Pls help me with focusing the DSC-S85

I am looking for some pointers on focusing the S85.

I have shot a bunch of pics (700) using the S85 over the past three weeks. Most of the pics have been of scenery or macro and have turned out wonderful.

Recently I started shooting more people and the S85 seems to be focusing on objects other than the intended subject.

So my questions are:

In the view finder there are cross hairs. Does the camera try to find objects INSIDE the cross hairs for focus? or does the camera try to find objects placed ON the cross hairs for focus?

In the LCD viewer there are brackets... again how does the camera use these brackets to find focus?

And thirdly, what does enabling spot AE/AF do regarding focusing?

My best example was shooting a pic of my son sitting on the floor playing a video game... I took the picture from above and it appears the camera focused on the carpet which had a vivid texture as opposed to focusing on my son.

I will post some pics if necessary...

Thanks,
Curt

I'm no expert...

First of all, if you use the SCN selection, you have locked the camera into certain parameters.(Landscape,Portrait,or twilight) Try switching to the "Green camera" icon on the switch selector. This is Full Auto.

Second..Keep an eye on the Maco option. The camera remembers where you left off when you turn the camera back on. You may still be shooting in Macro mode and not realize it.

The view finder has NOTHING to do with the focusing. Its just a guide. It's not even 100% accurate.
Try manual focus once in a while. It's not that bad.
I hope one of these suggestions was helpfull.
Keith

Curt Hastings said:

I am looking for some pointers on focusing the S85.

I have shot a bunch of pics (700) using the S85 over the past three
weeks. Most of the pics have been of scenery or macro and have
turned out wonderful.

Recently I started shooting more people and the S85 seems to be
focusing on objects other than the intended subject.

So my questions are:

In the view finder there are cross hairs. Does the camera try to
find objects INSIDE the cross hairs for focus? or does the camera
try to find objects placed ON the cross hairs for focus?

In the LCD viewer there are brackets... again how does the camera
use these brackets to find focus?

And thirdly, what does enabling spot AE/AF do regarding focusing?

My best example was shooting a pic of my son sitting on the floor
playing a video game... I took the picture from above and it
appears the camera focused on the carpet which had a vivid texture
as opposed to focusing on my son.

I will post some pics if necessary...

Thanks,
Curt

Click to expand...

I have an S75 and I find this happens once in a while. even though I am zero-ing in on what I want the camera to focus on, it chooses something else instead. I think it has to do with the contrast-focusing system. Sometimes when shooting people, a face doesn't have enough contrast but something behind the person does, like your carpet or a set of blinds on a window, and that is what the camera chooses to focus on. It's a bit frustrating. I wish the camera had a way of choosing multi-focus or center focus like the little p71 has. I have heard of people turning their cameras a bit, half-pressing and then recomposing with the camera upright to try and give the lens a bit more contrast to focus on. I haven't tried that yet.

not sure if this will work, but here is a great thread with lots of info on focusing:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1009&message=1650837

Curt Hastings said:

I am looking for some pointers on focusing the S85.

I have shot a bunch of pics (700) using the S85 over the past three
weeks. Most of the pics have been of scenery or macro and have
turned out wonderful.

Recently I started shooting more people and the S85 seems to be
focusing on objects other than the intended subject.

So my questions are:

In the view finder there are cross hairs. Does the camera try to
find objects INSIDE the cross hairs for focus? or does the camera
try to find objects placed ON the cross hairs for focus?

In the LCD viewer there are brackets... again how does the camera
use these brackets to find focus?

And thirdly, what does enabling spot AE/AF do regarding focusing?

My best example was shooting a pic of my son sitting on the floor
playing a video game... I took the picture from above and it
appears the camera focused on the carpet which had a vivid texture
as opposed to focusing on my son.

I will post some pics if necessary...

Thanks,
Curt

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help... others that have looked at this please reply as well...

Curt

Curt Hastings said:

I am looking for some pointers on focusing the S85.

I have shot a bunch of pics (700) using the S85 over the past three
weeks. Most of the pics have been of scenery or macro and have
turned out wonderful.

Recently I started shooting more people and the S85 seems to be
focusing on objects other than the intended subject.

So my questions are:

In the view finder there are cross hairs. Does the camera try to
find objects INSIDE the cross hairs for focus? or does the camera
try to find objects placed ON the cross hairs for focus?

In the LCD viewer there are brackets... again how does the camera
use these brackets to find focus?

And thirdly, what does enabling spot AE/AF do regarding focusing?

