Help Camarea won't focus !!!!!!!

[molly]

I have had the Nikon D300 since Feb and has been excellent.... until now

I took it on hols and discovered that it had decided not to focus, sometimes at all. At first I thought that I might have pushed a button or 2 and accidentially switched something off/ on. I spent an evening or 2 with the instruction manual and eventually managed to reset the camera. It seemed to work fine and the pictures obtained are a mixture of sharp to soft focus. Everyone thought it hilarious that my black beast was causing soooo much trouble when their little point & shoots were performing well despite being dropped, mixed with sand and genrally being abused

I came home and a couple of days later, went to use the camera. Lo and behold , it had switched back to being unable to focus

In the top display instead of showing the 51 point focus , it is only showing the central point. Also instead of showing the apperture it shows it as 0. The picture taken does not record, as if there is insufficent light and appears black on the screen. The shutter is working

I have tried cleaning the contacts, replacing the battery, replacing the lens. I have reset the shooting and custom settings and have now run out of ideas

Does anyone have any idea what can be the matter with it???? I haven't ruled out a trip to Nikon

Any help is greatly appreicated

[VxDuncan]

Okay, I have a Nikon D300 (great camera).

First off, is the switch at the front of the camera on the lower right of the lens set to "C" or "S" (not "M")? I take it the lens itself is set to af (if there is a switch). Check the AF selector switch ( to the right of the LCD above the CF card switch, below the multi function control) set to the top or middle position? (to help explain why only a single point is highlighted)

What is the lens? Is it fairly standard, modern and fast (ie quicker than F5.6?) If you set the focus point somewhere then manual focus to the point does the little green dot show at the LHS of the viewfinder to say you are in focus? Does the depth of field preview work? (stop down the lens and make the image dark?)

Apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs! I have no idea of you rexperience with the camera, you might be a genius or a worse than my mum when faced with technology!

First guesses would be:
The switch for Cont, servo, manual focus on the front RH of the lens is set to M.
Camera shake / aperture to small
Lens set to MF not AF
Lens not mounted correctly or dirty contacts
Lens faulty
Camera AF drive not working on AF-D lens.

[molly]

Thanks for the reply.
I had another play today and I think the problem was that the switch was set to M not C or S. I moved it to C and the focus point indicator sprung back to show the 51 points. Haven't had a chance yet to look at my days efforts but it did react has I expected
As you say its a GRRRRRRRRRRRRRReat camera, but at the moment its abit advanced for me. Best to get out and get practising with it
Thanks again