E-5 focus point indicator on shot review

Barry Stewart · May 7, 2011

I'm looking for E-5 user feedback here.

My E-330 (and possibly every Oly since?) has a feature of showing you where the camera was focused, in shot review on the histogram screen.

Here's a shot of my E-5, taken with my C-5060 in macro mode. Note the red square near the center of the sports photo.

Problem:

This is not showing up every time on the E-5, especially when I shoot sports with the 50-200 SWD. Along with that, there's usually a bagful of badly out-of-focus shots from every game. Some of it's user error, to be sure — but I think there might be something sick with my E-5 and/or my lens.

Shutter priority was OFF in all cases.

On the E-330, the red square shows up every time, with the 50-200, even in C-AF and 'motor drive.' (In C-AF + MF, the red square does not show.)

I see that E-5 in C-AF and 'motor drive' with a 14-54 Mk1 showed the focus point every time in a recent shoot of a skip-rope event.

So... E-5 with 50-200 SWD users: do you get the focus square every time, when you're shooting C-AF and rapid fire?
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Barry

Jon Stock · May 8, 2011

I just went through the playback info settings in the D sub-menu with no luck.

Sorry I can't help.
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Jon

Barry Stewart · May 8, 2011

Jon Stock said:
I just went through the playback info settings in the D sub-menu with no luck.

Sorry I can't help.
--

That's interesting, Jon. Even with S-AF?
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Barry

kieth kiesel · May 8, 2011

Are you using S-AF plus MF? Little red square doesn't show up in MF playback.

rovingtim · May 8, 2011

I almost never let the camera choose the focus point and didn't know that it lets you know in that view. Cool.

I'll do some experimenting with the 50-200 and see what happens. That might explain some dim light misfocusing. Maybe Oly AF is programmed to take a best guess shot if you keep punching the button and it can't find a lock.

Sometimes getting any shot is better than none at all.

Jon Stock · May 8, 2011

Yes. That is the problem.

Thank you.

kieth kiesel said:
Are you using S-AF plus MF? Little red square doesn't show up in MF playback.

--
Jon

Barry Stewart · May 8, 2011

rovingtim said:
I almost never let the camera choose the focus point and didn't know that it lets you know in that view. Cool.

Oh, I didn't exactly mean the camera was choosing the focus point. Even if it is center spot focus, I get the confirmation square in my E-330 — and sometimes on the E-5. When it's missing, there's often a focus problem.

rovingtim said:
I'll do some experimenting with the 50-200 and see what happens. That might explain some dim light misfocusing. Maybe Oly AF is programmed to take a best guess shot if you keep punching the button and it can't find a lock.

I sure hope not — but that seems to be the case in my situation. "Shutter priority ON" is supposed to be the best-guess option, isn't it? (Again, I had it OFF.)

rovingtim said:
Sometimes getting any shot is better than none at all.

I can't agree, as too many of my OOFs are too far off to save.

This is the kind of shot where I want my focus to be ON... or don't bother taking the shot. I see some rain drops in the foreground might be in focus. Is the AF system THAT sensitive?

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Barry

rednefed · May 8, 2011

I just tested with C-AF pointing the E-5 and Sigma 50mm f/1.4 around my room. Sometimes the red square appears, sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes it's plain off, i.e. whatever under the red square wasn't in focus.

I think the camera is telling you which AF point locked, and in the case of the square not showing up, there was no lock. As we know, Olympus C-AF isn't the greatest. I had a hard time shooting some nighttime tennis (although it was night and definitely not well lit, and plenty of user error) and resorted to S-AF.

MatijaK · May 8, 2011

Barry Stewart said:
This is the kind of shot where I want my focus to be ON... or don't bother taking the shot. I see some rain drops in the foreground might be in focus. Is the AF system THAT sensitive?

No

It simply missed the focus point entirely, and you wouldn't have had the shot in the first place with focus priority instead of release priority.

Are you using the diamond focus pattern? That might help a bit.

Barry Stewart · May 8, 2011

rednefed said:
I just tested with C-AF pointing the E-5 and Sigma 50mm f/1.4 around my room. Sometimes the red square appears, sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes it's plain off, i.e. whatever under the red square wasn't in focus.

