C-8080 focusing accuracy and speed

My girlfriend and I are seriously thinking of getting an 8080, but I'm almost consistently finding complaints about its focusing, while others find little fault. I would like to really know in what types of focusing situations, the 8080 has the most trouble. I've used a c-5050 in the past and currently use an E-20, so if you can make a comparison to those cameras, it would be great help. I know about the -78 firmware update that apparently helps AF and have already downloaded it.

The questions:

Do you experience any problems focusing outdoors in good light?

How about in fairly soft light, either in the shade or around sunset. I've heard complaints about focus at infinity. Is there a general consensus on this?
How about at macro/super macro shooting distances?

Lastly, what about photos of people (relatively static) indoors with relatively low (ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/100th) window light or flourescent lighting.

Thank you for your time. I've been digging through 8080 post, but it would be nice to get a consensus from experienced users rather than intermittant complaints.

--
http://srpluta.zenfolio.com/

I've got both the 8080 and an e500. The 8080 is a great cam with a beautiful lens. It's built like a tank and has tons of great control features that are easliy accessible. It does have some drawbacks, which you seem to know already. I'll share what I've experienced.

Focusing outdoors in good light - not a problem. I've had the 8080 for almost 2 years now and taken tons of outdoor shots at all focal lengths and never had a significant problem with the camera not achieving focus lock quickly outdoors in good light. I find it takes excellent exposure readings, pretty nice dynamic range, and has very good auto white balance.

Less light and focus at infinity - I've read this too and not really understood the problem of infinity focus to be honest. I do find in low light that the camera focuses pretty quickly at wide angle, but when zoomed out half way or more it really can take a long time to achieve focus lock in these conditions. This is what really drove me nuts about the 8080. There are some things you can do to compensate, but yes it's slow to focus in low light when zoomed out. I really don't like missing a shot because I'm waiting for my camera to try and focus. My e500 never gives me a problem, even with the kit lens' in the same type of lighting.

Macro shooting - I have the 50mm with my e500 and that combo focuses very quickly. Compared to that, my 8080 is slow and cumbersome, but does have a flip out screen which I find helpful for macro. Macro shooting with the 8080 takes some getting used to, put if you are patient you'll get some fantastic shots.

Indoor people shots - If you properly expose your shot and you plan on printing small, iso 400 isn't all that bad on the 8080. I've used it lots from candid portraits of my boys to indoor sports and have been very pleased with the results - even without running noise reduction on them. Of course, it doesn't come close to iso 400 on my e500 and that 50mm lens I have.

If you plan on taking a lot of shots in the scenarios you've mentioned, you might want to consider a dslr. However, remember that good glass for a dslr will cost you more. With the 8080 you get that great lens, but some drawbacks. I assume you would be buying it used, so an 8080 might not be too much of a financial risk. Good luck with your decision.
Marc

I'll be purchasing a dSLR in the near future. The camera is for my girlfriend to use mainly. It will be used most for landscape and macro in soft/afternoon light, but having a versatile camera is important as well.

--
http://srpluta.zenfolio.com/

Hi Scott. For those conditions I would highly recommend it. I don't think she'll be dissapointed.
Marc

The C-7070 seems to be pretty good as well and cheaper too.

I am trying to decided between getting the C-7070 or the C-8080, can't make up my mind which one is better.

Scott P said:

My girlfriend and I are seriously thinking of getting an 8080, but
I'm almost consistently finding complaints about its focusing,
while others find little fault. I would like to really know in
what types of focusing situations, the 8080 has the most trouble.
I've used a c-5050 in the past and currently use an E-20, so if you
can make a comparison to those cameras, it would be great help. I
know about the -78 firmware update that apparently helps AF and
have already downloaded it.

The questions:

Do you experience any problems focusing outdoors in good light?
How about in fairly soft light, either in the shade or around
sunset. I've heard complaints about focus at infinity. Is there a
general consensus on this?
How about at macro/super macro shooting distances?
Lastly, what about photos of people (relatively static) indoors
with relatively low (ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/100th) window light or
flourescent lighting.

Thank you for your time. I've been digging through 8080 post, but
it would be nice to get a consensus from experienced users rather
than intermittant complaints.

--
http://srpluta.zenfolio.com/

Click to expand...

--
. E-500 . 11-22mm . 14-54mm . 50mm . 40-150mm . FL-50 .

no problems at all.

It is hard to focus if the light is very low, so low that it is hard to see at all.

Which of course also means that the contrast is very low, which messes up the contrast detection...

Moving subjects is not what the c8080 does best though, you'll have to pose your subjects. It is not because of the speed, but due to the fact that there's no tracking AF, ie the camera doesn't focus after the shutter have been pressed to compensate for movement during the time before the exposure is done.

AF in good light is about as good as a 10 year old SLR with a low end zoom (screw type engine), which is plenty fast even if it is no match for the latest state of the art pro series Canons and Nikons

Manual focus on infinity isn't very easy to do, but I have yet to find a situation when manual focus on infinity would be a good thing to manage...

