E-620 Focussing Problem

Hello,

I have been having this problem with my E-620 and am wondering if any of you have also experienced this and/or have a solution for it. I seem to have problems focusing in low-light situations (and I am not even talking about extreme low-light situations). What would happen would be that the flash would fire for focus assist multiple times and yet the camera somehow still can't focus and thus won't shoot the picture. This situation is rather embarrassing. For example, when this happened a number of times at a wedding and after multiple attempts, just pretended as if the picture was taken! Should I bring this camera back to Olympus? I would greatly appreciate your input and Happy Thanksgiving Day to all of us here in the States.

Best Regards,
Andy Santos

well you have had your 620 for 6 months now so you will have used it in a number of situations already.

if the AF assist light is strobing then the lighting is definitely low - then it's down to the AF mode you are using, the subject contrast and the lens aperture available.

on balance I suspect everythingis operating to spec - but that you are experienceing Oly's apparent achillies heel.

I have never used the pop up flash on any of my e bodies, and only use AF assist on the FL units - where it's useful but not 'the solution'. On the 30 and 3 I get significantly better results - but only when the AF mode is well matched to the subject (and the other models don't have the same options)
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• enjoy your camera equipment -

The strobe assisted focus is not suitable for focusing on anything but a relatively flat surface, for example a wall. It just don't find it to work well on faces.

You cannot expect the inbuilt strobe to be a suitable tool for shooting a wedding. You really need an external strobe. The inbuilt strobe is useful as fill flash, as the trigger for a remotely operated flash, and for emergency use.

I find that in moderately low light the AF assist from the built-in flash sometimes makes the focus lock slower. I usually turn it off. On my E-510 it is called AF Illuminat in the "Wrench 1" menu, but I think they re-arranged the menus on the newer cameras.

Focus needs contrast to work, and if none of the focus points are on a contrasty area of the subject, the camera just will not focus.

Turn off the AF illuminator focus assist, and set the auto-focus to use the centre focus point only. Then put the centre focus point on a contrasty area of the subject (like a black suit against a white shirt, or similar), half press to lock focus, recompose (while holding the shutter button half way), then take the shot.

I find using the above focus & recompose technique will work in most situations unless the light is really bad.

As others have mentioned, the extenal flashes have a red patterned focus assist light that is much more effective.
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BruceMcK
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Turn off the flash AF assist rarely helps and is annoying.

Shoot S-AF with center point and see if what works. all points only works if your subject is occupying most of the FOV else it might focus on random things that it finds easier to focus on but yes it will lock focus onto "something" as opposed to the center point which just gives up if doesnt get contrast

E30 and E3 definetly have better AF however another aspect is that more EXXX shooters just use the slow kit lenses hence experiance problems with AF in low light. A 14-54mm or the 12-60mm make a difference of about ~ 1 stop better AF performance.

hope this helps
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