Eric Haglund
Veteran Member
Someone asked me on another thread how I was coping with the AF these days given my earlier, vocal rants. ;-) So I thought I would reply to the group as a whole so newbies can perhaps gain some insight.
First off, I came from a film point and shoot world with beam type of AF. My opinion remains that a good beam AF is superior to the contrast AF as implemented in the G2. To wit, my Yashica T4 beam AF will successfully focus on a person where the G2 may likely focus on the high contrast stuff behind the person. I've learned that I had to rethink the way I took photos. I was NOT happy to do this with an $800 camera but I DID do it. Here's how I get better results:
1- Firstly, I am very suspicious of the AF and take extra measures and precautions if shooting subjects which stand out from background items.
2- If shooting people, I will get AF lock on their feet where they touch the ground. Or their legs against a chair if they are sitting on a chair, etc.
3- I make sure there is NO distant background in the AF square (unless, of course, it's a landscape and the whole pic is distance background). If I can't do this I aim at the ground where the subject meets the ground.
4- I make sure the subject does not move in the slightest while I get AF lock.
5- Did I mention that I aim at the ground alot? ;-)
These above items have helped me greatly, I very rarely go for an AF lock on the person's torso, head, etc. I'm typically looking for a one-dimensional scene that is the same distance away or aiming at the ground for AF lock, seems silly but I go with what works.
My life's experience has been that when things don't make sense, it's usually because there is more than one factor messing things up. And there is. Here's the other problem I've found which compounds poor AF performance and makes it difficult to diagnose: MF distance and EXIF values are whacked out. Big time. One of the problems I initially had was I would get an AF lock on something, hold in MF and it would show infinity. Since the person was 6 feet away, I would say "infinity my butt" to myself, reframe the pick, hold the MF button and I would repeat and repeat and repeat and it would show infinity infinity infinity. I was assuming that the camera was not focusing properly. However, after seeing other people posting similar problems and after much analysis of posted pics as well as my own, I've realized that just because the MF scale says it focused on infinity, doesn't always mean it actually did . Some pics that showed infinity on the MF scale would report many other values than 66m in EXIF and be in perfect focus. Others will show 66m in EXIF yet after analyzing the photo, it is obvious that in fact, it did NOT infinity focus. So I do not fully trust the MF scale, it seems to be whacked out but I can't put my finger on the EXACT circumstances other than at wide angle it seems really prone to screw up. I really wish Canon would address this so I could trust the MF scale again but I suppose they have bigger fish to fry.
In any case, that is my story and I'm sticking to it at this point although I may discover some other factor(s). Your experiences may vary. I still get inexplicable OOF shots and I still get true infinity focus on close subjects but not nearly as often as I used to. But I won't be trading my G2 in on anything soon because I love every other aspect of this camera.
--
Eric
Disclaimer: Snapshooter, and proud of it ;-)
http://www.pbase.com/haglunde
First off, I came from a film point and shoot world with beam type of AF. My opinion remains that a good beam AF is superior to the contrast AF as implemented in the G2. To wit, my Yashica T4 beam AF will successfully focus on a person where the G2 may likely focus on the high contrast stuff behind the person. I've learned that I had to rethink the way I took photos. I was NOT happy to do this with an $800 camera but I DID do it. Here's how I get better results:
1- Firstly, I am very suspicious of the AF and take extra measures and precautions if shooting subjects which stand out from background items.
2- If shooting people, I will get AF lock on their feet where they touch the ground. Or their legs against a chair if they are sitting on a chair, etc.
3- I make sure there is NO distant background in the AF square (unless, of course, it's a landscape and the whole pic is distance background). If I can't do this I aim at the ground where the subject meets the ground.
4- I make sure the subject does not move in the slightest while I get AF lock.
5- Did I mention that I aim at the ground alot? ;-)
These above items have helped me greatly, I very rarely go for an AF lock on the person's torso, head, etc. I'm typically looking for a one-dimensional scene that is the same distance away or aiming at the ground for AF lock, seems silly but I go with what works.
My life's experience has been that when things don't make sense, it's usually because there is more than one factor messing things up. And there is. Here's the other problem I've found which compounds poor AF performance and makes it difficult to diagnose: MF distance and EXIF values are whacked out. Big time. One of the problems I initially had was I would get an AF lock on something, hold in MF and it would show infinity. Since the person was 6 feet away, I would say "infinity my butt" to myself, reframe the pick, hold the MF button and I would repeat and repeat and repeat and it would show infinity infinity infinity. I was assuming that the camera was not focusing properly. However, after seeing other people posting similar problems and after much analysis of posted pics as well as my own, I've realized that just because the MF scale says it focused on infinity, doesn't always mean it actually did . Some pics that showed infinity on the MF scale would report many other values than 66m in EXIF and be in perfect focus. Others will show 66m in EXIF yet after analyzing the photo, it is obvious that in fact, it did NOT infinity focus. So I do not fully trust the MF scale, it seems to be whacked out but I can't put my finger on the EXACT circumstances other than at wide angle it seems really prone to screw up. I really wish Canon would address this so I could trust the MF scale again but I suppose they have bigger fish to fry.
In any case, that is my story and I'm sticking to it at this point although I may discover some other factor(s). Your experiences may vary. I still get inexplicable OOF shots and I still get true infinity focus on close subjects but not nearly as often as I used to. But I won't be trading my G2 in on anything soon because I love every other aspect of this camera.
--
Eric
Disclaimer: Snapshooter, and proud of it ;-)
http://www.pbase.com/haglunde