D7 and Autofocus

Hi,

I'm curious about the Dimage 7 and the autofocus.
I heard about some troubles about battery life and possible heat, but after

reading this forum I'm no longer worried about these facts. What I'm still worried about is the autofocus problem of the D7. I heard that actionshots are a little bit difficult and only possible when you use manual focus when you can predict where the object is going to be a few moments later.

I like everything about the D7 and really want to buy it. I take a lot of pictures of static objects, US Classic Cars. As you may know these cars have a lot of chrome and chromatic abbration is an important issue for me. But sometimes I take actionshots of moving objects (cars). Can anyone tell me if this is going to be big problem for me? To relevate my question, I now own a Digital Ixus and the actionshots of the Ixus are good because the AF is fast enough. Help me convince to buy a D7!!

Thanks!--Forgetting is a way of freedom

Perhaps pictures would be better than words. The following album was taken the first weekend I had my D7. In fact, they are some of the very first shots I've taken with my D7.

http://members4.clubphoto.com/joo311536/450354/owner-745c.phtml

Joo

Arjan Massar said:

Hi,

I'm curious about the Dimage 7 and the autofocus.
I heard about some troubles about battery life and possible heat,
but after
reading this forum I'm no longer worried about these facts. What
I'm still worried about is the autofocus problem of the D7. I heard
that actionshots are a little bit difficult and only possible when
you use manual focus when you can predict where the object is going
to be a few moments later.
I like everything about the D7 and really want to buy it. I take a
lot of pictures of static objects, US Classic Cars. As you may know
these cars have a lot of chrome and chromatic abbration is an
important issue for me. But sometimes I take actionshots of moving
objects (cars). Can anyone tell me if this is going to be big
problem for me? To relevate my question, I now own a Digital Ixus
and the actionshots of the Ixus are good because the AF is fast
enough. Help me convince to buy a D7!!

Thanks!
--
Forgetting is a way of freedom

Click to expand...

Well, what kind of cameras have you used, we could compare it to that. The D7 is comparable to other cameras at less than 120mm focal length, but gets slower above 120mm which is where most of the problem reports come from.
Bryan

Arjan Massar said:

Hi,

I'm curious about the Dimage 7 and the autofocus.
I heard about some troubles about battery life and possible heat,
but after
reading this forum I'm no longer worried about these facts. What
I'm still worried about is the autofocus problem of the D7. I heard
that actionshots are a little bit difficult and only possible when
you use manual focus when you can predict where the object is going
to be a few moments later.
I like everything about the D7 and really want to buy it. I take a
lot of pictures of static objects, US Classic Cars. As you may know
these cars have a lot of chrome and chromatic abbration is an
important issue for me. But sometimes I take actionshots of moving
objects (cars). Can anyone tell me if this is going to be big
problem for me? To relevate my question, I now own a Digital Ixus
and the actionshots of the Ixus are good because the AF is fast
enough. Help me convince to buy a D7!!

Thanks!
--
Forgetting is a way of freedom

Click to expand...

I'll post my first gallery as well (I've set contrast and color sat to -1 each).

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4292342693

In general, digital camera AF is slower than film, because of the design of the camera. No matter which digicam you buy, you will have focusing issues (search the Sony, Canon, Fuji etc. forums for these types of posts). People who own a particular camera will naturally be defensive when someone points out these problems but, really, most if not all digicams have less than ideal AF systems.

That said, the Minolta seems to exhibit a particular kind of focusing problem; difficulty at long telephoto/macro distances. Sometimes it will indicate a focus lock when nothing is in focus. Other cameras indicate a focus lock when the camera locks on a default corner of the frame. There really isn't much difference in terms of the usability of the picture.

I have always been able to see when the Minolta is not in focus and have then retried. I think the pictures are worth this effort. You might not. But DON'T think that you're going to find a digicam without one or more problems. You usually find out about them just after the return period has ended.

Good Luck with your decision.

=NLK=

Arjan Massar said:

Hi,

I'm curious about the Dimage 7 and the autofocus.
I heard about some troubles about battery life and possible heat,
but after
reading this forum I'm no longer worried about these facts. What
I'm still worried about is the autofocus problem of the D7. I heard
that actionshots are a little bit difficult and only possible when
you use manual focus when you can predict where the object is going
to be a few moments later.
I like everything about the D7 and really want to buy it. I take a
lot of pictures of static objects, US Classic Cars. As you may know
these cars have a lot of chrome and chromatic abbration is an
important issue for me. But sometimes I take actionshots of moving
objects (cars). Can anyone tell me if this is going to be big
problem for me? To relevate my question, I now own a Digital Ixus
and the actionshots of the Ixus are good because the AF is fast
enough. Help me convince to buy a D7!!

