What does the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II focus limiter do, and why won't AF lock on subjects closer than 5m?
Asked 12/19/2014
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I was photographing ducks handheld with a Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II and AF worked normally in the lens's FULL focus range. But when I switched the focus limiter to the "<5m" / 5m setting, autofocus would no longer lock on a duck that was very close to me. I was probably around 1.2m from the subject.
Is this normal behavior? Does that switch help AF at close distances, or does it actually prevent autofocus on nearby subjects?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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That lens has a switch that limits focus from 5m to infinity. The other setting (full) lets you focus from 1.4 m to infinity. There is no setting to focus between 1.4m and 5m only. You cannot focus on anything closer than 1.4 meter with that lens.
Manual here: http://cdn-10.nikon-cdn.com/pdf/manuals/lenses/AF/AFS70-200_2.8GEDVRII.pdf
I use the 5m - infinity setting when I shoot sports with that lens. When the lens can't find focus it might try to find a point very close by. The time it takes to go all the way back again to a point further away might cost me a shot. Limiting it to 5m is ok since I know the action is always further away than that.
Originally by user9786. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user9786
11y ago
0
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This is normal. The switch is a focus limiter, not a close-focus assist.
On the 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II, FULL allows autofocus through the lens’s full AF range, roughly 1.4m to infinity. The 5m setting limits autofocus to about 5m to infinity, so AF will not lock on anything closer than 5m in that mode.
So if your duck was around 1.2m away, it was already closer than the lens’s minimum focus distance, and certainly too close for the 5m-limited AF setting. That’s why switching back to FULL restored normal AF behavior for subjects within the lens’s usable close-focus range.
The point of the limiter is to speed up AF when you know your subjects are farther away, such as sports or wildlife at distance. It prevents the lens from hunting through the entire focus range. Use FULL whenever your subject may be nearby.
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