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I bought a Vivitar 70-210 Macro Focusing Zoom lens for my Nikon D3000. After using it for a while, I've noticed that a lot of my shots are slightly out of focus - a side effect of my inexperience with manual focus lenses, as well as the small viewfinder in the D3000.

The d3000 has an "Electronic Rangefinder" feature that uses the autofocus sensors and the exposure meter display to tell you whether to focus closer or further. Unfortunately, this feature doesn't work in Manual (M) mode, presumably because it wants to display the metering info in manual mode. I do get the rangefinder when I go to P,S, or A. Since I don't get any metering info anyway (this is a non-CPU chip, so the camera has no idea what my aperture size is), I don't get much help at all from the camera in focusing or exposure. (It does, however, light up a dot in the lower-lefthand side of the viewfinder when I'm in focus.)

So, is there a way to force the camera to display the rangefinder information in Manual mode?

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According to "Nikon D3000 for Dummies" that I managed to hit through Google books, in manual mode the viewfinder always displays the exposure meter. You can try this link to see what they say, but I'm not sure if the link to it will work.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Unfortunately, the link didn't work. What page did you mean to link to? \$\endgroup\$
    – Evan Krall
    Aug 28, 2010 at 3:54
  • \$\begingroup\$ Google books. I wasn't sure if the link would work or not, hence the "try" comment. Anwyays, if you go to the site and do a search for "d3000 rangefinder manual" you may hit the same result as I did. \$\endgroup\$
    – Joanne C
    Aug 28, 2010 at 13:34
  • \$\begingroup\$ Also, it may depend on your location. Google shoves you off to different sites based on country, so that may have played some havoc if you're not in Canada. \$\endgroup\$
    – Joanne C
    Aug 28, 2010 at 13:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ah. Well, I believe you that the book said that - I've messed around in the menus for a while trying to find a workaround. I guess if I'm really having trouble focusing, I can just temporarily switch to A mode in order to get the rangefinder. I just wish I could manually tell the camera what aperture I'm using so it would meter for me. \$\endgroup\$
    – Evan Krall
    Aug 28, 2010 at 19:29

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