Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I recently experienced problems with my D90 while on vacation. Sometimes the image in the viewfinder would shift just as the shutter actuates. The pic would end up blurred. I'm not sure if it is the shutter, mirror, or lenses that is causing this. I was using the 18-200 but have yet to try another lense. The camera has probably less than 8000 clicks on it. I googled but can't seem to find any related problems.

Any ideas? I guess I should take it in for repair but thought I would ask first.

What Mode were you shooting in, and what was the lighting conditions like? Do you have a sample photo for us to see????

If you're shooting at low shutter speeds this may be the VR engaging.

That was one possible thing I was thinking about.... Or just camera shake due to too slow of a shutter speed.

I was using it mostly in aperture mode and can't remember if the problem occurs in other modes. It happens in both normal and low lighting conditions. Unfortunately I deleted the images. I'll try my best to explain what happens.

When the camera is working properly I would press the shutter button and then I would immediately hear a noise from the lense (VR engaging?) then the lense would focus and the shutter would actuate.

When the camera is NOT working properly I would press the shutter button and at the same time as the noise occurs I could see the image in the viewfinder shift. Then it would focus and the shutter would actuate but the image comes out blurred. I would then retake the exact same shot in the same settings again and it would be fine.

Single point AF or 11 point automatic?

What do you mean "shift"? Goes from focused to unfocused? Jumps a few pixels to the left? Change colors/brightness?

L

What if you half depress the shutter button so it can get a focus first and get stabilized first? if you're just pushing the shutter button all the way immediately, I don't think that's the best way to fully utilize an VR lens (based on my experience with Canon's system). You need to give the lens a bit of time for it to stabilize.

My best guess is that the mirror assembly is loose but this is definitely something to get serviced properly.

I got a feeling the camera is hunting for focus and the OP did not half-press shutter to acquire focus.

UP2NOGD, please tell us, did you usually half-press shutter to acquire focus? The AF mode (AF-A, AF-S, AF-C)? and the AF-area mode (a1 in the menu) you are using when the issue occurs.

and when you said the image is blurred, is the whole image blurred, or just the subject you tried to focus is blurred.

If you're set on AF-C and taking a static object you might find that something like this happens. The camera finds it difficult to stablise properly sometimes when you have that combination. Not pausing the shutter button with a VR lens might make it worse.

Thanks everyone. To elaborate further...

Single point AF.
AF-S mode
Shutter press half way first.

When I press the shutter button half way in I can immediately see the entire image shift (not shaky hands), then the image would focus, and then I would press shutter button fully. The entire image is slightly blurry much like would occur with slow shutter speed.

I was on vacation so I didn't really have the time to figure out what the issue was. The problem occured halfway into my vacation so I didn't experience any problems at the beginning. I learned that whenever I saw the shifting occur through the lense I would just release the shutter button and try again. As long as the image doesn't shift then I knew my shot would be okay. I did this to get me through my vacation but now I need to figure it out. I played around with it briefly yesterday but can't see to duplicate the problem.