Using my D70, I have been a little disappointed with sharpness when shooting landscapes wide (17-20MM) unless I was stopped down to normal the subject range of F11-F16. I decided to do a little testing from tripod to see if I could figure out what was going on and I made an interesting discovery.
It's a pretty simple check. Set your lens to 17MM and using the center focus bracket in single AF and aperture pri, focus on a far target (say, over 100ft) without taking a shot. After the focus, take a look at the lens focus scale and let me know the reading.
Mine (and now several on DPR) tends to focus at 8-10ft any time the target is over 40 feet or so and the shot is OOF. I can manually focus at infinity and the target is sharp as a tack. At first I thought I had a lens problem but now am beginning to think it's a D70 focus issue when too much "stuff" is in the bracket and the sensor is seeing it as "close". As I said, this si with the D70 but you "big D" guys may want to check as well.
Thanks for the help!
Phil
It's a pretty simple check. Set your lens to 17MM and using the center focus bracket in single AF and aperture pri, focus on a far target (say, over 100ft) without taking a shot. After the focus, take a look at the lens focus scale and let me know the reading.
Mine (and now several on DPR) tends to focus at 8-10ft any time the target is over 40 feet or so and the shot is OOF. I can manually focus at infinity and the target is sharp as a tack. At first I thought I had a lens problem but now am beginning to think it's a D70 focus issue when too much "stuff" is in the bracket and the sensor is seeing it as "close". As I said, this si with the D70 but you "big D" guys may want to check as well.
Thanks for the help!
Phil