The focus ring is in different places on different lenses β on the cheaper Nikon 18-55mm kit lens it’s right at the front, and on more expensive lenses there will be a focus distance scale too. When the camera is set to autofocus mode, this focus ring does nothing β it only becomes active if the camera or lens is set to manual focus mode. You can estimate manual focus in the viewfinder [12] but it’s more accurate to switch to live view mode and use the zoom (Qual) button [23] to magnify the image for more precision.