It’s all a blur to me

[BigAl]

On Sunday I was processing some images and noticed quite a few spots on an image. I checked out several others and those spots were there again. So I locked the DSLR mirror up and took the lens off. A quick once-over with the soft blower-brush and a few puffs with the Rocket blower were bound to do the trick – but do I leave it to chance that it’s worked?

No; I get out a white sheet of paper, set the focus to manual, then fire off a shot at the paper. The result was a white image with no more spots. Yesterday I went out walking with the camera and looking for some scenes to capture. I suddenly came on a good scene and was happy taking lots of images. It was only later in the day that I discovered that I had not switched back to auto-focus.

All those nice scenes were just a blur.
Lesson learnt? I doubt it.

[busybee]

That's a hard lesson!

[Jenny]

DOH! 

Bad luck Al. At least the lens was not damaged.

xx

[BigAl]

I also gave myself a reminder to use the "Clean image sensor" facility more often. Could that be a late New Year's resolution?

[RockArea]

I know the feeling but I think I've (mostly) got to grips with it now. I'm not sure whether it was on the lens or on the camera that you switched the AF off but it seems to me that Nikon has a design fault (yes, just the one ) in that every time I take my camera out of the bag, the focus selection switch has moved back to manual. The first photo is usually out but then I remember and check the position, move it back to S and then when I half press I hear the beep.

The switch on the lens is a different matter but the rule still applies: if it doesn't beep it's not set right.

[blackcap]

Not knowing your way of photographing things, I take the first shot then look at the LCD monitor. If it is blured I then check the auto focus switch.

Most sessions I use the LCD monitor throughtout a shoot.


Trevor

[BigAl]

Not knowing your way of photographing things, I take the first shot then look at the LCD monitor. If it is blured I then check the auto focus switch.

I did look at the monitor; but it looked sharp in the preview. On the big screen it was a different matter.

[scoundrel1728]

I took the liberty of running the full pixel crop through my copy of Focus Magic to see how well it would clean up:

[BigAl]

Focus Magic does a reasonable job but it wouldn't stand up to the A4 size blow-up.

[monty]

I feel like I am part of the family now! :-)