So I'm not crazy....

rednefed said:
I think the camera is telling you which AF point locked,

So why does it lock, if the object the square is on isn't focused? This is part of my beef.

rednefed said:
and in the case of the square not showing up, there was no lock.

... and if no lock: why did the shutter fire? Remember, my release priority was off.

rednefed said:
As we know, Olympus C-AF isn't the greatest.

I was hoping that wouldn't be so much the case with the E-5.

Thanks for your response!
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Barry

Barry Stewart · May 8, 2011

MatijaK said:
Barry Stewart said:

This is the kind of shot where I want my focus to be ON... or don't bother taking the shot. I see some rain drops in the foreground might be in focus. Is the AF system THAT sensitive?

Click to expand...

No It simply missed the focus point entirely, and you wouldn't have had the shot in the first place with focus priority instead of release priority.

I was in focus priority... so I'm wondering why the shutter fired.

MatijaK said:
Are you using the diamond focus pattern? That might help a bit.

I was on single center but have switched to diamond. I'll try that next week.

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Barry

pris · May 8, 2011

Barry Stewart said:
I see some rain drops in the foreground might be in focus. Is the AF system THAT sensitive?

Barry... is your C-AF Lock On or Off? Off position can be what causes this situation with the shot shown as something (in this case rain drop) switch to another subject. Assume that for some reason this drop attracted focus mechanism (some fluke of light, size of the drop, who knows), and you get just this reaction - it switches to the new "subject." If it's at Off, try to set to On and see if it improves the results.

See p. 103 in the manual.

rovingtim · May 8, 2011

I'm not disagreeing that the newer Oly cameras misfocus far too much for today's market. I'm just wondering why.

I've had shots like those ... you didn't have the IS on, did you?

Barry Stewart · May 8, 2011

rovingtim said:
I'm not disagreeing that the newer Oly cameras misfocus far too much for today's market. I'm just wondering why.

Me too. I think mine is sick, in sequential shooting.

rovingtim said:
I've had shots like those ... you didn't have the IS on, did you?

IS on. I was handholding at 1/800th to 1/1000th with the 50-200, so felt it was still appropriate.

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Barry

Barry Stewart · May 8, 2011

I was blaming my E-5... but when I test the 50-200 on my E-1, it does the same thing. And the same with the 14-54.

What I do: In C-AF OR S-AF — with shutter priority OFF — I lock focus on an object, then jam the shutter down and point at a way-too-close object. The cameras keep firing away, blissfully unaware that the target is OOF.

So... if they'll do that when they haven't got a chance of locking focus on a too-close object, are they going to behave the same way on moving targets?

As it stands now, AF in sequential shooting seems to be only good for objects that aren't changing focus distance.
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Barry

pris · May 8, 2011

I must be invisible...

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1022&message=38388939

That might answer this latest question as well

Barry Stewart · May 8, 2011

Pris:

I tried focus lock on and off and the "fire without checking focus" problem happens in both cases... in sequential shooting.

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Barry

pris · May 8, 2011

Then it sounds like your copy might have a problem because mine acts differently depending on the lock being on or off.

Banger · May 8, 2011

focal point used and this may not be the actual focus point in the photograph. I mainly shoot SAF on the E30 and I often focus using the centre focus point (half hold shutter button), and then recompose the scene. I'm reasonably sure that the square shows in the centre of the resultant image ......which because of recomposition isn't the focus point in the scene. I don't think my E30 can show the actual point of focus, if it can please tell me how.

Now I'm sure that's obvious to most users, but you never know.........as to what happens when using CAF I don't know, but it may be the same.

Rgds, Rob
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Give a wise man instruction and he is yet wiser !

dingenus · May 9, 2011

Barry, focuslock is only usable if there are obstacles in your view for a short time. The focus will not change for a short time. It's usable if there are flagpoles and lamp posts between you and the subject while you are following something in CAF. Problem is that the AF reaction can be too slow for fast moving subjects .

My experience in sequential shooting is to use no AF lock, diamond and the lowest fr/sec. thats usable for the subject and shutterspeed 1/800 or faster. Score 50% for close distance till 95% for subjects further away. And that without SWD and the old E3. I have nether looked at the red af point but will do that in the future, it is interesting.

E-5 focus point indicator on shot review

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