z7ii strange behavior

[John Laflin]

Has anyone experienced this behavior?

I was at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas yesterday. I had already taken a few outdoor shots of flowers, sculptures, etc. and the camera was fine. We moved indoors and I took a few shots of some of the art work. I was using my new (as of Christmas 2023) z7ii with the FTZ2 converter and my trusty AF-S Nikkor 18-300 mm f3.5-5.6 lens. Manual Mode, auto ISO, shutter speeds and aperture settings varied, but generally 1/250 or so and f4 - f8, depending on the situation.

Everything was going fine -- until -- I wanted to try to shoot the construction going on outside: there were a lot of great colors and shapes, but I was separated by the glass walls and a semi-transparent layer of material evidently designed to protect the glass from construction debris. The camera would not focus -- on anything! Not even using the manual focus ring. Plus the viewfinder image was *very* bright, totally washed out. I didn't think too much of it, but chalked it up to the difficulty of the scene. I took a few more interior shots with everything seemingly back to normal. But then a similar thing happened: a normal interior setup of some artwork. The viewfinder seemed to have magnified the scene; the viewfinder image was very bright; the zoom ring didn't change the viewfinder image; there was no focus point visible in the viewfinder; using the joystick to recenter the focus point did nothing.

Like any savvy tech user I turned the camera off and then back on; everything seemed to return to normal. For a while. Then it happened again. Another off-on sequence. Outside hiking to seek out more sculpture. And again: but this time in addition to the enlarged and bright viewfinder image the AF area changed from Dynamic Area to some "wide" area: I could see a yellow box outline in the viewfinder. Another off-on. "Fine," except when I went to photograph an interesting sculpture of a canoe mashup, although the viewfinder image seemed "normal," there were two encroaching "black" areas at the lower left and upper right corners of the viewfinder. I was using the widest 18mm zoom setting. It was almost as if the lens hood was somehow encroaching into the image (something that has never happened before, and something which I could not later duplicate by rotating the lens hood -- in case it had loosened a bit). I've sent a message to Nikon but thought perhaps someone could give me some idea of what's going on.

 

[Rixpx]

A few things come to mind:

I'm not surprised by the focus difficulty through the glass. I've experienced this many times. Depending on the mode, the camera will lock on to the nearest object in confusing situations. That is why I went to back button focus years ago.

You may have connection issues between the FTZ and the lens. Wipe off the contacts on the camera , lens and FTZ.

I had a similar issue with odd vignetting with my 18-300. After fiddling with the lens hood, I discovered I hadn't fully locked the hood on completely. I found the hood is difficult to snap on fully and equally tough to remove.

On one occasion, My Z7 was focussing inconsistently . My battery showed about 50% charged. I put in a fully charged battery and the issue resolved.

 

[John Laflin]

I always use back button focus, but sometimes subject distance and surroundings confuse the auto focus. That's why I tried the focus ring. Also recall that I tried loosening the lens hood back and forth but could not replicate the vignette effect I experienced later outdoors.

 

[DRwyoming]

Also recall that I tried loosening the lens hood back and forth but could not replicate the vignette effect I experienced later outdoors.

Did you keep any of those vignetted shots? If so, are the image pixel dimensions consistent with a DX crop or are they full frame dimensions?

As I recall the 18-300mm lens is a DX lens and the camera should automatically switch to DX crop mode when that lens is mounted (assuming you haven't changed the default menu setting for automated DX crop). If the camera didn't recognize that a DX lens was mounted and continued to shoot in full frame mode you'd see substantial vignetting in the corners. IOW, to me several of these issues point towards dirty lens or camera body electrical contacts and lack of information passing between the lens and camera. I'd probably start by cleaning those contacts as even a bit of oxidation on those contacts can lead to the kind of troubles you're seeing.

 

[Rixpx]

I’m old school and like to be in control of my camera. 95% of my shooting is in single point focus mode. I find the other focus modes are useful in certain situations, but the camera and I can’t agree on where I want to focus.

 

[JAJohnson]

Has anyone experienced this behavior?

I was at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas yesterday. I had already taken a few outdoor shots of flowers, sculptures, etc. and the camera was fine. We moved indoors and I took a few shots of some of the art work. I was using my new (as of Christmas 2023) z7ii with the FTZ2 converter and my trusty AF-S Nikkor 18-300 mm f3.5-5.6 lens. Manual Mode, auto ISO, shutter speeds and aperture settings varied, but generally 1/250 or so and f4 - f8, depending on the situation.

Everything was going fine -- until -- I wanted to try to shoot the construction going on outside: there were a lot of great colors and shapes, but I was separated by the glass walls and a semi-transparent layer of material evidently designed to protect the glass from construction debris. The camera would not focus -- on anything! Not even using the manual focus ring. Plus the viewfinder image was *very* bright, totally washed out. I didn't think too much of it, but chalked it up to the difficulty of the scene. I took a few more interior shots with everything seemingly back to normal. But then a similar thing happened: a normal interior setup of some artwork. The viewfinder seemed to have magnified the scene; the viewfinder image was very bright; the zoom ring didn't change the viewfinder image; there was no focus point visible in the viewfinder; using the joystick to recenter the focus point did nothing.

Like any savvy tech user I turned the camera off and then back on; everything seemed to return to normal. For a while. Then it happened again. Another off-on sequence. Outside hiking to seek out more sculpture. And again: but this time in addition to the enlarged and bright viewfinder image the AF area changed from Dynamic Area to some "wide" area: I could see a yellow box outline in the viewfinder. Another off-on. "Fine," except when I went to photograph an interesting sculpture of a canoe mashup, although the viewfinder image seemed "normal," there were two encroaching "black" areas at the lower left and upper right corners of the viewfinder. I was using the widest 18mm zoom setting. It was almost as if the lens hood was somehow encroaching into the image (something that has never happened before, and something which I could not later duplicate by rotating the lens hood -- in case it had loosened a bit). I've sent a message to Nikon but thought perhaps someone could give me some idea of what's going on.

In such situations, check the security of the lens connection. And with the FTZ attached there two connections to check. Then, turn off the camera, remove the battery for a minute or two, reinsert it and turn on the camera. If the problem persists, you’ll likely need to have camera/lens checked by Nikon service personnel.

 

[SCoombs]

Some of what you describe sounds like you had inadvertently pressed whatever button you have set to zoom in. I forget what the default is on the Z7ii, but I think the magnify button does it. Try aiming the camera at something and pressing the magnify button a few times and see I'd it looks like what you saw before.

 

[John Laflin]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Nikon has agreed to take a look; luckily it's still under warranty.