Thanks!
--
Forgetting is a way of freedom

Click to expand...

Hi,

The D7 does have AF problem occasionally, same as the other digital cameras. Is the D7's AF problem any worse or better? I don't have the answer. Only the users have been using the camera under various situation for awhile and after thousands of images can give you a valid answer. To give you some perspective, even the Canon D30 with pro lens experienced AF problem. There is no perfect camera yet. Here is an interesting and informative article about D30:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/diginews/2000-11/2000_11_05_d30.html

Does this make the D30 a 'bad' camera that people should stay away from? Definitely not. If you don't mind the size and the heavy, and you can justify spending the money and accept its little shortcoming, the D30 takes excellent images that are compareable to other cameras cost twice as much. If Canon put out a product with the D30 image quality and the compactness of the D7, I will be first in line to buy one, and happily pay the price close to or over the D30.

Arjan Massar said:

Hi,

I'm curious about the Dimage 7 and the autofocus.
I heard about some troubles about battery life and possible heat,
but after
reading this forum I'm no longer worried about these facts. What
I'm still worried about is the autofocus problem of the D7. I heard
that actionshots are a little bit difficult and only possible when
you use manual focus when you can predict where the object is going
to be a few moments later.
I like everything about the D7 and really want to buy it. I take a
lot of pictures of static objects, US Classic Cars. As you may know
these cars have a lot of chrome and chromatic abbration is an
important issue for me. But sometimes I take actionshots of moving
objects (cars). Can anyone tell me if this is going to be big
problem for me? To relevate my question, I now own a Digital Ixus
and the actionshots of the Ixus are good because the AF is fast
enough. Help me convince to buy a D7!!

Thanks!
--
Forgetting is a way of freedom

Click to expand...

Thanks all for the information!

Well since there is no counterpoint in this thread, I'd just like to say that, yes, indeed, the D7 autofocus IS SLOW, even compared to other digicams.

I'd also say that it is a shame that you have to disable AF to do action shots -- isn't that one of the things AF is for?

Arjan Massar said:

Hi,

I'm curious about the Dimage 7 and the autofocus.
I heard about some troubles about battery life and possible heat,
but after
reading this forum I'm no longer worried about these facts. What
I'm still worried about is the autofocus problem of the D7. I heard
that actionshots are a little bit difficult and only possible when
you use manual focus when you can predict where the object is going
to be a few moments later.
I like everything about the D7 and really want to buy it. I take a
lot of pictures of static objects, US Classic Cars. As you may know
these cars have a lot of chrome and chromatic abbration is an
important issue for me. But sometimes I take actionshots of moving
objects (cars). Can anyone tell me if this is going to be big
problem for me? To relevate my question, I now own a Digital Ixus
and the actionshots of the Ixus are good because the AF is fast
enough. Help me convince to buy a D7!!

Thanks!
--
Forgetting is a way of freedom

Click to expand...

Gonzo,

Depends on the action shots. I used auto focus for all the shots in the album I posted earlier in this thread. I have seen professionals not use auto focus on their professional film cameras when doing particular action shots.

Joo

Dr. Gonzo said:

Arjan Massar said:

Hi,

I'm curious about the Dimage 7 and the autofocus.
I heard about some troubles about battery life and possible heat,
but after
reading this forum I'm no longer worried about these facts. What
I'm still worried about is the autofocus problem of the D7. I heard
that actionshots are a little bit difficult and only possible when
you use manual focus when you can predict where the object is going
to be a few moments later.
I like everything about the D7 and really want to buy it. I take a
lot of pictures of static objects, US Classic Cars. As you may know
these cars have a lot of chrome and chromatic abbration is an
important issue for me. But sometimes I take actionshots of moving
objects (cars). Can anyone tell me if this is going to be big
problem for me? To relevate my question, I now own a Digital Ixus
and the actionshots of the Ixus are good because the AF is fast
enough. Help me convince to buy a D7!!

Thanks!
--
Forgetting is a way of freedom

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

DG:

Well, no argument there. The D7 AF does seem to be a bit slower than the slowest ones I've tried up to now.

However, and I can easily be wrong, don't many, if not most, digicams disable the AF as a strategy for dealing with action shots? As an example, I believe the Canon G1/G2 has a sports setting in which AF is disabled and other settings are made basically to turn it into a fixed focus camera. I may be wrong about it being the Canon but I'm certain there's at least one high quality digicam that does this because even at its best, contrast detection AF is too slow for sports.

My uneducated $.01. :> )

=NLK=

Dr. Gonzo said:

Arjan Massar said:

Dr. Gonzo said:

Dr. Gonzo said:

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Forgetting is a way of freedom

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