# Help with my Nikon d800!



## CThomas817 (Oct 16, 2017)

So yesterday I shot portraits outdoors at a local park on an overcast day. I started shooting around 3:30 pm and my camera was operating perfectly fine. I was using a Nikkor 85mm 1.8g lens. Around 4:30pm, the camera started struggling to fire. ISO was at 400, shutter around 1/250th, aperature close to wide open (maybe 2.2). There was plenty of contrast in the photo/the camera was focusing and I definitley was not too close to the subject. Battery had plenty of juice. I had to wait about 30 seconds and then it would fire. Once it fired the histogram was more than acceptable and the child's face was tack sharp. Any idea what the issue could have been?

One other thing I should mention is that I was shooting a child who was sitting relatively still when this happened. I was still in AF-C from when she was moving around. Would that have had an effect?

Thanks


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## goodguy (Oct 17, 2017)

Maybe you left camera on timer so it counts 10 seconds till it fires ?


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## KmH (Oct 17, 2017)

You tripped the shutter 30 seconds before the shutter actually opened and made the exposure?


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## CThomas817 (Oct 17, 2017)

Definitley not on a timer. I know my Nikon basics pretty well by now. I was shooting the entire hour prior with no issues getting great, properly exposed shots.

And no it wasn't that it fired 30 seconds after tripping the shutter - the shutter wouldn't trip period. I was at 1/250th of a second. The camera went from working perfectly fine to not working without any settings being touched. Basically I kept trying to fire and maybe after 30 seconds of attempts the shutter finally tripped. Almost like how it doesn't fire when it can't focus only in this situation I had focus.

This is a used camera and although I bought it in excellent condition, there was no shutter count provided. Could the shutter have exhausted? Like I said, battery was good. I shot about 250 frames over an hour and a half.


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## Designer (Oct 17, 2017)

CThomas817 said:


> This is a used camera and although I bought it in excellent condition, there was no shutter count provided. Could the shutter have exhausted?


That is concerning.  I wonder if the previous owner had that issue and it was not resolved?   You might have to send it in for a checkup.


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## SCraig (Oct 17, 2017)

CThomas817 said:


> this is a used camera and although I bought it in excellent condition, there was no shutter count provided. Could the shutter have exhausted? Like I said, battery was good. I shot about 250 frames over an hour and a half.


Shutter count is part of the EXIF data in every photograph that you shoot.  Just need an EXIF data reader to pull it out and there are plenty of those around.


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## astroNikon (Oct 17, 2017)

In your Custom Settings what are
a1, and
a2
set for ?

What exact lens were you using and what exact distance were you to the subject?
Can you provide the photo with EXIF data ?

normally for portraiture AF-S is used, not AF-C.

without any documented information to go on we can just guess.  But I would guess since you were on AF-C, you may have been too close for the lens/AF system to focus on and it may have kept hunting.  But, who knows.  There's no information on distance, the image, etc etc.  (ie, normally when ppl say it wasn't "this" .. it normally is ... )

Does the camera work fine now?
have you tried a Reset just in case?

But we're just guessing and you can reject all guesses until we have much more info to go on.


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## CThomas817 (Oct 17, 2017)

astroNikon said:


> In your Custom Settings what are
> a1, and
> a2
> set for ?
> ...





astroNikon said:


> In your Custom Settings what are
> a1, and
> a2
> set for ?
> ...



When I get home to the original file I will upload. Sorry I thought I mentioned in my OP that the lens was a Nikon 85mm f/1.8g. I was definitley not too close... easily 15 feet from the subject. I was in AF-C as just prior to this shot as I was taking pictures of children running toward me. No way I would have maintained focus in AF-S. This particular shot the child was sitting on the ground.

I haven't used the camera for a full shoot since but it was working intermittently when this started to happen.


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## CThomas817 (Oct 17, 2017)




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## snowbear (Oct 17, 2017)

Nice shot.

I think thei is the shutter count:
ImageNumber 10466

Have you since tried a different lens?  I would, to see if the problem stays or goes.


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## CThomas817 (Oct 17, 2017)

snowbear said:


> Nice shot.
> 
> I think thei is the shutter count:
> ImageNumber 10466
> ...


 
Not yet but good idea... thanks!


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## TreeofLifeStairs (Oct 17, 2017)

CThomas817 said:


> Definitley not on a timer. I know my Nikon basics pretty well by now. I was shooting the entire hour prior with no issues getting great, properly exposed shots.
> 
> And no it wasn't that it fired 30 seconds after tripping the shutter - the shutter wouldn't trip period. I was at 1/250th of a second. The camera went from working perfectly fine to not working without any settings being touched. Basically I kept trying to fire and maybe after 30 seconds of attempts the shutter finally tripped. Almost like how it doesn't fire when it can't focus only in this situation I had focus.
> 
> This is a used camera and although I bought it in excellent condition, there was no shutter count provided. Could the shutter have exhausted? Like I said, battery was good. I shot about 250 frames over an hour and a half.



He took so many that the shutter count rolled over. [emoji6]


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## CThomas817 (Oct 18, 2017)

TreeofLifeStairs said:


> CThomas817 said:
> 
> 
> > Definitley not on a timer. I know my Nikon basics pretty well by now. I was shooting the entire hour prior with no issues getting great, properly exposed shots.
> ...



I'm a female, thanks, and that's not what I was saying. I was saying that I took 250 frames with no problem before this started happening so that it was understood that the camera was not on a timer or some other setting causing the problem. I was not suggesting that the 250 frames sent the shutter count over. I mentioned shutter count with speculation that I may have bought the camera with over 200,000 cycles and it may have had the issue from the get-go since this is only my second time formally using it.


