My Nikon D200 and 85mm lens just came back from repair for soft images and a broken focusing motor.

After trouble shooting with a Nikon tech, they thought most images I sent looked fine, and one (shot at f/4) needed a higher f-stop. They also suggested in-camera sharpening (which I tried and it just sharpened the soft pixels....)

I just went out and shot again and am attaching an image.

001 was shot with my 85 mm f/4 at 1/160th ISO 250

(I'll attach another one as a "reply" as well.

Thanks in advance!

L

Here is shot number 02.
This is with in-camera sharpening turned up to +1.
Focal point on center boy's eyes.
In last photo focus point was on top boy's eyes.

Thanks!

Back Focus?

this shot looks like back focus to me. You focused on the middle boys eyes and the girl in the back right in the red shirt is tack sharp. That shows that your lens doesn't necessarily have issues focusing (she is sharp) but it is focusing not where you intend. When I had the Nikon D70, I had this issue and it is the camera not the lens that is an issue. I haven't heard of this problem with the D200, but I think it can happen to any body. It happens when the distance from the front of your lens to you eye is no longer the same distance from the front of the lens to the CCD chip. So focus as you might, you will never get the same focus as you think you are getting. You can send in the camera to get it aligned again, but I would first do some testing with a different body to ensure that it is the camera for sure and not the lens.
It might not be as noticeable with other lenses too because of different focal length and depth of field.
This site might give you more info on the specifics of back focusing. http://focustestchart.com/chart.html
It is specifically for the D70, but since they are the same manufacturer they should be similar info.
Good luck!!!

I wouldn't say anything is "tack sharp" but look at the front of the camera and check and see if you are on C or S. Continuous or Single servo mode. On C if you lock focus and recompose the focus will shift with the camera it does not lock even though holding the shutter half way, when shooting the shots above your should be on S mode. C mode is usually for moving subjects or when you want to overide when the camera says it is ok to shoot.

I think you might be on C mode, maybe shaking the camera a bit, and on image 2 the high noise under exposed image with a white balance correction in post hurts image quality.

If I am not correct above flip the focus selector in the back on the solid filled rectangle, that is auto mode and the camera will focus on the closest subject. Take it outside on a tripod in p mode and shoot something that fills the frame, then A priority and shoot, then copy the manual setting from the p or A mode and check it out the results, you will know if it is a camera problem.

Thanks, Steve, Becca, and Greg,
I did initially wonder about back focusing, but will check my lenses on another Nikon body, and Greg, I will try your suggestions.
All of these area good start to trying to figure out what is going on.

I am shooting in C mode and use my focus points instead of focusing and resomposing. I agree image 02 does suffer from underexposure, but I didn't do a white balance correction in post-processing, these are straight from the camera images.

With my 85 mm is a shutter speed of 160th sufficient enough to handhold without camera shake? It is a heavy lens and I've always roughly doubled my focal length and applied it to the shutter speed when shooting to ensure
less shake.

Thanks again all!

L