Do you have a Nikon camera that features Auto AF Fine Tune? If so, then this video is just what you need to get the most from it!
When Auto AF Fine Tune first came it, it was pretty exciting – In fact, I think we all had visions of never going through a tedious lens calibration process ever again. However, the reality is, it didn’t seem to work all that well and many people – myself included – were disappointed.
As it turns out, there IS a way to get good results from the system, it just takes a little more effort than we were lead to believe – and that’s what this tutorial reveals. In the video below, I’ll cover what AF Fine Tuning is, how to do a proper setup (including a handy focus target I made for the purpose that you can download), how to avoid pitfalls, and an Auto AF Fine tuning technique that works as well as using a commercial product.
If you’ve had problems with Auto AF Fine tune before, you’ll discover the method in the video will work far better and give you much better results. Currently, this only applies to the Nikon D850, D7500, D500, and D5, but I’m sure as other cameras are added they will also include this feature (i.e. like the upcoming D850).
AF Target download (zipped PDF file) – Click here
Getting an error message? Here are the most likely culprits:
1. Make sure your Live View AF point is perfectly centered (it should show a small red dot in the middle of the AF area if it is). Also, use the “Normal” or “Wide” AF area in Live View.
PS…
If you enjoyed this article, I think you’ll REALLY like my e-books, Secrets To Stunning Wildlife Photography and Secrets To The Nikon Autofocus System. They’re filled with hundreds of pages of information just like this. Check it out – click here (hey, it’s free to look 🙂 )
Hi Steve,
For some odd reason the targets inlcuded in the shared link https://backcountrygallery.com/1/steve-perry-af-targets.zip is coming out a bit weird after download (tried DL’ing mutiple times / multiple devices). Can you / anyone please confirm or verify once ? Thanks
It don’t pull up for me. Just says page is missing or broken.
Hi Steve
With a D500 and for example a 300mm lens do I use 30x300mm or 30x450mm for the distance to the target?
thanks
Robin
Hi Steve,
I enjoy all your helpful articles. Good job!
Regarding the calculating of the distance between the lens and focus chart, the following is a quick way to determine.
A 50mm lens would be 5′. A 300mm is 30′. If you drop the last number (0), the remaining numbers are the distance, in feet, required. This is roughly the same as your 30 X ?mm, calculation.
Cheers
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d800,nothing happens wgen i press focus and live
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I’m probably missing something fundamental here, but if you get a different value for your long lens and your long lens combined with TC, do you switch values when you switch lens setup? (AF-S Nikkor 200-400 1;4G ED and Nikon 1.4 TC: D750) Or is that in the book, which I have?
Steve, after Fine Tune came up with a value of +7 for my new 500PF, I took it to the field. Immediately i found I had made the focus worse. After listening to your tutorial again, I paid very careful attention to the LV Focus. I magnified it to make sure it was sharp on the LCD. This time I came up with an average of 5/10 or 0.5. I’m assigning a value of 0 because 0 came up 4 times out of 12. So in my case the Default of 0 was spot on. Thanks again for you amazing… Read more »
Steve, great tutorial. Just tuned my new 500 PF although i thought it was sharp out of box. I’ll see if it makes a difference at -7.
Does the AF Tune need to be set to ON for the new setting to take effect?
Hi, Steve. Thanks for the great article and video. I’ve just been trying this out on my new D850. For the most part it works quite well. However, as focal lengths increase, it gets more and more difficult to push the “OK” button at the end without introducing significant motion. I was able to get it to work pretty reliably (with only the occasional failure) up to about 500mm. However, anything over that (for example my 300mm f/4 PF with 2x TC) is pretty hopeless. I assume this is due to the motion introduced by pushing the OK button. Why… Read more »
I’ve tried to do this a couple of months ago, and again today. I follow your instructions and when I press the movie record and focus mode buttons I get this message: “Auto AF Fine Tune Is Not Available At Current Focus Settings.” I’ve checked and double checked. Any insights?
Hi, I did it yesterday with the same results, why?
Guys, please make sure your cameras can do the autofocus fine tuning … as for those whose cameras should work, I *think* one item might be that you have to press and hold the video record and AF mode buttons for three seconds. It’s not just a push and it happens kind of thing. Hopefully this helps someone… I’m using a D850, and this is how it works for me.
