Nikon D5000 autofocus problem?

My Nikon, while in auto focus mode, dose not take a picture. It will focus in, then not take a picture. It takes pictures fine on manual, just not on auto

Its because you are not in focus. I bet that you are not hearing the in-focus beep either?

The lighting conditions or other conditions is preventing the camera from focusing. When not in focus, it will not take a photo… At least in auto.

But when you put it into manual, it figures you know what you are doing and allows you to take a photo.

There's also a setting on your camera to turn on the focus-assist lamp for low-light conditions. That is the little light on the side of the camera. When focusing in low-light, it will turn on to help the focusing. Make sure that is on for low-light conditions (in the manual).

Also if you are very close to your subject, you may be beyond the ability of your lens to focus at that short distance. And if you are using macro, most cameras do not do well in autofocus at those short ranges.

The thing is, no camera is 100% accurate in focusing all of the time - even the best DSLRs. That is why we still have lenses with focusing rings on them so for those few times we need to - we can manually focus the lens.