tips on manual focusing...help me!

[PhotoJP78]

Hello all. Im new to this site, and somewhat new to photography. I started with a canon p&s, and messed around with manual settings, now Im hooked. I bought my first dslr (nikon D3000) and am having trouble understanding how to manually focus my subject.

Example: If i choose something in the room for a subject, on AF, I can turn the ring to zoom in pretty close, 1/2 press the shutter until it focuses, then snap the shot. I understand how apertures and shutter speeds work, so the pic is usually good. But I want to manually focus. If I choose that same subject, on MF, I can zoom in to get the same closeness to the subject, but then its all blurry and I cant get a clear image. (unless I really back off the zoom and maybe move around the room, but then lighting changes and such)

What am I missing? Am I doing something wrong? Well I know I am, I just dont know what. lol. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Sime]

What happens when you turn the focus ring on the lens? Does the focus change?

Sime

[PhotoJP78]

Thanks for attempting to help, but I think I know what I was doing wrong.

[dcclark]

I'm going to guess that you may have the zoom ring confused with the focus ring -- your 18-55 kit lens has two rings. The big textured rubber one is the zoom ring. The tiny ribbed thing on the very front of the lens is the focus ring, and that's what you want to use for focusing.

Hope you figured it out, if not, maybe I helped.

[dharmit]

Just my $0.02 worth.

Did you set your viewfinder for proper focus. There is a small knob near the viewfinder that will change the sharpness of the viewfinder and the autofocus dots in it, everyone needs to set it individually as each eye is different.

Best luck

Dharmit

[PhotoJP78]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I dont have much experience with manual focus lenses, so I was getting the rings confused. However Im happy to report that I have been focusing well since I figured all that out. lol

Thanks again

J

[dcclark]

Incidentally, it seems like no two lenses have zoom and focus rings in the same configuration.

The Nikon 18-55, and many kit lenses, have the frontmost element of the camera being the focus "ring", and the zoom is a large band behind that.

My Nikon 18-200, on the other hand, has the focus ring nearest to the camera, and the zoom ring is in front of that -- but only a little larger.

My old Nikon 55-200 has a huge zoom ring (most of the lens barrel!), and a small focus ring in front -- but it's not the front element of the lens.

My Nikon 10-24 has the focus ring in back, and a larger zoom ring in front (which I never use anyhow).

Summary: you've just gotta try and see which one zooms, and which one focuses. Luckily, it's not hard -- turning the zoom ring makes the image clearly zoom, turning the focus ring changes the focus.

[mandycasey'smom]

Wow LOL first post I read and it is something I feel silly about saying but just learned something new
Thanks