As others, using the Nikon 810, Focus mode and Video together do nothing.
HI Steve – am customer of yours. Bought two of your digital books which I appreciate a lot.
I have same problem as others. When following setup you describe meticulously and get to the step of simultaneously pushing the Focus Mode Buttons and the Video Record Button…nothing happens. There must be another step or something I am missing? Help!
Steve or anyone that can help. A professional photographer suggested I follow your instructions in this video to marry up my Nikon D750 with a Tamron 150 – 600 as it’s slightly out of focus. Problem is when pressing the Focus Mode Button and Movie Record Button at the same time (nothing happens). Your video says a dialog box comes up asking if you want to proceed. Thank you for any help. Randy
He clearly states that this “Auto” feature works only with D5, D500, or D850.
Hi Steve, I followed all your instructions, this is something I have done before so I was familiar with the procedure. When pressing the focus-movie button I got no messages, just an M or the upper left hand side of the viewfinder that would turn yellow. I wold however with back button focus get excellent focus, would not have to touch focus ring. So I am off in a few hours to Alaska. we will see how well my focus is working.
[EDIT] Figured out answer to my post.
Hi Steve, would u mind tel me what range of value should I use for my D810 with Nikkor 24f1.4
Thanks
Hey, I think you may have missed the main point in Steve’s video that every camera body and lens combination is unique and simply entering someone else’s values isn’t the solution. You have to test your lens on your body for your own measurements. Good luck!
[…] Get The Most From Nikon’s Auto AF Fine Tune System […]
[…] Get The Most From Nikon’s Auto AF Fine Tune System […]
Thank you for this! I printed out your calibration target and calibrated my new 80-400 with both my D5 and my D500, with and without my 1.4 Tele. It made all the difference in the world.
Hey Steve! Love the video and book! Just bought the D850 and spent the day fine tuning focus. Most of my lenses were pretty straight forward except for my Nikon 24-70/2.8. The values I got on that were +13 at 24mm, +5 at 35mm, -11 at 50mm and -8 at 70mm. I followed your advice to a T and took 12 readings (minus the 2 outliers) per distance setting. What the heck do I set it on…-1 (the average of all four readings) since I use it at both 24 and 70? Or is this a lens I should send… Read more »
what was your result after setting -1? any improvement from 24mm to 70mm?
Hello Steve, I have AF Fine tune under Set Up menu on my Nikon D300, so would imagine it would be found on the D300s as well. However, not on my Nikon D80. Anyone know if it is available on the 7xxx series? I was always fond of the D7000 when it came out, but now we are up to the D7500. My preference has always been with the DX sensor as I get the central (thus better) are of many older lenses.
Regards from Australia
Steve, just found out that issue was caused by face recognition was engaged – switching it according to your description (Wide mode), solved the issue.
Now D850 Auto AF Micro Adjustment can be engaged.
Thank’s again Steve.
Hi Steve Thanks for the video reg. AF fine tune on the D850 and for your work for providing useful information for photographers in general which is highly appreciated. Even for an old rat like me some of your tips comes very handy. About the video AF Fine Tune on the D5x and D8x series, it would be nice with a work around when AF Fine Tune Cannot be engaged because of settings – seems like it’s a bit more complex than just adjusting the settings in you video (Probably have to go back to a factory reset to find… Read more »
I have a Nikon D7200 and I would like to know if it is possible – and how – to fine tune the AF system of the body and the lenses. Thanks!
Many thanks for your video on AF fine tuning. Like the way you convey your passion for the craft and do appreciate your sense of humor.
Just one question regarding averaging the values when using the builtin AF fine tune feature: why averaging and not taking the median value?
Thom Hogan seems to recommend the ‘median’ approach; quote “As I’ve noted in my work on AF Fine Tune, don’t average the results, select the median.”
What’s your take in this?
All the best from Switzerland.
