Okay ... long story - I received my camera back today (11/27) from Nikon. Looks like they just made adjustments as they do not list any parts on the invoice(shop write-up - Service rank B2, Adjust Mirror, Adjust Mirror Angle, Adjust Auto Focus Operation and Clean CCD [hmm... maybe the CCD is adjacent to the CMOS?]).

The camera is definitely working much better then it was when I sent it in 2 weeks ago. I can easily say that thus far I am very pleased with the results. Before sending it in to Nikon I cleared all adjustments and lens profiles etc. So far this evening I have just been shooting with my 80-200 f2.8 inside the house. This lens was my biggest challenge with focus from day one on the D7000 (purchased the lens new back in 1995, I won't mention the price I paid for it back then). The D7000 photos taken with this lens were always soft or way out of focus. If I adjusted/added compensation at the 80MM then 200 would be a mess and the same in reverse. While photos taken with either my D50 or D90 on this lens always looked far better. Actually I think photos taken with the D50 with the 80-200 has always seemed sharper to me-eyes; not sure but this may be due to my eyes and the lower pixel count (CCD?), fewer focus points or just better/less-complex focus system back in the day... just my comment - no hate mail please.

I plan to take the D7000 to my son's hockey practice tomorrow night to see if there are also improvements with fast action shots, as well as, try a few other lens. If you don't see another post from me than the camera is performing fine. Or where it should have been when I bought it new 2 years ago. Again, I can see a big improvement in detail, focus and sharpness when using Lightroom and zooming on the 30 inch monitor.

Less the repair cost I cannot complain about the service as I shipped the Camera to Nikon on the 12 of November by UPS ground and it arrived at my doorstep this evening. Nikon's work status timeline was as follows: 11/15 - waiting repair approval, 11/16 work approved (me), 11/19-21 "Shop"; 11/23 "Bill". The on-line workorder still shows the status "Bill" today. Even though per the tracking number I see it was UPS'd late yesterday evening.

Again ... so far I'm very pleased with the repair turn around and how it is behaving with the 80-200.

Cheers, be well & take lots of photos!
MyR3

spraynpray said:
Surely your walkaround lens must have a problem if the focus wanders as you zoom it? I thought back focus would have to be persistent back focus if it was the body?

I'd agree with you, Andrew, except that I have used (and loved) this lens extensively on a D300 and a D90 with no problems at all.

It's obviously not a huge problem, considering I've been using this camera for two years now, and—ironically, being a scientist—I haven't studied it very carefully and systematically. It might just be my imagination, too, but my D90 nailed the focus consistently and I feel like I sometimes have to inveigle the D7000. Maybe it's just slightly less consistent is all, but I'm admitting that the average doesn't seem to be in focus. I don't think I'll do anything about it. Maybe I'll just wait for a new lens to come into my life...

Just as an update,I traded my D7000 in for a D600. I was unhappy with the D7000 files in general, let alone the focusing issue. The D600 is an outstanding camera, although with a possible sensor dust issue... and of course it's £1000 more than the D7000, but well worth it.

Gary

jonnyapple said:
I'd like to know what you think about the fix, MyR3. I'm thinking I've been in denial about this for two years now and should just pony up to get it fixed. The problem can't be corrected on my walkaround lens because I need a different AF fine tune for different focal lengths. My primes are fine. I'd like to hear how it goes for you.

Hi Jonny,

That's interesting. Surely your walkaround lens must have a problem if the focus wanders as you zoom it? I thought back focus would have to be persistent back focus if it was the body?

I'd like to know what you think about the fix, MyR3. I'm thinking I've been in denial about this for two years now and should just pony up to get it fixed. The problem can't be corrected on my walkaround lens because I need a different AF fine tune for different focal lengths. My primes are fine. I'd like to hear how it goes for you.

Complaining will not help as Nikon considers this a Prosumer camera and they make their money from they high end pro stuff and pro lens. Only a class-action event would wake them up.

For me I've been chasing the back focus around for a while on my D7000 and I should have sent it in for repair while still under warranty. My bad as I just sent it in for the repair at $224++. Oh well I hope it works better once returned.