AF on infinity is not hard to do.

For night shots of stars you're better off focus on infinity during day, change to MF and save as a user mode.
--
Anders

Some of my pictures can be seen at;
http://teamexcalibur.se/US/usindex.html

event photography and photo journalism

a lot of cameras have trouble in low light, I must admit though I do not find it too much of a problem, areas where i have found it difficult are shooting a robin that was constantly hopping around in the bottom of the dark fuschia hedge outside my door on a dull dark winter day , but patience got me some good shots and I think the camera did well in the circumstances, it totally rules for landscape, I use mine a lot for this, and in very low light in woodland settings where the exposure time is measured in seconds . I willpost a few below to demonstrate. the 8080 is a very very useful tool indeed....best wishes ...paul

low light shots c 8080









these were all took in low light circumstances, although i guess the sunset one was easy as the sunset created some good highlights to focus on. cheers...paul
--
The Italian Stallion



http://www.myspace.com/rockford_photography
http://www.rockford-photography.co.uk
http://www.torbay-landscape-photography.co.uk

Scott P said:

The questions:

Do you experience any problems focusing outdoors in good light?

Click to expand...

no

Scott P said:

How about in fairly soft light, either in the shade or around
sunset.

Click to expand...

no. only in extreemly low light, trying to focus on things with little contrast. have lost a tiny percentage of shots in these situations, and mainly because i didn't shoot multiple tries. cam focusses better in these situations than my 50 y.o. eyes, anyway. go to zone-focussing here.

Scott P said:

I've heard complaints about focus at infinity. Is there a
general consensus on this?

Click to expand...

yes. there is a somewhat awkward work-around. not coming to me right now.

Scott P said:

How about at macro/super macro shooting distances?

Click to expand...

what about them? you can get so close you have to watch your own shadow's interference. btw, macro is the only place the awkward manual focus is actually useful. at 'normal' shooting distances the af works fine, and if not, then a bit of memorization of dof tables does nicely [and used judiciously].

Scott P said:

Lastly, what about photos of people (relatively static) indoors
with relatively low (ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/100th) window light or
flourescent lighting.

Click to expand...

static stuff is no problem. lighting is not a problem either, although mixed light is always tricky. best solution imo is a whibal. it can be used with jpeg as well as raw.

--
http://srpluta.zenfolio.com/

JimRockfordII said:

a lot of cameras have trouble in low light, I must admit though I
do not find it too much of a problem, areas where i have found it
difficult are shooting a robin that was constantly hopping around
in the bottom of the dark fuschia hedge outside my door on a dull
dark winter day , but patience got me some good shots and I think
the camera did well in the circumstances, it totally rules for
landscape, I use mine a lot for this, and in very low light in
woodland settings where the exposure time is measured in seconds .
I willpost a few below to demonstrate. the 8080 is a very very
useful tool indeed....best wishes ...paul

low light shots c 8080









these were all took in low light circumstances, although i guess
the sunset one was easy as the sunset created some good highlights
to focus on. cheers...paul
--
The Italian Stallion



http://www.myspace.com/rockford_photography
http://www.rockford-photography.co.uk
http://www.torbay-landscape-photography.co.uk

Click to expand...

Hello Paul,

your second shot is really amazing! Where is that location? Seems as a perfect holiday place to me!

As a 'pro' photographer (which only means I earn my living with it), and by reading all the good posts concerning the Oly, I recently got interested in the C8080. Yesterday I had the opportunity to buy one in new condition at a photoshop in Belgium (399 euro - 2 years of garantee and latest firmware version). So I think I must be a lucky guy now, because the seller told me it was his last 8080. (He had forgotten it in his stocking location and now he wanted to get rid of it because he argued it would be hard to sell it as technology evoluates fast.

So when I have some free time I'll try it out. I notice there's a steep learning curve, but if I see for example your results I think it is worth. Do you often use spot AF in good lighting condition and auto ISO?
Anyway, I am glad I saw your contributions here and I appreciate them a lot.
Best regards and good photo-opportunities!
Hans

http://www.mediapro.be

Hans

that is a good price, despite the now-dated technology of the 8080.

Strengths :
Macro / landscape / portraits / features / sturdy build / superb IQ

lesser performance areas :
sports / action / low light /
no infinity focus on specific subjects like airplanes or birds
more noise at higher ISOs, generally anything above 200.

Good luck with your new 8080
Keith

--

Not a word was spoken, the church bells all were broken . . .

Scott P said:

Do you experience any problems focusing outdoors in good light?

Click to expand...

Absolutely not! This is where the 8080 is king. Its Jpegs are the best I have ever seen from any camera.

Scott P said:

How about in fairly soft light, either in the shade or around
sunset. I've heard complaints about focus at infinity. Is there a
general consensus on this?

Click to expand...

Yes, the 8080 is a bit sluggish to focus in low/poor light.

