Problem w/ 70-300 VR focusing

[jnelson]

I was out trying to get some bird shots this morning with my new Nikon 70-300 VR and got really frustrated with the autofocusing. It seemed that every time i tried to focus out at 300mm it would autofocus out to infinity and stay there. I tried changing my autofocus settings in the camera but it still did it. I would zoom out to 300mm then press the shutter halfway and it would focus out to infinity and not come back. I eventually started manual focusing but didnt know if anyone else has had this problem or if its just something that telephotos do inherently, that i need to learn to deal with.

[firebox40dash5]

Mine does that sometimes too, it usually helps if you 'help' it by bumping the focus ring back from infinity a little and try again. I assume it's because of the small maximum aperture at 300mm, combined with the wide range between close focus and infinity it has to cover. Switching between AF-S and AF-C might help some too.

[kirbinster]

The autofocus on that lens is somewhat slow and if the light is not very bright it tends to hunt. Also focusing on a bird that is far away is tough as you might not have it perfectly on the autofocus point. Its a very nice lens for the price, but is not great for birding.

[Chip]

What camera body do you have?


I've used the 70-300 with my D90 and have had some success at 300mm shooting birds (stationary and moving), by using 3D tracking and making sure the focus point is over the subject . I know it's not Nikon's best zoom lens, but it can be made to work.

[kirbinster]

Don't get me wrong, I have taken many great shots with my 70-300VR - it is actually one of my favorite lenses. It is just slow to focus on moving birds.

[jnelson]

Im using it on a D40.

Thats what I have eventually found after playing around with it a bit, bumping the focus ring back helps, as does zoming out and then back in on the subject. I just didnt know if this was normal or if I got a dud. It almost seems like, as you press the shutter around 300mm, it racks out the focus ring, all blurry, and then stops. Doesnt even focus back and forth the way other lens' do when they have trouble focusing.

[Aegea]

I've had the same issues with this lens, sometimes when it's racked all the way out at 300mm it just won't find a focus without user intervention. However, it does seem to have fewer problems on the D90 than the D40 I used to have (based on very brief experience so far).

[Chip]

jnelson -

Are the birds you're trying to shoot stationary or are the flying? And is there a lot or a little contrast between the birds and their background? Finally, are the birds a good distance away, or are they fairly close?

For me, it's harder to get good focus on flying birds that are far away and that have little contrast with their backgrounds. If I can remove one or more of these variables, then my success rate goes up.

Hope this helps.

[Rehesan]

Same question here: was the bird airborne or stationary?.

If the bird is stand still in a branch for example, I would suggest to go with manual focus, you can better control the focus point over the subject. If the bird is flying, I don´t think the AF-S @ 300mm is the best lens for speed shooting, I have read this lens is quite slow on focusing. Also I would suggest you to try using the AF-A area mode in your camera, in order to focus over one point only, and maybe in that way your lens won´t try to focus to the intinite.

Another possible problem maybe is due your D40 doesn´t have the 3D tracking Autofocus mode and has only 3 auto focus points, so I bet it´s hard for the AF-S lens to focus on a distant subject at a 300mm focal lenght, due the autofocus lamp doesn´t cover focal lenghts over 200mm.

I have a 70-300mm AF lens, with no VR and no auto focus, and I could have done a decent birds shots using manual focus with my D3000.