Based on all of the readings on [NR] and elsewhere this looks like a well know Nikon D7000 problem. I ordered my D7000 when it was first announced 2 years ago and waited about 3 months for delivery. Sounds like rush production and cutting corners to fill orders. For me - lesson learned - I will wait 6+ months after the initial release before buying another Nikon DSLR. Hopefully my next camera will be a full frame camera.

Although, from some of the latest online information it looks like Nikon has similar problems with the new D800 and D600's.

danielT said:
Hi guys,

My first time here :D
I just need your opinion on this issue.
After having the D7000 for over a year a bit, I
found some small dust specs on the sensor and sent the camera to Nikon.

I am sure mine has back focus issue so I told them to correct that issue as well.
A week later, they told me a price of 224 dollars.

I called them and complained that the cost is too high for sensor cleaning since back focusing was a manufacture defect. But the representative didn't seem to acknowledge that at all. He said he will put a request for me.

What do you guys think? It will be great if I can have some advises.

Thank you in advance

The aforementioned focus problem is related to the lens, I had similar experience with the 16-85vr I've had. The 16-35 is spot on every time, even at macro distances. :-)

I thought that the focus problems of the D7000 had been resolved. That's the reason I am waiting for the D 400.
My FM2n focuses pretty well in spite of my eyesight that is getting worse.

Hi all..

And there was me thinking (and being told) it was down to my apparent inability and lack or experience!..

I find focusing and a focal length less than around 35mm very poor..I took shots of the trees at the end of my garden at 18mm (18-105 lens) and found them very soft..the 8mpcamera on my Samsung S2 phone is sharper!

I have tried all sorts of permutation with f stops, focus points etc etc..and got the same poor results every time...

Back to the shop it goes!!

brewercm said:
I used the Reikan FoCal tool on all the lenses on my D7000 and my customers are amazed at how sharp they are, even zoomed to 100%. Best tool I've used to calibrate all my lenses. Need to run my D700 through them all now to get the best performance possible out of it too.

What lenses did you calibrate and by how much was each out?

I used the Reikan FoCal tool on all the lenses on my D7000 and my customers are amazed at how sharp they are, even zoomed to 100%. Best tool I've used to calibrate all my lenses. Need to run my D700 through them all now to get the best performance possible out of it too.

As a follow-up to my earlier post on this topic....

I did finally send my D7000 to Melville NY to be serviced for a 'severe back focus' problem. It took over 3 weeks for them to send it back to me.

Here's what they did:

ADJ MIRROR ANGLE
ADJ AF UNIT
ADJ AUTO FOCUS OPERATION
CKD COMMUNICATION
CLN CCD
FIRMWARE UPGRADE
GENERAL CHECK & CLEAN

At this point, I can see a definite improvement in focus using the 50mm 1.4G lens. I've yet to try my other lenses. I'm looking forward to putting the 85mm 1.4G on today and taking it on a shooting spree to see what kind of results I get, using my 'Flagship' lens.

I'm not interested in doing any more rigid focus testing with the battery line up procedure, using all my lenses, tripod, remote shutter release, etc... Unless I start noticing the same problem again! I figure I've done my due diligence in determining the focus problem with this camera.

I'm no 'Expert' in photography nor do I consider myself to be a 'Pro', but I have been taking pictures for many decades (I'm old). I feel that I can say (without a doubt) that this D7000 was back focusing. And it was not due my bad technique or lack of understanding in how this camera operates.

I now have my camera back - in more ways than one. Thank you Nikon.

I might have focus issues on my D7k. I'm in denial though. My first one was fantastic, but this replacement is a little sketchy sometimes.

I think ptiller echoed my thoughts about speed being more important then F Stop with todays cameras.

ptiller said:
After some good advice on this site, I have finally found a good combination for volleyball ( indoor, fast action, no flash ). I have a D7000 and a Nikon 50mm 1.4G lens (sorry can not afford professional level glass, the D7000 body was a stretch).
I was orginally not very happy with my D7000 focus performance, thinking my focus was out of wack ( which I did have looked at under warrenty, but checked out OK ). Ultimately I feel my two issues holding me back were a) shooting at 1.4 aperature and b) trying to keep low ISO resulting in low shutter speed ( 1/300th or less range ), not good for the level of stop action I was looking for.

