]

This is a laughable front/back-focusing test. The test that I conduct at home with a sheet printed off internet and a tripod with proper lighting does a way better job than this.

Get rid of all those distracting junk and just focus on that focus paper (http://focustestchart.com/chart.html) ..


This test picture can't tell you conclusively if the lens of properly focused at box 3. To me, personally, box 2 seems to be more focused than 3 (the second one from the left). The arm of light seems to be tact sharp but the only explaining behind that is that it's on the relatively same plane as those boxes.


Like I said, this is a really poor job to test for back/front-focusing problem ... sigh

[TruE SkiLLS]

This is a laughable front/back-focusing test. The test that I conduct at home with a sheet printed off internet and a tripod with proper lighting does a way better job than this.

Get rid of all those distracting junk and just focus on that focus paper (http://focustestchart.com/chart.html) ..


This test picture can't tell you conclusively if the lens of properly focused at box 3. To me, personally, box 2 seems to be more focused than 3 (the second one from the left). The arm of light seems to be tact sharp but the only explaining behind that is that it's on the relatively same plane as those boxes.


Like I said, this is a really poor job to test for back/front-focusing problem ... sigh

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i read that nikon gave the OP the image of the test. So essentially, you're saying that the guys at Nikon do not know what they are doing and they are using a tool that's "worse" than your paper test. And if you clicked into his flickr, it seems like Nikon did do a focus test with just the distance paper.

To OP, do you have the full res picture? Flickr doesn't show full res hence it's pretty difficult to figure out if it is in focus or not. Also, by looking at it, it seems like the focused plane is from the lamp on the left to the black cable loop on the right. Assuming that they aren't on the same plane, everything in between should be focused

[Albin]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i read that nikon gave the OP the image of the test. So essentially, you're saying that the guys at Nikon do not know what they are doing and they are using a tool that's "worse" than your paper test. And if you clicked into his flickr, it seems like Nikon did do a focus test with just the distance paper.

To OP, do you have the full res picture? Flickr doesn't show full res hence it's pretty difficult to figure out if it is in focus or not. Also, by looking at it, it seems like the focused plane is from the lamp on the left to the black cable loop on the right. Assuming that they aren't on the same plane, everything in between should be focused

Ethan might not be too far off from his statement about the focus test, I'm waiting for a response from Nikon before I make that statement.

The full size picture you can view it here (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/204/img0402hy.jpg/) . I thought you could actually view the full size on flickr but I have my settings that you can't.

[AforApple]

The photo is too small to judge. I can't seems to get the full res as 1027 is the largest size I can find on flickr. U have a full res upload for us?

I m not surprised if not everyone knows about focus test...my uncle has a Canon 30D and the photos came out soft, been to service centre over 7 times and each time it came back with "cleaned sensor", and the sharpen settingwas jacked to the max. ....we included a DVD full of soft photos (every photos is soft)....along with sharp photos from my 350D to show the difference...it's the same thing.....then the warranty ran out. So don't be surprised if staff from camera manufacture don't know jack or don't care.

I've switched to another brand for such bad service and quality and never been happier.

Edit. you can adjust focus-fine tuning on your D7000., BUT if the whole image is soft then it's not back/front focus issue....meaning if no point/area on your photo is sharp on that lens, then there's something wrong with either the lens or camera. if it's back/front focus, there must be some point/area that is sharp except the point/are where you pointed your focus at.

[Ethan15]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i read that nikon gave the OP the image of the test. So essentially, you're saying that the guys at Nikon do not know what they are doing and they are using a tool that's "worse" than your paper test. And if you clicked into his flickr, it seems like Nikon did do a focus test with just the distance paper.

To OP, do you have the full res picture? Flickr doesn't show full res hence it's pretty difficult to figure out if it is in focus or not. Also, by looking at it, it seems like the focused plane is from the lamp on the left to the black cable loop on the right. Assuming that they aren't on the same plane, everything in between should be focused


That's exactly what my position is: their focus test is junk. Even with full resolution picture, you can't objectively say which box is in focus. Box two for instance seems to be more focused to me than box three ... and that light arm is confusing at least. Box 1 and 6 seems to be out of focus to me ... yet the light arm is tact sharp.

