RX1: Focusing still not very satisfying

[Muizen -Belgium]

So far I use Multi as focus area.
I feel that possibly due to the fact that the green focusing outline box in Multi is large (I think far too large) it is almost close to impossible to focus on an eye when shooting a portrait.

Also sometimes focus does not hit the selected object but pick's out something totally different.


It is very strange in my opinion that In Multi you do have to guess where the focus area is since there is no permanent focus outline, like there is in Center and in Flex. Spot.

Questions:

1) I would like to have a permanent focus outline in Multi. Is there a way to produce such a focus outline for Multi? This would make it possible to know on what part of the scene I am going to focus!

2) If not I would then switch to using Center which does show a permanent outline which also seems to be smaller than the one that shows up in Multi when focusing, or I could use Flex. Point, which has an even smaller permanent focus outline? What do you recommend?

3) Now and then i suddenly get two or three green focus areas on the LCD when focusing in Multi. How can I avoid this?

4) Is there a way to reduce the size of the permanent focus outline in Center and or in Flex Point to enable more precise targeting of the focus?

The focusing function of the RX1 is its "Achilles heal", for me an almost permanent source of irritation!

--

Harry

 

[Chris Crevasse]

There is not a way to engage a permanent focus outline in multi (other than the small brackets in the far corners of the screen) because the camera does not know which AF points will be selected until it attempts to achieve focus. However, once the camera selects one or more focus points, those points will show up as green squares letting you know where the camera has focused (as you have observed). More than one square may be illuminated if the camera detects more than one focus point at the same focus distance.

I prefer center point to both multi and flexible spot. I use multi for some street shooting or with face detection enabled, and flexible spot when I have time to anticipate and place the AF point.

There is no way to change the size of the focus point in any focus mode. All you can do is change the position of the focus point by using flexible spot.

I was a bit disappointed with the AF on the RX1 at first. Now I have little issue with it.

 

[elliottnewcomb]

Sorry that you, personally, are not getting successful results YET; Clearly the camera is not finding the precise distance to the spot of sharpness you want within your specific subject.

Boil it down to this: Focus is distance, nothing more; for each shot 1 precise distance is chosen.

AF is the camera trying to select the precise distance it thinks you want. The camera gives you 3 committees to make decisions:

Multi is a committee of 12 persons;

Center is a committee of 4 persons, and

Spot is a committee of 1 person.

I suggest it is time for you to try using spot focus for a while. Forget moving the flexible spot about, learn that later, just use spot focus in the middle of the shot, and see if you can get acceptable results.

Let us know your results of that trial please,

Elliott

ps, in another thread, you talked about what shutter speed you need to avoid shake, which is of course part of sharpness, even if the focus distance is perfect. You could try test shots (with lots of light), starting at 1/200th, take a few, keep decreasing the shutter speed bit by bit, taking more test shots, until you find the slowest speed you can shoot hand held with (1/125 for me) and get reliably sharp results.

Then, with less light, you know you will have to use flash or shoot with a faster shutter speed. You may have to do what I did, start using S mode quite a bit.

 

[earful]

i have no idea if it would help, but i believe face detection works even when shooting raw. that being said, a previous owner who still frequents these boards had the same complaint as you and eventually returned the camera.

 

[DFPanno]

.......never heard it put that way.

Good one.

 

[teseg]

Several months ago I migrated from flexible spot to center/recompose as I found moving the box around to focus on the right spot somewhat burdensome, slow and not always precise. This got me where I wanted to be for all but close portraiture, sometimes focusing on the wrong eye (stupid camera). Based on recent posts I have now gone with setting the C-button to focus-hold and the focus knob to manual and Center focus/recompose. I'm still testing but I think it has promise.

• Hold C-button down and it acts like AF
• Release C-button and focus remains locked
• MF from there to ensure correct eye is in focus (should already be very close if not exact)
• Or if not a portrait, snap picture
• In theory, slows me down a little but keeper rate should be much higher
• Similar to DMF but without the worry of having to keep shutter release half depressed while recomposing

In all honesty, I take very few portraits so not high on my angst list about this camera. Hope you figure something out that works for you.