Here is what I have found to work very well (for me, mileage may vary for others):
1) Depth of Field at 1.4 is almost useless for action Volleyball. All you get is very soft pictures and out of focus more than not. 2.8 or 2.4 seem to be the lowest aperature with reasonable depth of feild and result in sharp photos.
I had also suspected that the 50mm 1.4G may be slow to focus too, but after the below I do not really see this as an issue for at least what I want.
2) Really need to get shutter speed up to 1/750 or 1/1000 to stop the ball & hitting arm for impressive action shots.
3) Embrace AutoISO, with max set to 3200 or even 6400. JPEG + high intenal noise reduction is acceptable, RAW + external noise reduction very acceptable. As I have seen other say, Noise is acceptable if the rest of the shot is spot on. I see what they mean now.
4) I shoot volleyball mostly at the side of the net, allowing clear view of net action and good view of back row for diggs. From this position, lighting is basically consistance and I can shoot in manual mode to fix aperature at 2.8 (or 2.4) and keep shutter speed at 1/750 or higher. If I move to the back of the court, I will take a few sample shots to evaluate the result and adjust as needed ( 2.4 vs. 2.8 or accept slower shutter speed ). Really not to hard to figure out for each new standing locations. Most games I really do not leave the one spot I am in.
Could this be done in shutter or aperture priority, likely, but I honestly found it easier to just use manual mode.
5) Metering is one notch above spot, not sure what this is called. Maybe it is traditional center weight, sorry not near the camera or manual to confirm.
6) I have not played with exposure compensation much. I would say my shots are slightly on the dark side, but look very close to what you see in the Gym. It is very easy in software to punch up brightness a bit based on taste, but have not have time to find an exact value boost for brightness. May be playing with the exposure compensation may improve things, but I am very happy with the exposure result.
7) Focus is spot, with Continious Focus mode. Shutter relase is focus priority, but I need to play more with shutter release priority.

So now instead of a few picuture in focus ,out of 50 or 100 shots, I have more than I can handle. The noise from the high ISO after post processing is really only noticible if you pixel peep.
I am sure there maybe further improvement to this ( as I am no pro but try to learn from their advice and see what works for my exact situation ) , but just wanted to share this for others.
It looks like my focus issues where operator error type. HaHa, its never the operator...

My D7000 experience is pretty much that the 9 cross type AF points in the center have been pretty spot on always. I have loads of trouble getting the camera to focus correctly with the outer 30. Since I came from a D40 originally with only 3 AF points I've pretty much just gone to a focus and recompose method with the D7000 using the 9 center points. Works for me doing that since I was used to it from the D40 anyway; I consider it a quirk of the D7000 AF system and part of learning the ups and downs of the equipment.

I am sure if anyone did those scrutinizing AF tests in those compacts, they would find AF inconsistencies. Never mind the fact that the low IQ / resolution smaller sensors can hide the focus faults :-)

Paperman said:
I have lately started to believe that the back/front focus issues exist in more cameras/lenses than we think ( or admit ) and that AF is not a faultless & perfected technology.

I had never done focus tests before but just out of curiosity , I did a few ruler tests a couple of months ago on my D300 & 50mm f1.8D. In each photo I took, the D300 managed to focus on a different spot - FF in one shot, BF in the next, spot on in the last - making calibration pointless. Nothing major but enough to make me lose faith in the "state-of-art"ness of the technology. I started saying maybe this is not only a D7000 issue and the the reason we see it mostly on D7000s is that because everyone does the test on the D7000. ( and we started hearing about the D800s, D4s lately )

I am not the least worried about minor AF issues as I am mostly a wide angle/ landscape/ f8 type of photographer but I did start believing the AF systems are prone to error even in perfect light conditions - as they are trying to "sense" distances in the smallest of areas by just detecting contrast/motion ( imagine the area a bird's eye takes in an APS-C sensor ).

My feeling is that one shouldn't expect 100% AF accuracy 100% of the time in any camera - even under ideal conditions. Maybe that's why we have keeper shots as well as those that go to garbage because they may be 1-2% worse/out in focus than the best shot.

I also think that what we have - the current AF technology with all its minor faults - is more than enough ( remember the days we focused by hand and by eye ! ) and this is something we can live with ( excluding of course major & consistent FF/BF ). I am OK with my DSLR focusing correctly 90% of the time - aren't you ? Don't we take tens of the same shot anyway ?

