D50 Autofocus & Cold Weather

MooreDriven

I recently purchased a D50 with kit lens. We had snow last night, so I decided to head out and get a few shots. The temperature was 32 degrees. After 30-minutes of walking and taking some shots, I noticed that the auto-focus stopped working! No changes were made to the camera settings. I also checked the AF/M switches on the lenses and body.

Is this normal? I have ski trip planned in March with the anticipation of taking a lot of shots on the slopes and around town. If I can't shoot for more than 30-minutes, I will be disappointed.


I look forward to your replies.



Dale

UT Scott

I have a D50 as well and I've not had this problem (although it rarely gets that cold where I am). The only thing I can think of is the battery. In cold weather the battery life shortens a bit and losing autofocus may be due to the lack of power available. Try going out with a fully charged battery and see if the same thing happens. If it does, I have no idea

Hope you can figure this out before your trip!

Art Scott

the cold greatly affects cameras especially non pro grade cameras....my suggestion: get a top load type bag and keep a couple extra batteries and also a couple of the small packet type hand warmers in the outer pockets so it doesn;t cause condensation on your camera and lens but keeps the camera warm and also the extra batteries.....my suggestion for a top load bag is a LowePro Top g Load 75AW...seen them on ebay for as low as 49.00 out of Canada or out of Colorado for 69.00 great bag, can hold my 7D with 70-210 f2.8 and carry 6 extra batteries and my 2x converter in the outside pockets....I wear it on a military style utility belt bvought at surplus store for under 10.00 or you can get the LOwePro belt for around 30.

If I have my 2nd 7D with 24-70 f2,8 it would allow a similar in size 2nd lens to be carried in main compartment also.

MooreDriven

Thanks for the comments. The battery is fully charged. That was the first thing I looked at when it quit auto-focusing. I don't have a bag yet, but have it on the list of items to purchase. The hand warmers are a great idea. I just didn't expect to need them for a 32 degree day.

I'm going to test it again tomorrow morning. It's suppose to be in the 20's so it will be a good test. I realize the focusing may slow, but I never expected it to stop.

Phyxius

I have the D50 also, 2 weeks ago I was out in 25 degree weather for about 8 hours. I had the 70-200 2.8 on with VR on, which I believe is an extra battery drain. I wasn't shooting for the full 8 hours, but the camera was out in the cold for that long with shots taken throughout the time. No problem with the AF.

Did you check all of the internal settings too?

MooreDriven

Phyxius wrote:

Did you check all of the internal settings too?

I'm not sure what settings you are referring to. I had taken approximately 10 shots, over a 15-minute timeframe, when I noticed the AF not working. I verified the battery was full, and the AF switches were set correctly.

I have to assume it was a cold battery. When I returned home and let the camera sit for 30-minutes, it worked fine. I don't have a second battery yet, so I guess I'll get one ordered.

Phyxius

I'm referring to setting auto-focus internally, and setting focus lock. There are different auto-focus setting modes. AF-A, AF-S, AF-C, and then with those Single Area, Dynamic Area, and Closest Subject. AF Area Illm (lights the active focusing area if the subject is dark so you know which focus selector you're using...or if any are working.) Was AF assist on? Was it dark enough to need it? Then, AE/AF Lock and AF Lock, were they on and you'd locked focus on something? I know you said no settings were changed, but did you verify that? Mine has a tendency to switch back to closest subject focusing. Also, sometimes you might accidently set something or forget you set it at all.

But, I'm assuming it was doing nothing at all, but it'd might help to know some of the settings and whether you changed any settings and received different results.

Was the auto focus wasn't hunting or doing absolutely nothing?

MooreDriven

Thanks for the response. After I typed my reply to your original post, I pulled the manual and started reviewing the section on AE-L/AF-L. Although I am sure I didn't make any changes to the settings, it's possible I could have hit the AE-L/AF-L button on the back of the camera.

I did turn the camera off and back on again thinking that would reset any accidental button pushing. I also reset the camera to a defaults settings.

I'm still learning the camera, so anything is possible at this point. I'm going to assume that the battery was the cause. I'll do another test over the next few days and see what happens. Based on some other post I've read, I should not have had the problem with a full battery charge.

Phyxius

MooreDriven wrote:

I'm still learning the camera, so anything is possible at this point. I'm going to assume that the battery was the cause. I'll do another test over the next few days and see what happens. Based on some other post I've read, I should not have had the problem with a full battery charge.

Hehe, I've take numerous pictures at wrong settings before I remembered I hadn't changed/set/fixed them. It happens

But, hopefully it was just the battery and simply charging it fixes everything!