S70 focusing and flash problem in low light?

a l b e r t · Jul 7, 2000

I was out at a birthday dinner tonight, and to my big disappointment, the S70 took some of the worse pictures I've seen for a long time.

First, it seems to have great problem focusing in low light in the restuarant. Just about all my pictures were out of focus. It seems to be focusing somewhere in front. Second, the flash in NORMAL is too dark! Check out the pictures below.

http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293922363

They were taken 6 months apart, the F505 shot looked fine, but look at the one taken with the S70: it sucks! It'd seem that the flash level on the S70 must be set to high in normal use unless you're shooting really close. The 2ns S70 shot is also completely out of wack: it is under exposed, and again, focused somewhere in front.

I compared a number of pictures I took with the F505 and S70 in such dark situations, the F505 took clear and sharp pictures even in a disco in near complete darkness. S70 failed all over.

Arggggg...

The only thing the S70 won tonight was that the LCD was usable under such low light condition, the F505's LCD was almost completely dark, I've to guess on what I was shooting.

Now, I don't know if the F505V is going to suffer from the same problem.

a l b e r t

Foxbat · Jul 7, 2000

For the first shot, since your back ground is some pretty bright lights, when S70 take averages, your subject will be too dark. The second shot, because there are so many objects (glasses) up front it's very easy to fool the camera that it should focus to these glasses. Anyway, I find out that in low light situation, one must:

(1) avoid using auto exposure mode. As evidenced from both of your pics. ISO is bumped to 141. This will introduce more noise.

(2) Use Spot metering mode when high contrast light source present or some objects may confuse camera auto focusing.

a l b e r t said:
I was out at a birthday dinner tonight, and to my big disappointment, the
S70 took some of the worse pictures I've seen for a long time.

First, it seems to have great problem focusing in low light in the
restuarant. Just about all my pictures were out of focus. It seems to
be focusing somewhere in front. Second, the flash in NORMAL is too dark!
Check out the pictures below.

http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293922363

They were taken 6 months apart, the F505 shot looked fine, but look at
the one taken with the S70: it sucks! It'd seem that the flash level on
the S70 must be set to high in normal use unless you're shooting really
close. The 2ns S70 shot is also completely out of wack: it is under
exposed, and again, focused somewhere in front.

I compared a number of pictures I took with the F505 and S70 in such dark
situations, the F505 took clear and sharp pictures even in a disco in
near complete darkness. S70 failed all over.

Arggggg...

The only thing the S70 won tonight was that the LCD was usable under such
low light condition, the F505's LCD was almost completely dark, I've to
guess on what I was shooting.

Now, I don't know if the F505V is going to suffer from the same problem.

a l b e r t

Louis Ong · Jul 7, 2000

a l b e r t said:
I was out at a birthday dinner tonight, and to my big disappointment, the
S70 took some of the worse pictures I've seen for a long time.

First, it seems to have great problem focusing in low light in the
restuarant. Just about all my pictures were out of focus. It seems to
be focusing somewhere in front. Second, the flash in NORMAL is too dark!
Check out the pictures below.

http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293922363

They were taken 6 months apart, the F505 shot looked fine, but look at
the one taken with the S70: it sucks! It'd seem that the flash level on
the S70 must be set to high in normal use unless you're shooting really
close. The 2ns S70 shot is also completely out of wack: it is under
exposed, and again, focused somewhere in front.

Albert

I have had some of the same problems. I have been trying to find out how to take good pictures of people. Try setting it on panfocus. On the Exif file, this is the only one where the S70 sets it on average metering. The other modes are all on center weighted. I tried it at home in darkened rooms and found that on panfocus, it could focus on close or far and that the background was usually well lit. That is, objects about 3 feet infront would be focused and well lit and so would the background.

Unfortunately, I have not had time to try it on people. It also seems to have a lot less shutter lag also. I could not find any information on this program mode. Can someone who knows please teach us about this. What is it doing?

Louis

Miles · Jul 8, 2000

I have found that the flash is operational up to about 12 feet.
Here is a shot I took in a restaurant last weekend WITHOUT any flash.
EXIF info listed:
DateTimeOriginal = 2000:07:01 18:28:13
ExifImageHeight = 1536
ExifImageWidth = 2048
ExposureProgram = shutter priority
ExposureTime = 1/4
FNumber = 20/10
Flash = flash was not used
FocalLength = 70/10

here is the link: (reduced)
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=909397&a=7005475&p=23640169&Sequence=0

a l b e r t · Jul 8, 2000

Miles,

Member said:
Here is a shot I took in a restaurant last weekend WITHOUT any flash.
EXIF info listed:
ExposureTime = 1/4
FNumber = 20/10
Flash = flash was not used
FocalLength = 70/10

The light in the restuarant is quite bright for you to take a nice picture. The one I went was a lot darker. Here is a shot of it with flash.

http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293922363

Look at the Cafe Deco shot.

