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On a DSLR, when you use the viewfinder, the mirror is lowered, and a secondary mirror reflects some of the light to phase-based AF and exposure sensors at the bottom of the camera. These are accurate and fast.
When you use live view, the AF is contrast-based AF (the camera lens hunts until it find a position that maximizes contrast). This is slow (in your ...
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It's because on a (Nikon) DSLR, live view is part of the video stream with rolling shutter. This stream is usually not in a raw format and is typically reduced resolution. Some Nikon's have a "silent live view photography" menu option that allows recording a video frame w/o switching into still mode (mirror/shutter fixed).
In order to switch back to full ...
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Because in the Nikon D3x00 and D5x00 series, as well as many previous entry level Nikon DSLRS and pretty much all Nikon 35mm film SLRs, the same mechanical motion actuates the mirror assembly and the aperture linkage. Once the mirror is up, the aperture can not be changed from the body. This worked fine when the mirror was always down until just before a ...
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Michael has already nailed exactly why this is so, but just to add anecdotally that with a very broadly-comparable setup; a newer Nikon D5500 & Tamron 70-300 4-5.6 I see very similar results.
The camera is fast enough, but the lens just isn't. It takes up to a couple of seconds to pull focus even in 'simple' conditions. If you add to that a rapidly-...
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In order to even have hope of tracking moving subjects, you need to be in AF-C mode. If you are in AF-S mode, the camera will not even attempt to follow a subject as it moves closer or further from your camera.
If you can hold a single AF point on the subject, use single point AF. Otherwise use 3D tracking and be sure the initial AF point is on the subject ...
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