D500 Auto Focus Issue ??

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Hi. I have the Nikon D500 and use the AF-ON button for back button focusing. My focus area is set to single point in the middle of the view finder.

The issue occurs after not taking photos for a few minutes. When I look into my view finder, I find that the focus box has moved to the upper left. As soon as I press the AF-ON button the focus box moves back to the center of the view finder. Is this behavior (moving to the upper left) normal? Is there some setting that I am not aware of that is causing this or is it indicative of a problem with the camera.

Note that I have had the camera for about six months and this behavior has started within the last few days.

Thank you very much,
.....Larry
 
Likely to be a simple issue. On the D500 you can use the touchscreen functionality on the rear monitor to move the focus point. If you have the camera on a strap, it might touch something that moves the focus point. Happens to me all the time....just turn off the relevant touch AF option.
 
I suspect you have Save Focus Point By Orientation selected in the menu. If you do, anytime the camera senses that it is set vertically in Portrait mode the focus point will reset to the last used point in that mode. If you’re shooting hand held and bring the camera away from your face and down to your side when you’re not shooting the camera senses the shift and reverts to the other saved mode. I do use the save by orientation option and see something similar to what you describe when shooting hand held if I momentarily let the camera go into a vertical orientation by lowering it down to my side.

If that’s the case you can just rotate the camera vertically and select the same center AF point so both Landscape and Portrait mode use the desired AF point or you can disable the Save By Orientation option in the menu.
 
Likely to be a simple issue. On the D500 you can use the touchscreen functionality on the rear monitor to move the focus point. If you have the camera on a strap, it might touch something that moves the focus point. Happens to me all the time....just turn off the relevant touch AF option.
Thank you JP. I turned it off and hopefully that will solve the problem. I rarely use live view, but I did use live view touch focusing a few days ago (for the super moon) which corresponds to when the issue started. Sure glad that it's a simple fix.

Thanks again,
.....Larry
 
I suspect you have Save Focus Point By Orientation selected in the menu. If you do, anytime the camera senses that it is set vertically in Portrait mode the focus point will reset to the last used point in that mode. If you’re shooting hand held and bring the camera away from your face and down to your side when you’re not shooting the camera senses the shift and reverts to the other saved mode. I do use the save by orientation option and see something similar to what you describe when shooting hand held if I momentarily let the camera go into a vertical orientation by lowering it down to my side.

If that’s the case you can just rotate the camera vertically and select the same center AF point so both Landscape and Portrait mode use the desired AF point or you can disable the Save By Orientation option in the menu.

Thank you. I do have the Save Focus Point By Orientation selected in the menu - but neither point corresponds to where the focus box was ending up. I did disable the touch focus mode, as suggested in a previous answer. If that doesn't work I will turn off the "Save Focus Point By Orientation".
 
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