I don’t use live view often, but it can come in handy. I find it pretty useful for taking shots that are close to the ground, especially when I don’t feel like getting my cheeks on the wet grass or rocks. Also, sometimes my knees just don’t want to do those deep bends.
This photo, though not that low to the ground, was taken using live view. This was the first time that I’ve used LV on the tripod, so I set it to tripod mode, tried to focus, just like I did in hand-held mode, and … nothing. It wouldn’t focus.
Well, after trying to get it to focus several times, it still wouldn’t do it no matter how many times that I pressed the shutter button. I switched to hand-held mode, tried it, it focused no problem. Hmmm? Switched back to tripod-mode and switched to a different lens, thinking that perhaps it had something to do with the Tamron 18-270. Nope. The 50mm Nikon lens didn’t work either. Sigh. Oh well, just manual focus, then. It worked well.
I even cheated a bit. I carry my manual with me. I checked the index, found the live view entry, opened opened the book to page 79 and found the LV instructions outlined it in 4 easy steps:
- Frame a picture in the viewfinder and focus
- Raise mirror and display view through lens in monitor
- Press + button to zoom in and focus
- Take pictures
Well, 1/2 of step one was working and it wasn’t the focusing part! I could frame the picture, but couldn’t focus. I started to think that maybe the latest firmware upgrade had caused this issue. Well, for sure, it wasn’t a show stopper. I continued on with manual focus. Sometimes you have to kick it old school!
The next morning, Saturday morning, I tried it again. Still no-go. I got out the manual again, this time reading the detailed instructions on page 86, which had an important note:
The camera cannot be focused by pressing the shutter-release button half way..
Well, I’ll be damned! How else would one focus it? Ah, that little button that I’ve never used … AF-On, which does the same thing. Apparently, this is the only way to get AF to work in Tripod LV mode!
Oh well, RTFM! 
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