Christian Reed

Two quick checks can save a lot of headaches. The tiny wheel next to the viewfinder can get nudged and make everything look blurry through the finder even when the camera focused correctly. Point at a bright wall, half press to wake the camera, then turn that wheel until the text in the finder looks razor sharp. Worth a peek. Make sure you are not too close to your subject. Every lens has a minimum focusing distance. If you are inside that range the autofocus will hunt or lock onto the background. Step back a little and try again. For a clean test go to a bright room, switch to single point focus, put that point on a high contrast edge such as a book title, half press, and shoot. If that works but casual shots are still soft, it may be motion blur fooled for focus. Raise your shutter speed, brace your elbows, and take two or three frames in a burst. If results through the viewfinder keep missing yet photos focused in live view are sharp,, the phase focus system may need calibration by a technician. That is rare, but it does happen.

Back when I was backpacking through Europe, I once got stuck talking to this guy at a hostel for hours and missed my train and basically lost my whole day. Now, I always have a backup plan: I set a timer on my phone disguised as a reminder, and when it goes off, I say, 'Oh shoot, that's my cue to get dinner started before the family starves.' It works like a charm and keeps things polite. If that fails, I mention a fake appointment I totally forgot about.

Overheating and tripping usually come from starved airflow and voltage drop from cords that slow the motor and cook the heater... Plug directly into a lightly loaded wall outlet and use high fan with moderate heat, keep the intake a few inches from hair or fabric, watch for a warm plug as a red flag, and end with a couple minutes of cool air.