Yes, the flash is not going to cover what I'm trying to do, but given the time I had no tripot. My big disappointment is that the shot is completely out of focus, which is beyond my expectation. My old F505 would at least give me something in focus...

a l b e r t

a l b e r t · Jul 8, 2000

Foxbat,

Foxbat said:
when S70 take averages, your subject will be too dark. The second shot,

Now how come it doesn't happen to the F505 shot??

Foxbat said:
because there are so many objects (glasses) up front it's very easy to
fool the camera that it should focus to these glasses. Anyway, I find out

I had a few other shots which were taken further away, and they all focused on the plates with food!

Foxbat said:
(1) avoid using auto exposure mode. As evidenced from both of your pics.
ISO is bumped to 141. This will introduce more noise.

This one particular shot I had the flash on! I just don't see how it managed to use a 1/104 sec exposure and a F4.0 aperture, then boast the ISO to 141. I think it's screwed somewhere.

Foxbat said:
(2) Use Spot metering mode when high contrast light source present or
some objects may confuse camera auto focusing.

That's very helpful tips. However, it seems that the problem doesn't happen with my old F505...

a l b e r t

Foxbat · Jul 8, 2000

I see. You're comparing apples to oranges.

a l b e r t said:
a l b e r t said:

when S70 take averages, your subject will be too dark. The second shot,

Click to expand...

Now how come it doesn't happen to the F505 shot??

a l b e r t said:

because there are so many objects (glasses) up front it's very easy to
fool the camera that it should focus to these glasses. Anyway, I find out

Click to expand...

I had a few other shots which were taken further away, and they all
focused on the plates with food!

a l b e r t said:

(1) avoid using auto exposure mode. As evidenced from both of your pics.
ISO is bumped to 141. This will introduce more noise.

Click to expand...

This one particular shot I had the flash on! I just don't see how it
managed to use a 1/104 sec exposure and a F4.0 aperture, then boast the
ISO to 141. I think it's screwed somewhere.

a l b e r t said:

(2) Use Spot metering mode when high contrast light source present or
some objects may confuse camera auto focusing.

Click to expand...

That's very helpful tips. However, it seems that the problem doesn't
happen with my old F505...

a l b e r t

a l b e r t · Jul 9, 2000

Foxbat,

Foxbat said:
I see. You're comparing apples to oranges.

No, I'm not. I tend to think Sony should have a better firmware with the S70/F505V than the F505. If S70 has this problem, F505V could have this problem as well. I took some shots yesterday, one shot was completely out of focus, and that was taking a shot inside a church (rather dark and no flash). All other shots were okay, including some restaruant shots. In the restaurant shots, I manually set it up with shutter priority (1/4 sec) no flash, held it steadily by hands with my elbows on the table and it turned out fine.

At this point in time, I think there is a bug with the S70's firmware with regards to focusing in low light.

a l b e r t

Ulysses · Jul 9, 2000

a l b e r t ---

Most of my shots over the past couple of days with the F505V (similar firmware) were taken in less than ideal conditions, and many in what you might call hostile conditions for a digicam.

Now none of those shots are the best that the camera can produce for any given pic. I'm new with actual USE of the camera. So I expect to do better. But on evaluation of my own pics, particularly the ones that I thought were out of focus seemed to reveal that the fault was my own and not the camera. For example, was I really focusing on the subject I intended in these dark conditions? I know for a fact that I was shaking quite a bit (a bit chilly and rainy, and I was just plain excited).

Maybe these were not the circumstances for your pictures. But for myself, I know that the couple of shots I was really dissatisfied with were my own doing.

a l b e r t said:
a l b e r t said:

I see. You're comparing apples to oranges.

Click to expand...

No, I'm not. I tend to think Sony should have a better firmware with the
S70/F505V than the F505. If S70 has this problem, F505V could have this
problem as well. I took some shots yesterday, one shot was completely
out of focus, and that was taking a shot inside a church (rather dark and
no flash). All other shots were okay, including some restaruant shots.
In the restaurant shots, I manually set it up with shutter priority (1/4
sec) no flash, held it steadily by hands with my elbows on the table and
it turned out fine.

At this point in time, I think there is a bug with the S70's firmware
with regards to focusing in low light.

a l b e r t

Rupert Yeo · Jul 9, 2000

I did encounter problem with focusing on my S70 but without further investigation, I could only say at this time that I should spend more time with the S70 to really determine the problem.