Even if what you said is true, that those areas should be in focus then certainly this test is horrible. Proper focus test should be made with the shallowest depth of field (maximum aperture, close distance to subject with maximum focal length) ... which according to your statement is not achieved in this test.

Shame ...

[ritz1010]

No pro here but to me it seems box 2 and 3 are I in focus but again the arm is tact sharp. OP buy yourselves a focus chart and do it yourself. ***k nikon.

[faken]

I'd like to see the EXIF..

[Albin]

I'd like to see the EXIF..

You can view the EXIF info here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14219471@N06/6473527477/meta/in/photostream/)

[Albin]

No pro here but to me it seems box 2 and 3 are I in focus but again the arm is tact sharp. OP buy yourselves a focus chart and do it yourself. ***k nikon.

I sent my D7000 to Nikon to fix a focus issue, I've then asked them to take a picture using the 17-55 to show me it's working with the fix that they did to my D7000. Based on the picture I don't think I want to get the 17-55, which I originally wanted to buy.

[Ethan15]

You can view the EXIF info here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14219471@N06/6473527477/meta/in/photostream/)

Disappointing. Focal length should be set at max 55mm with closer subject distance to achieve shallower DOF (at least 0.12ft instead of 0.3ft). DOF can even be made shallower if subject distance is made closer, let's say to just 50cm away --> will make to be just 0.03 ft DOF ...

Also, why focus mode AF-A ... why not AF-S and set the point to be dead centre. This is the surest way to test IMO.

wow...

[Albin]

Disappointing. Focal length should be set at max 55mm with closer subject distance to achieve shallower DOF (at least 0.12ft instead of 0.3ft). DOF can even be made shallower if subject distance is made closer, let's say to just 50cm away --> will make to be just 0.03 ft DOF ...

Also, why focus mode AF-A ... why not AF-S and set the point to be dead centre. This is the surest way to test IMO.

wow...

This is even more disappointing. Take a look at the following pic that was sent to me by Nikon.

Pic 1 (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/img0366if.jpg/) - This picture they sent me to show me that my camera is working fine with another lens, 50mm. Looks great right, the 0 is focused nicely? look at the next pic

Pic 2 (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/97/mypicu.jpg/) - This pic using ViewNX tells me where the actual focus point is.

WTF?! Shouldn't the focus point be where the 0 is? I can't understand the logic behind why the technician would put the focus point above the 0 except to make me happy so they can just move along. I bet they were hoping I wouldn't catch this. I asked them for an explanation but they tell me based on SW that they got from Nikon to determine if my camera is back or front focusing that my camera is within the Nikon specification and that there's noting they can do. I'm so fustrated with them.

[Ethan15]

This could be explained if they use AF-A mode instead of AF-S ... Seriously, do you need to teach Nikon technician how to do focus test properly?

[TruE SkiLLS]

This is even more disappointing. Take a look at the following pic that was sent to me by Nikon.

Pic 1 (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/834/img0366if.jpg/) - This picture they sent me to show me that my camera is working fine with another lens, 50mm. Looks great right, the 0 is focused nicely? look at the next pic

Pic 2 (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/97/mypicu.jpg/) - This pic using ViewNX tells me where the actual focus point is.

WTF?! Shouldn't the focus point be where the 0 is? I can't understand the logic behind why the technician would put the focus point above the 0 except to make me happy so they can just move along. I bet they were hoping I wouldn't catch this. I asked them for an explanation but they tell me based on SW that they got from Nikon to determine if my camera is back or front focusing that my camera is within the Nikon specification and that there's noting they can do. I'm so fustrated with them.

Now I'm confused.

Focus point should be dead centre when doing a chart test, which is it... but the 0 is not even on the same height as the centre focus point. So either they did one of two things:
1. They took a picture then move the camera back/forth and repeated until the 0 is focused.
2. They took a picture then move the focus board back/forth and repeated until the 0 is focused.

I don't believe this was tested just once because there's no way you can get the 0 to be focused when you don't know how far you're front/back focusing by... which leads to me thinking why they would even bother testing it multiple times just to trip you out? Wouldn't calibrating the lens take a shorter period of time than this?

