Auto Focus Blues

[plonq]

I've got a question for the photo buffs out there (and more specifically) who made the jump from traditional to digital photography.

Is it just my imagination, or does the auto focus on most of the new digital cameras really suck - especially at close range?  I could use one hand to count the number of times that I had to over-ride the auto focus on my old Canon, but with my new Olympus, I am constantly having to over-ride it in order to take close-up shots.

I'm sure that atara will back me up here, since she's run into the same thing.  For example, I will by trying to take a picture of this but will end up getting this instead.

My camera has auto focus adjustments coming out its digital arse, with three different algorithms, and the ability to set the "hot spot" virtually anywhere in the frame.  I've tried toying with those settings with mixed results, but in the end, manual focus is simply faster.

File this under "things they didn't tell me about when I bought a digital camera".  Anyone else with their personal stories of digital annoyance?

Comments

[unciaa.livejournal.com]

Ohgodyes. My old, old digital camera practically has no zoom. It has the Mountain and the Flower range settings and they do their job. The spiffy new one however first waits 2 seconts to target something [something random I might add. I've yet to discover its pattern of deciding just want that little focus indicator will point at], then hope that's what I wanted to focus. Because I sure as hell don't know how to manually do it, it just has too many options and menus and buttons and flips and switches and dials and... yargh. Apple, make a digital camera, please. Something with less than 12 buttons [no exaggeration].

[dingotush.livejournal.com]

Never had any bother here. Then again, my Canon is so old the only automatic thing on it is exposure, and the little Fuji digital is strictly fixed-focus and for snaps. I guess one day soon I'll have to upgrade to a digital SLR. There's some black foam around the mirror assembly that's rotted away, and it seems to have got everywhere inside. To be fair it is the best part of 25 years old! And its becoming a pain to get hold of transparency film. Colour print film has never looked right to my red-green deficient wolf-vision.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes!
It takes ages to focus... and then it focuses on the wrong thing >_<

And Im not even sure you can manual focus with my camera o.o At least I dont know how, how do you do it in yours?

[gedrean.livejournal.com]

YOu are lucky. You can manual focus. My Kodak Easy share is nice for taking pics but gawds does it drive me nuts when the small centered object in the middle of the screen is less important than the stack of pennies in the backgorund. *cries* However, sample image 2 is actually pretty cool, I think I'll make up a story about it.

[atara.livejournal.com]

You have got to do something about that icon.

[farlo.livejournal.com]

Check the spot focus and close-up setting. My camera has a spot-focus setting for shooting close-up objects.

Otherwise, the camera will average the focus at many points, and screw it up.

On my older Olympus, the is a dot icon and a flower icon, for spot focus and close-up shots. Check yer manual, too.

[nrasser.livejournal.com]

We all know the image quality of many digi cameras is more or less similar (as long as you spend enough to get away from the "cheap snappies" models that make bad use of interpolation), but the quality of the lenses and the focus mechanisms is where the shopping really needs to be done.

Autofocus and basic lens technology in digicams is nearly identical to film cameras, and I wouldn't buy a film camera from a printer manufacturer, so I won't buy a digicam from one either. I look to the old standard names (Canon, Nikon, Minolta, etc) for a better quality of mechanisms and lenses. From what I've seen, Sony has proven to be capable of making a decent mechanism as well, but name-dropping doesn't beat hands-on inspection. Shop around and be critical as you try 'em out. Focus and zoom systems are easy to check out in the store, and many stores will even let you print a picture or two while you're browsing the cameras. Look for generously large lenses with visible coatings (that purple look), a solid lens turret mechanism that resists rocking and shaking and operates quietly and smoothly when opened/closed, focused and zoomed, an autofocus that operates quickly and returns reliably to sharp focus when moved from far to close objects and back, and low F-number lenses (usually having the aforementioned noticeably large objective lens) to maximize the photo opportunities you can take without flash or with fill flash in low light. Megapixels aren't that important as long as there's enough of 'em (3.3 or greater for most hobby photographers, 6 or greater for artisans). A 5 MP CCD is nice for hobby pics, but if it's sitting behind a subcontracted $29 crappy lens assembly with sloppy tolerance, poor glass performance and shoddy servo tracking, the resulting camera is very likely to be a waste of time and money and an insult to your photographic efforts.

I'd like to see some of the older high-standards film camera companies building competitive digicams, like Yashica, Leica and Mamaya-Sekor...but they're probably defunct by now. Or not selling in the US. :P Those companies built fantastic multi-purpose lenses and very solid mechanisms. Ansco Memar of Germany was another excellent camera crafter, I had a couple of their high-end manual cameras when I was a kid. Even in knocked-around, rummage sale condition, their lens quality was better than anything I've seen since.

I'm not saying the printer manufacturers can't occasionally make a good camera...just that the old names have a ton of old know-how which is still very valuable in the digital age, and USUALLY make a good camera.

I'm gearing up to purchase a high-end digital camera one of these days, something in the $1000-2000 range with multi-point focus and metering, zoom-telephoto or interchange lenses, and SLR features. A few recent offerings have caught my eye but I'm waiting to see if the new 10 megapixel high-end cameras will hit the scene before I cave in and buy something. :) Or, if the price comes down (a lot) from its current $4500, a 16 megapixel digital back for my Canon AE-1/AT-1 collection. :D