Auto Focusing Issues

sanalkumartl

Dear friends,

I have doubt to clear. Hope someone here will be able to help me.

I bought a Nikon D3200 last week and I've only used it three times. The first two times the auto focusing was working properly, but when I checked last time it's not auto focusing. There used to be green dots in the eye piece display while it was working proper. Now it's red dots and the eye piece is so blurred. I tried manual focusing also but it's the same situation. Please help me to solve this issue. Thanking you all.

bruto

I don't recall seeing green dots, except for the focus confirmation dot at the bottom left of the display. Red dots are expected.

If you have more than one dot, you're likely set to multi area focusing, which is the default.

First thing to do is to make sure the eyepiece diopter did not get out of adjustment. Adjust it until you can clearly see the information on the bottom of the display, and the focus dots.

Next, switch the focus on the lens to manual, and make sure the lens is working at all. Does it focus smoothly? Does focus change? If you aim it at a solid object, at some point the little green focus confirmation light should come on. Try manually focusing on a very simple object and take a picture. Is it in focus?

Now switch to Auto Focus, and make sure the lens focusing mechanism is locked as it should be. You cannot manually focus when it is locked into AF without breaking it. If you wiggle the focus, it should not move. Never force it. Aim the camera at a very close object, take a picture, and then aim it at a very far object like the sky. Did the front of the lens rotate at all? It should. The kit lens moves a short distance fast, and it is not always easy to see when it's working right.

You can also switch to Live View. In Live View, the focusing mechanism in the camera is different, but the lens should still auto focus. Try taking a picture then.

If you or someone else has been fiddling with the menu, make sure that it did not accidentally get switched to "AF ON" in the button reassignment menu. That disables shutter button focus altogether, and uses the AE/AF lock button only for focus. It also forces release priority, which means that, as in manual operation, it can take a picture out of focus.

If the camera is set in normal AF mode, the shutter should not fire unless it finds focus, so my guess is that it's focusing on something, but perhaps not on what you want.

If this is the case, you might try changing the focus mode from Multi Point to Dynamic Area, and A servo mode. At this point, it will use only a single focus point, which you select with the rear control ([OK] re-centers it), and the camera will decide whether or not it detects a moving subject. It works well.