Looking at the original poster's photos, the exposure is definitely not right. My S70 does much better in that kind of shots under the same conditions. It might be the settings during the shots or there might be a problem with his S70. In one of the poster's shots, the sign The Peak is in focus. He's having the same problem as I do: the S70 tends to focus on the background, rather than near subject for portrait shots. I couldn't even get my S70 to focus lock on the near-end subject even though they were off-centre eventually. Maybe the pan focus mode might be able to resolve the focusing problem and I've yet the opportunity to try it out.

Having dealt with SLR on celluloid for about 20 years, the S70 is great and produce stunning results with great ease. However, lighting under tricky condition still requires some basic understanding of photography. I don't think there is any camera that is completely idiot-proof in all lighting conditions.

Ulysses said:
Most of my shots over the past couple of days with the F505V (similar
firmware) were taken in less than ideal conditions, and many in what you
might call hostile conditions for a digicam.

Now none of those shots are the best that the camera can produce for any
given pic. I'm new with actual USE of the camera. So I expect to do
better. But on evaluation of my own pics, particularly the ones that I
thought were out of focus seemed to reveal that the fault was my own and
not the camera. For example, was I really focusing on the subject I
intended in these dark conditions? I know for a fact that I was shaking
quite a bit (a bit chilly and rainy, and I was just plain excited).
Maybe these were not the circumstances for your pictures. But for myself,
I know that the couple of shots I was really dissatisfied with were my
own doing.

a l b e r t said:

Member said:

I see. You're comparing apples to oranges.

Click to expand...

No, I'm not. I tend to think Sony should have a better firmware with the
S70/F505V than the F505. If S70 has this problem, F505V could have this
problem as well. I took some shots yesterday, one shot was completely
out of focus, and that was taking a shot inside a church (rather dark and
no flash). All other shots were okay, including some restaruant shots.
In the restaurant shots, I manually set it up with shutter priority (1/4
sec) no flash, held it steadily by hands with my elbows on the table and
it turned out fine.

At this point in time, I think there is a bug with the S70's firmware
with regards to focusing in low light.

a l b e r t

Click to expand...

Foxbat · Jul 10, 2000

a l b e r t said:
a l b e r t said:

I see. You're comparing apples to oranges.

Click to expand...

No, I'm not. I tend to think Sony should have a better firmware with the
S70/F505V than the F505. If S70 has this problem, F505V could have this
problem as well. I took some shots yesterday, one shot was completely
out of focus, and that was taking a shot inside a church (rather dark and
no flash). All other shots were okay, including some restaruant shots.
In the restaurant shots, I manually set it up with shutter priority (1/4
sec) no flash, held it steadily by hands with my elbows on the table and
it turned out fine.

What I meant to say is that F505/505v has different optics and focus mechanisms than S70. At least 505 has a manual focus ring while S70 only has a button.

a l b e r t said:
At this point in time, I think there is a bug with the S70's firmware
with regards to focusing in low light.

I've experenced focusing issue even in normal lighting condition. I just don't trust auto mode at all. Spot metering is my best bet. Waiting for a firmware update from Sony? It won't happen.

Altz · Jul 10, 2000

a l b e r t said:
I was out at a birthday dinner tonight, and to my big disappointment, the
S70 took some of the worse pictures I've seen for a long time.

First, it seems to have great problem focusing in low light in the
restuarant. Just about all my pictures were out of focus. It seems to
be focusing somewhere in front. Second, the flash in NORMAL is too dark!
Check out the pictures below.

http://www.zing.com/album/?id=4293922363

They were taken 6 months apart, the F505 shot looked fine, but look at
the one taken with the S70: it sucks! It'd seem that the flash level on
the S70 must be set to high in normal use unless you're shooting really
close. The 2ns S70 shot is also completely out of wack: it is under
exposed, and again, focused somewhere in front.

I compared a number of pictures I took with the F505 and S70 in such dark
situations, the F505 took clear and sharp pictures even in a disco in
near complete darkness. S70 failed all over.

Arggggg...

The only thing the S70 won tonight was that the LCD was usable under such
low light condition, the F505's LCD was almost completely dark, I've to
guess on what I was shooting.

Now, I don't know if the F505V is going to suffer from the same problem.

a l b e r t

Albert,

I was having the same problem with my S70. After a few trial and error shots
I discovered that by having the VAD-70 adaptor ring installed , it reduced the

light output from the flash. By removing it I was able to take acceptable pictures up to about 12 ft. Also any bright objects in the foreground, even if they are out of the field of view, will fool the flash sensor on the camera, thus
giving reduced flash output.

Hope this will help,

Altz.

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S70 focusing and flash problem in low light?

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