There is also the chance that I am talking nonsense ... But before ridiculing me, please do make some simple AF tests on your own DSLR and a non-wide angle lens and then say whatever you are going to say :-)

You are right about the error rate ofc, but it's just sad that in good light any half decent compact can and will grab the perfect focus.
And when I need to retake a photo for this reason I get strange looks :S

I have lately started to believe that the back/front focus issues exist in more cameras/lenses than we think ( or admit ) and that AF is not a faultless & perfected technology.

I had never done focus tests before but just out of curiosity , I did a few ruler tests a couple of months ago on my D300 & 50mm f1.8D. In each photo I took, the D300 managed to focus on a different spot - FF in one shot, BF in the next, spot on in the last - making calibration pointless. Nothing major but enough to make me lose faith in the "state-of-art"ness of the technology. I started saying maybe this is not only a D7000 issue and the the reason we see it mostly on D7000s is that because everyone does the test on the D7000. ( and we started hearing about the D800s, D4s lately )

I am not the least worried about minor AF issues as I am mostly a wide angle/ landscape/ f8 type of photographer but I did start believing the AF systems are prone to error even in perfect light conditions - as they are trying to "sense" distances in the smallest of areas by just detecting contrast/motion ( imagine the area a bird's eye takes in an APS-C sensor ).

My feeling is that one shouldn't expect 100% AF accuracy 100% of the time in any camera - even under ideal conditions. Maybe that's why we have keeper shots as well as those that go to garbage because they may be 1-2% worse/out in focus than the best shot.

I also think that what we have - the current AF technology with all its minor faults - is more than enough ( remember the days we focused by hand and by eye ! ) and this is something we can live with ( excluding of course major & consistent FF/BF ). I am OK with my DSLR focusing correctly 90% of the time - aren't you ? Don't we take tens of the same shot anyway ?

There is also the chance that I am talking nonsense ... But before ridiculing me, please do make some simple AF tests on your own DSLR and a non-wide angle lens and then say whatever you are going to say :-)

Looks like I'm going to have to send my D7k in for focus adjustment. I've had the camera for 3 months.

Yesterday, I did the "45 degree line of batteries" check and my camera failed miserably. It's pretty unbelievable to me how bad it is. When the center battery (that I focused on- using center point) was so OOF and the next 2 batteries, behind it, were always in focus. WTF!

Used my 35mm 1.8G, 50mm 1.4G and my old Nikkor 55mm/micro 2.8 lens in the test. I've tuned the 35mm and 50mm up to -20 (the maximum) and now the overall focus for them is so much better. It's amazing, now I realize how "off/soft" my photos have been - and why.

Even my old, reliable and very sharp 55mm/micro manual lens was back focusing! I've been using this lens for over 20 years w/FM2 and never noticed any focus issues. It's still one of the sharpest lenses that I own.

So is the back focus problem only an AF issue?

I would like to know, because I do not want to send my camera back to be repaired if the problem is only - my (bad)technique.

D7000, Nikon lenses 12-24, 35 1.8G, 50 1.4G, 85 1.4G, 55-200, 55mm micro.

Thought I would give the update on my d7000
Just back from Nikon, 2 weeks to the day. They replaced the zoom motor and did a software/firmware reboot and update.

All good now,

Mike

As a longtime Nikon user, I too have had many focus issues with my new 7k as well. ( less than 3 months old ,mint )
It first started "hunting" in the autofocus points in the viewfinder while focussing, then it just stopped focussing altogether the day before a big trip to the east coast to shoot Puffins and Whales !! Manual focus for a week with large lens' was not what I had planned.
I sent it in to Nikon Canada a week ago, ( sensor and mirror ) fingers crossed it will be fixed and problems resolved. My preference would be a new body not made on a Friday.
Hope this helps some people who keep thinking it may be something the " user" is doing wrong. My bet would be 75% plus are technical issues with the body itself.

Mike

Gary, my experience has been a bit similar. I just got my D7000 back from Nikon, with an autofocus adjustment. It was under warranty, so I suggest sending it in. If not, the charge would be about $US 100. As to the quality of the photos, my experience has been that both the D7000 and D700 expose to the right of the histogram and that a slight curves adjustment will bring back contrast, depth and life to the image.
Have fun!

If i ever get time I'll post some sample shots on my website and send you a link,.. if I get time!

gARY