[Ethan15]

Now I'm confused.

Focus point should be dead centre when doing a chart test, which is it... but the 0 is not even on the same height as the centre focus point. So either they did one of two things:
1. They took a picture then move the camera back/forth and repeated until the 0 is focused.
2. They took a picture then move the focus board back/forth and repeated until the 0 is focused.

I don't believe this was tested just once because there's no way you can get the 0 to be focused when you don't know how far you're front/back focusing by... which leads to me thinking why they would even bother testing it multiple times just to trip you out? Wouldn't calibrating the lens take a shorter period of time than this?

You're right if they use AF-S and focus dead centre on 0. there is no way they could've missed it.

But the previous EXIF file suggest that they use AF-A ... and who knows what camera thinks should be in focus. It's quiet sad

[TruE SkiLLS]

You're right if they use AF-S and focus dead centre on 0. there is no way they could've missed it.

But the previous EXIF file suggest that they use AF-A ... and who knows what camera thinks should be in focus. It's quiet sad

AF-A treat still objects as single point, so that means focus would still be at one of the focus point.

In this case, if the camera did focus at 0, it should've indicated the focus point below the centre. in the picture, it showed that the focus point is in the centre, so there was no way the 0 would've been in focused unless it's front focusing by 65 pts.

[Albin]

I'm thoroughly pissed off with Nikon. They're trusting SW to determine whether or not my camera is in focus or not rather than just eye balling it. I'm fine with it if it's slightly off but it's completely off!!! You don't need SW to tell that the test is wrong. They clearly see the issue and purposely readjusted their test to make it look like my camera is working fine so they wouldn't have to deal with it.

They may taken the first shot and saw how far it's front focusing and took that distance and set the focus point that much above the 0. I asked for an explanation but they tell me it's correct, their SW is teling them my camera is neither front focusing nor back focusing. I argued with them but they're adamant that there's nothing wrong with it.

I completely give up and I'll just use AF tuning, which I don't want to because the parameters are different between the focal lenghts. I want to buy the 17-55 but based on that picture there's no way, would you guys buy it based on that picture? I'm done with Nikon products, I have lost all faith in their quality.

[Ethan15]

AF-A treat still objects as single point, so that means focus would still be at one of the focus point.

In this case, if the camera did focus at 0, it should've indicated the focus point below the centre. in the picture, it showed that the focus point is in the centre, so there was no way the 0 would've been in focused unless it's front focusing by 65 pts.

don't you also have to select a single point in the AF point to ensure that only 0 get's focused.... ? otherwise the camera will select one of its many AF points as a focus point ?

[Albin]

don't you also have to select a single point in the AF point to ensure that only 0 get's focused.... ? otherwise the camera will select one of its many AF points as a focus point ?

For the D7000 you can select single point, selectable point(1 ofthe 39, don't know terminology) or auto focus which will select many of the AF points it can find.

[Ethan15]

For the D7000 you can select single point, selectable point(1 ofthe 39, don't know terminology) or auto focus which will select many of the AF points it can find.

possible that they didn't select single point?

[TruE SkiLLS]

possible that they didn't select single point?

if they used auto area, the focus point at 0 wouldve still shown.

[Albin]

possible that they didn't select single point?

I believe they didn't. If it had multiple focus points ViewNX would have shown multiple focus points as well as what True Skilll said

[Jimbobs]

Lessons from my father:

The easiest and least expensive way to check focus is to use a newspaper. Hang it on a wall and take pictures of it! You can also see the various types of lens distortions and you can compare the real thing to the images very easily. If you need or don't have a tripod, you can put the camera on any steady surface and use the self-timer to trigger the shutter and avoid shake.

[Albin]

Lessons from my father:

The easiest and least expensive way to check focus is to use a newspaper. Hang it on a wall and take pictures of it! You can also see the various types of lens distortions and you can compare the real thing to the images very easily. If you need or don't have a tripod, you can put the camera on any steady surface and use the self-timer to trigger the shutter and avoid shake.

Good one, I'll give that I try when I get my camera back