Scott P said:

How about at macro/super macro shooting distances?

Click to expand...

The best in its class - by a LONG long way. Nothing else even comes close - simple as that.

--
AH

Optimum tempus garantitum omnibus

Keith Aitken said:

Hans

that is a good price, despite the now-dated technology of the 8080.
Good luck with your new 8080
Keith

Thanks Keith. Great to meet another 8080 fan!

Click to expand...

Best regards!
Hans

Hi hans just read the thread, and fired off an email in reply to yours, yes I do use spot focus and metering a lot and I always try and use the lowest iso possible which is usually 50. Im very pleased with my 8080, when i was buying it my alternative cameras were the leica digilux 2 and its panasonic variant but the 8080 won out for sheer quality of the image and the great glass. It is a lovely piece of kit and I think it will stand the test of time. all the best ....paul
--
The Italian Stallion



http://www.myspace.com/rockford_photography
http://www.rockford-photography.co.uk
http://www.torbay-landscape-photography.co.uk
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockford-photography/
http://sonyericsson-k800i.blogspot.com/

Scott P said:

The questions:

Do you experience any problems focusing outdoors in good light?

Click to expand...

Focusing, no. In the beginning, choosing the right metering for the scene was a bigger challenge. (Center-weighted for all evenly-lit scenes and landscapes, spot for macros or strong side or 3/4 lighting situations.)

Scott P said:

How about in fairly soft light, either in the shade or around
sunset. I've heard complaints about focus at infinity. Is there a
general consensus on this?

Click to expand...

That's two questions. )

The first is a large area of possibilities. On a sunny day but in the shadow of a building or under anything but really dense shade, it's fine. With dense shadow or shade, it can be dicey, but it most certainly will focus. Indoors with artificial light, if there is enough of it, slow but works. Indoors in low lighting, really iffy at times. Requires a lot of patience and often several exposures.

The second has not been a problem for me. I always use AF for landscapes or objects at "infinity" (really a misnomer... it isn't the Hubble after all). I've heard of the manual focus at infinity problem, but in 2-1/2 years, I've never actually tried it. No pressing need.

Scott P said:

How about at macro/super macro shooting distances?

Click to expand...

Wonderful. The C-8080 is a superb macro camera. Landscapes and macros are where it rises to the top.

Scott P said:

Lastly, what about photos of people (relatively static) indoors
with relatively low (ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/100th) window light or
flourescent lighting.

Click to expand...

I never boost the ISO that high unless it is a "must have" shot without it. But I'm stupid and take several shots hand-held at ridiculously show shutter speeds so that I can keep the noise low and the lighting more natural. Like this one:

C-8080WZ, Program Mode
Shutter: 1/10s @ f/3.2 (Eyes closed... old archery trick.)
ISO: 100
WB: Auto
Title: Aunt Babe, Age 93



It doesn't get much better than that for me.

It's an outstanding camera. Best in class, I'd have to say.

-- Typeaux

The only test of an image is the satisfaction it gives you. There simply isn't any other test.

I have lost some shots in bright light and macro, especially in combination when trying to take pictures of bumble bees on very small flowers. I did not use spot focus, however, so... my bad. Wish I'd got the shots, but learned a thing or two.

-- Typeaux

The only test of an image is the satisfaction it gives you. There simply isn't any other test.

I've posted this before and it bears repeating. The C-8080 and all digicams focus by finding contrast on a vertical line. The camera does not "see" focus like your eye does, but has a math algorithm for detecting maximum contrast on the sensor for a distinct vertical line. Good DSLRs look for lines in two directions but digicams only look for vertical lines. If the subject is close up and the background is larger than the subject then the camera will try to focus on the background rather than a small subject in the foreground.

One Solution is to set the focus mode to spot focus. Find a vertical line within your subject, a line perpendicular to the horizontal frame that is. Aim the spot on that. Focus by half depressing the shutter until the camera focuses on that line. Holding the shutter half way down, reframe the subject to get the composition you want and then trip the shutter all the way. In spot focus the camera will only focus within the spot frame. I use it this way all the time and recompose after focusing.

You can also lock the focus at the focused distance by pressing the shutter half way and pressing the focus mode button on the side of the camera. Press the focus mode button after the camera finishes focusing correctly. Then let go of both buttons. The camera will go into manual focus mode, focused at that distance. It's also a good way to check the focus scale to see where the camera set the focus. Once focus is locked you can move the camera in or out slightly to adjust where the focused point is on your subject and/or where the center of your DOF is and then trip the shutter. You must be able to see focus in the EVF or LCD screen to be able to do this. Be sure to adjust the eye diopter on the EVF. This is also a good way to focus in low light, or any light if you are going to use the same focus range for several shots, and you want to save time on shutter/focus lag.

Manually focusing is almost impossible, unless the subject happens to render itself to the pixelated image in the magnified focus screen. I will sometimes focus by scale using manual focus mode.
Good luck.
Dave
--
Candid Photographer w/ C-8080