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## benhasajeep (Oct 18, 2017)

CThomas817 said:


> TreeofLifeStairs said:
> 
> 
> > CThomas817 said:
> ...



The total shutter count can be obtained in the EXIF data if you would like to know.  There are also several sites online that will give it to you if you download a photo to their site.


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## coastalconn (Oct 18, 2017)

When the camera wasn't responsive was the green write light on in the back? Could be a a faulty card.


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## CThomas817 (Oct 18, 2017)

benhasajeep said:


> CThomas817 said:
> 
> 
> > TreeofLifeStairs said:
> ...



I got it, thanks! It's only a little over 10k


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## CThomas817 (Oct 18, 2017)

coastalconn said:


> When the camera wasn't responsive was the green write light on in the back? Could be a a faulty card.



I'm not sure, but when the shutter eventually tripped, the card had no issue writing the data. With the D800 the shutter will still trip even if there is no card in the camera. I'm going to shoot again today and see what happens. Thanks so much!


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## TreeofLifeStairs (Oct 23, 2017)

Did it work itself out?


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## CThomas817 (Oct 24, 2017)

As I suspected I'm pretty sure it's me. I think the lens is struggling to focus in certain light situations. It happened again two additional times, while other times after that I have had no issue.

The first scenario I was in dappled sunlight in the woods. It was mid-day on a sunny day so there was plenty of ambient light, but I guess the light was too variable?

The second scenario I was shooting at golden hour and there was plenty of light. The photo below is what I was shooting. The lens was really struggling. I started my ISO off at 100 and then bumped it up to 400 to see if it would make any difference and it did not. Of course, all of the decent shots of the kids both looking at me the shutter wouldn't trip and I am way overexposed, the meter was all over the place. I was shooting in manual. Again I am using a Nikon 85mm 1.8g on a D800. I have the shutter set on focus rather than release because I really don't want to deal with thinking I got the shot and it's out of focus.

Any advice appreciated.


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## Dave442 (Oct 24, 2017)

Set the shutter to Release and then go fire off some shots. If it has no problem filling the buffer then it is probably a focus acquisition issue. 

For focus issues the best option is to find out what the best mode is to use for each situation, when best to use a cross type focus point, number of active focus points, how long it will hold a focus point, etc.


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## CThomas817 (Oct 24, 2017)

Dave442 said:


> Set the shutter to Release and then go fire off some shots. If it has no problem filling the buffer then it is probably a focus acquisition issue.
> 
> For focus issues the best option is to find out what the best mode is to use for each situation, when best to use a cross type focus point, number of active focus points, how long it will hold a focus point, etc.



Thank you... for this I used the 51-point focus. I will just have to play around with it.


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## Dave442 (Oct 24, 2017)

So you went from kids running around in AF-C and 51-point focus to kids sitting around. I usually stay in AF-C (using back-button-focus), but many will go to AF-S and I would flip to single point (really depends on the AF module/camera model). When I do go to AF-S it is set to Focus Priority while I have AF-C set to Release priority. I think I really only use AF-S when I have the flash on the camera, but you might want to use it more often if doing mostly people shots.

The other item is that you said... the metering was all over the place - this is very common when using Spot Metering. I usually go to single point AF when doing Spot Metering - you need to check if your camera does the spot metering from the focus point you select or just from the center focus point - and after checking some readings I'll flip back to center weighted or matrix so I don't get distracted by the meter readings jumping around.


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## SquarePeg (Oct 25, 2017)

I would trouble shoot in the following order:

Swap out the sd cards 

Reset your camera in case you’ve got something set in error that’s throwing things off 

Test with a different lens 

Use a different battery

Test in good light with a contrasty subject


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## CThomas817 (Oct 25, 2017)

I definitely think it has something to do with my metering and/or focus mode. I started this shoot off in AF-C - that's usually what I stay in when shooting children since movement is unpredictable with the toddler, but I switched to AF-S when it started giving me the issue to see if it would help, no such luck.

I will play around with the focus modes, back button focus and metering modes. For this situation, I should have waited longer into sunset to shoot. Their faces are too brightly lit on one side. If I spot metered on the bright side the other side of their faces would be too dark and vice versa. I couldn't turn them toward or against the sun at this time as I would have lost the water in the background. 

And yes, the meter was changing every time I made the slightest movement and it was distracting. However, I started off in center weighted metering and it was happening then too. I moved to spot metering just to see if it would help. My original settings when the issue started were:

ISO 100
F/2.2
Shutter - variable depending on meter
51-point AF
AF-C shutter on focus priority
Center weighted metering

I only started messing with setting when the shutter wouldn't trip and I could hear the lens struggling to focus. Thanks for all your help!



Dave442 said:


> So you went from kids running around in AF-C and 51-point focus to kids sitting around. I usually stay in AF-C (using back-button-focus), but many will go to AF-S and I would flip to single point (really depends on the AF module/camera model). When I do go to AF-S it is set to Focus Priority while I have AF-C set to Release priority. I think I really only use AF-S when I have the flash on the camera, but you might want to use it more often if doing mostly people shots.
> 
> The other item is that you said... the metering was all over the place - this is very common when using Spot Metering. I usually go to single point AF when doing Spot Metering - you need to check if your camera does the spot metering from the focus point you select or just from the center focus point - and after checking some readings I'll flip back to center weighted or matrix so I don't get distracted by the meter readings jumping around.


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## CThomas817 (Oct 25, 2017)

SquarePeg said:


> I would trouble shoot in the following order:
> 
> Swap out the sd cards
> 
> ...



Thank you. So the day following this shoot I shot a woman and her baby in a field on an overcast day with not one problem. I think it has to do with my metering and/or focus settings with the variable light. I will try your suggestions as well! Thanks.


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