Nikkor 28mm f/1.4E manual focusing to the inf untilclick goes past the inf point

3 years 5 months ago #702820 by ssamtfe
Hi everyone

Soo, just bought this beauty, nikkor 28 f/1.4E, pretty happy with it but
I'm quite used to shooting in manual focus, most of my lenses are in
fact older mf, and when I turn the focus ring of this lens to infinity
on the indicator strip it goes slightly past the mark and I get out of
focus. Is this thing normal? By the way, indicator strip does stop at
slightly left of infinity mark, but the physical ring itself will keep
turning after that. There of course is a tactile response that indicates
a stop but you can rotate past it. I never owned a G or above(newer)
lens so wondering if this is at all normal.

Just to clarify, this is not something I've never seen before, I've bought 35mm f/1.4 AI-S, a much older lens about 8 years ago, used, and
it has the same issue, although it's manual, it doesn't focus on
infinity at the stop mark but goes past it, exactly like my new nikkor
28 f/1.4E. The difference is 35mm was used and I accepted it as-is,
whereas 28mm was bought at retail shop, shiny new.
And no, my camera (D700 which is the intended shooting camera for this
lens purchase) is not out-of focus as well, because I have other lenses
which DO properly focus on infinity upon hitting the stop mark, and
those lenses perform consistently on my other older DX camera (D5100) as
well, results do look the same(in a way because DX isn't FX but the
focus appears exactly the same).
This 28mm doesn't have a focus issue in auto mode when in A/M mode on
either camera. It stops perfectly pointing at the middle of inf sign on
an indicator strip, and image looks perfectly focused to infinity at
that point. On both D5100 and D700.
So the problem I have is that I cannot blindly turn the focus ring to
infinity and shoot, I'll have to look at the indicator or live view to
see the detail, in which case it'll be simplier to never bother
switching it to M mode at all.


,
3 years 5 months ago #702838 by Nikon Shooter
This is a too good lens to tolerate that, have it checked!

Light is free… capturing it is not!
Photo Comments
,
3 years 5 months ago #702885 by Ozzie_Traveller
G'day sam

I have met this over the years - but always with long lenses, where the user can play with infinity of the scene rather than the lens stopping at a factory-set position ... leaving the split-image focus aid showing a slight twinkle indicating not perfect focus

I have personally pulled a lens apart to reset the focus ring to deliberately go beyond infinity - so that I can guarantee most accurate infinity focus

For you- with such a short focal length lens, I cannot see any need for the focus ring to go beyond infinity EXCEPT for autofocus conditions where the electro-mechanism needs to get to infinity and back-pedal once it realises that the point of maximum sharpness has been exceeded

Hope this helps
Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

Phil from the great land Downunder
www.flickr.com/photos/ozzie_traveller/sets/

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