Philippe
I know he does and I don’t agree. First, most of the time those two numbers end up being the same or within a point or two – so in the real world, not sure you’d ever see a difference. However, the reason I like average better is that if the set of ten shots is typical for a given set of ten shots, then I can assume any fluctuations I saw in the sample also happen out in the field. Since the PDAF system varies a bit in the real world, no one AFFT value is going to be… Read more »
[…] The AF Target can be found at this blog post for this video:https://backcountrygallery.com/get-nikons-auto-af-fine-tune-system/ […]
Hi. I would like to know if it’s true that nikon d810 has a firmware version that accounts for focus shift compensation. If it’s true ( I’ve seen comments with the new 70-200 FL) I like to know if newer bodies as d500 or d850 have the same ability. You focus at f1.4 but when you press the shutter close the diagram to the aperture desired (say f4), and boom you noticed the plane of focus comes backwards. I have observed this specially with 50mm 1.4 g nikkor and in close distances (1-2 meters) and not so heavy on 70-200vrii.… Read more »
Hi Steve
I tried to do the fine tuning of my D500 with a 50 mm Nikkor and I got info from my camera that with current focus settings authomatic fine tuning is impossible. I followed all the steps as you described, apperture wide open, single focus point, wide and then normal focus area but every time I got the same message. Any suggestions what went wrong?
Great information in all respects . Would appreciate it very much if you speak just a little slower for we people down South . Due to the heat and humidity everything down South moves at a slower pace . Keep up the good work
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Steve, I purchased both of your books earlier and my computer Blew up and I purchased a new computer. I’ll need to re download the books. What do I do to re-download? Thanks so much for your help. By the way your instructions videos are the best. Thanks James Harrison
here is my email address [email protected] . thanks again
Get yourself a cloud drive such as Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, … and copy all your important files onto that drive.
Doesn’t matter if your PC blows up, get stolen, … your files are securely stored.
I really like your reviews and tips. I bought both of your eBooks and love them both. There’s many years worth of knowledge in those books. You give very balanced reviews and I loved the one on the D7500. I bought one about 3 weeks ago and love it so far. Upgraded from D90 that was showing it’s age. I’ve also converted to back button focus and it’s much better way to focus for me!
Thanks for your time and effort it’s much appreciated by a lot of us.
Very nice, as always. I wonder why Nikon hasn’t added a visible short timer to the AF fine tune function like “1 … 2 … 3”. Also Excel/OpenOffice will be your friend for numbers, but I like your hands on version of ‘robust statistics’ very much.
I have a Nikon 70-200mm lens. If I Auto Fine tune the 200mm range is it possible that it will degrade the 70mm end? Or should I just Auto Fine tune both ends to see if I can find a compromise? Thanks for your videos, I always learn something.
How timely! I saw the first hummingbird of the season today. Took a series of about 12 captures using D500 and 300mm f4 lens. I was very disappointed with the focus on these, and I was on a TV-33 tripod with BH-55 ballhead at the time. So tomorrow, I will attempt this procedure and see if that does not help…and also hope for another opportunity with the wee bird.
Thanks
How cool! I just put out a humming bird feeder two weeks ago and (eventually) I’m going to go out and photographer them. At first it was just a single bird here and there, but now I get upwards to three at a time! Love ’em!
I’m really enjoying and very much impressed with your Nikon Autofocus System E-book. Worth every nickel I spent for it. Unfortunately, my daughter is a Canon user but a book of this kind would do wonders for her images. I’m having difficulty even convincing her to switch to BBAF. My question is, is there a similar book on the market specifically for Canon DSLRs that you know of? I’m going to cull some your suggestions from your book and pass them on to her because I know that many of them will definitely apply to her Canon. But reading about… Read more »
Your book Nikon autofocus system is a Coup! Wish I had it before our trip to Tanzania in February am sure would have had a higher success rate in sharper images. Almost all my images were shot from back of a Toyota Land Cruiser off a monopod. Few of us will ever achieve your level of experience ok maybe in our dreams so your books website and emails are invaluable! FYI have two Canon shooters asking the inevitable question? Ok I selfishly don’t want you to stray away from nikon for to long. Thank you to your family for sharing… Read more »
Thanks Ken 🙂
Thanks for the book purchase 🙂 I don’t know of any for Canon, although I might write one way down the road (I have some Canon gear now as well, but am not nearly comfortable / experienced enough to write about the AF system). Sorry I can’t be of more help on that one.