New to D800, how to check for the "issues"?

Killerbob

Just got my D800 as well as the holy trinity of lenses, having just upgraded from my D7000. I am happy with it, and of course am checking out the forums... These issues, like the left focusing and the greentint LCD, can someone point me to a simple way of checking if my camera has any of these issues? I can find tons of references and loads of complaining, but not a step-by-step way of checking it out.

Thanks in advance!

Killerbob

What a daft answer/comment!

I actually want to know... I am not looking for problems, but if there is something wrong with my camera, which represents a significant investment, I want Nikon to take responsibility and fix it. I am not experienced enough to immediately see it, and would like someone more so to guide me in checking it out.

Ironheart

If you search the forum for "D800 focus check" this comes up as the third choice (one and two aren't bad either)
http://forum.nikonrumors.com/discussion/138/does-anyone-know-when-nikon-will-start-shipping-the-d800-with-the-focus-and-lcd-problems-solved/
Did you not see the "Please do a forum search before starting a new threads" thread?
Perhaps the reason you are getting the cold shoulder is because you have joined a community and immediately violated some of the rules and customs, and brought up a topic that has been discussed ad nauseum.

ByThom is also an excellent source of info on this topic:
http://www.bythom.com/D800autofocus.htm

Golf007sd

@Killerbob: Welcome and congrats on your new gear...you are going to have a lot of fun with those items.

With respect to your concerns, here are some things to keep in mind in order to find out if your new gear has some issues or not. 1) After you have taken lots of shots with all your lenses at all different focal lengths and aperture settings, then begin to examine your shots via your favorite post processing photo editing software and see if any of the focusing symptoms are their. This might take some time...not sure how much experience you have in photography. You are welcome to post some shots for us to examine...we will then give you some feed back. 2) As for the whole green-tint on the LCD...I have the D4 which has the same LCD as the D800 and I have not seen this at all. For me the LCD service its purpose in making sure the shot I was taking is sharp and in focus. The goods are on the memory card...in RAW format...which has all the data/information. It is during the post processing that I pay attention to the colors...not the LCD.

Having said all of that, should you feel that you want to make sure all your gear is in tip top shape...you may want to consider to ship your body and lenses to a Nikon Service Center and have them fine tune every thing for you.

sevencrossing

What a daft answer/comment!

I.

Sorry Bob I was trying to be helpful
I have deleted my comment

JJ_SO

As for the green tint LCD I fully agree with @Golf007sd. The LCD is not meant to be a color checking device.

As for send it in to Nikon I don't agree - first, they are as well "only human" and sending in a fresh camera with probably no issues will give you back the same camera with a report "checking and cleaning" but no message if they found something or not. You basically will get the same uncertainty again. Keep in mind: Those "issues" all occurred on the first series. After over a year on sale, I'd call it only bad luck if you would have gotten one of those copies.

Finding the focus issue is easy after you learnt how to autofocus - which technique works best for you and is giving you nearly always sharp results when using the center AF sensor. After that, you can try using the outer left and right AF sensors - but be aware: you need fast lenses like f/1.4 to see the tiny effect and those lenses also have sometimes the problem, to be a bit less sharp in that area.

It took me some 3000 shots to notice the "issue" at all. It's only visible if you shoot wide open AND with fast glass. After stopping down to f/2.8 or f/4, the DoF will eat the issue completely.

What I also learnt: Each camera is only an approach to perfection. Tiny tolerances are things to be learnt and worked around. The biggest imperfection is usually the person behind the finder who only gets better by experience. Because contrary to the experts of camera design and the very experienced workers who put these complex things together, you are just at the beginning of your path with it. There's no short way.

Forget sevencrossing's first comment, it was not friendly or very welcoming but I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you. As @Ironheart already said, a beginner starting with the question for "issues" brings himself in a weird position as we all had to learn how to use this instrument first - the camera as well as the forum search. We are a lot, but no remote diagnosis centre.

Killerbob

Thanks for the replies! It's not that I hadn't read the above mentioned posts, as well as the guides by Thom. It's just a bit overwhelming, and not always written for amateurs. I have had photography as a hobby for several years, and was a bit surprised (and I guess worried) when reading above issues with a (what I consider) high-end camera. Hence my search for an easy-to-understand manual of how to confirm if it is an issue at all.

I have tried following various methods, and only find a blurring in the center of the LV pictures, but when using both the left-most and right-most focusing points. In the pictures using MPD AF pictures all three were perfectly focused.

Msmoto

I doubt if there any D800 bodies being sold with the left focus point problems unless some dealer has some very very old bodies. Unless you are having problems, I would not go looking. I have never figured out the green LCD. The histogram will give you the information and the LCD may be useful for checking focus, but for sure, not color.

Hope you enjoy your new camera and lenses.