My best example was shooting a pic of my son sitting on the floor
playing a video game... I took the picture from above and it
appears the camera focused on the carpet which had a vivid texture
as opposed to focusing on my son.

I will post some pics if necessary...

Thanks,
Curt

Click to expand...

Hi Curt,

I feel the frustration. If only the zoom on the picture viewer were greater than 5x max, one could check a photo right away to see if it is in sharp focus.

I try to place the subject within the right-angled brackets in the center of the LCD display. If the subject doesn't fill this part of the image, try tilting the camera downwards to the subject's shirt. Press partway to focus (the green light will flash a few times, then stop, accompanied by a double beep if the sound is on). Then, tilt the camera back up to the subject's face, and press the shutter the rest of the way. This usually works well for me.

Here is something that might be worth trying if the situation permits. Get a large white posterboard and scribble on it with a thick black permanent marker. Have the subject hold this just below their face, and use it to focus. I would make sure spot metering were off for this. I'll bet the front of a folded newspaper would work too -- anything that has good contrast. As a bonus, the white poster board could be used to do a manual white balance.

Good luck,
WormGuy

Curt Hastings said:

Curt

Curt Hastings said:

I am looking for some pointers on focusing the S85.

I have shot a bunch of pics (700) using the S85 over the past three
weeks. Most of the pics have been of scenery or macro and have
turned out wonderful.

Recently I started shooting more people and the S85 seems to be
focusing on objects other than the intended subject.

So my questions are:

In the view finder there are cross hairs. Does the camera try to
find objects INSIDE the cross hairs for focus? or does the camera
try to find objects placed ON the cross hairs for focus?

In the LCD viewer there are brackets... again how does the camera
use these brackets to find focus?

And thirdly, what does enabling spot AE/AF do regarding focusing?

My best example was shooting a pic of my son sitting on the floor
playing a video game... I took the picture from above and it
appears the camera focused on the carpet which had a vivid texture
as opposed to focusing on my son.

I will post some pics if necessary...

Thanks,
Curt

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Curt Hastings said:

So my questions are:

In the view finder there are cross hairs. Does the camera try to
find objects INSIDE the cross hairs for focus? or does the camera
try to find objects placed ON the cross hairs for focus?
In the LCD viewer there are brackets... again how does the camera
use these brackets to find focus?

Click to expand...

It's my opinion that the "focus brackets" in the viewfinder/LCD are more of a framing/composing tool than an indicator of where the camera seeks focus. My experience indicates the entire frame is the "focus zone" and the camera will focus on the area of highest contrast regardless if it's within the brackets or not.

Curt Hastings said:

And thirdly, what does enabling spot AE/AF do regarding focusing?

Click to expand...

Absolutely nothing.

Curt Hastings said:

My best example was shooting a pic of my son sitting on the floor
playing a video game... I took the picture from above and it
appears the camera focused on the carpet which had a vivid texture
as opposed to focusing on my son.

Click to expand...

People pics are particularly difficult for contrast detection focusing systems because skin is not contrasty. Try dressing your subjects in patterned clothing or similar high contrast garments, solid colors can be problematic. Try also to fill the frame with your subject and focus on an area with the most contrast, perhaps the neck where clothing and skin contrast each other, and then reframe the shot.

As other posters have also stated try to keep your shutter speed above 1/60 sec at wide angle and 1/200 at full telephoto.

--
Bud
A few photos: http://www.pbase.com/bud_b
Got questons? Look here: http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/photography/faq.html

Thanks all for the tips... I will give them a try... If there are any other suggestions...bring 'em on...

Thanks again,
Curt

Bud/B said:

Curt Hastings said:

So my questions are:

In the view finder there are cross hairs. Does the camera try to
find objects INSIDE the cross hairs for focus? or does the camera
try to find objects placed ON the cross hairs for focus?
In the LCD viewer there are brackets... again how does the camera
use these brackets to find focus?

Click to expand...

It's my opinion that the "focus brackets" in the viewfinder/LCD are
more of a framing/composing tool than an indicator of where the
camera seeks focus. My experience indicates the entire frame is
the "focus zone" and the camera will focus on the area of highest
contrast regardless if it's within the brackets or not.

Bud/B said:

And thirdly, what does enabling spot AE/AF do regarding focusing?

Click to expand...

Absolutely nothing.

Bud/B said:

My best example was shooting a pic of my son sitting on the floor
playing a video game... I took the picture from above and it
appears the camera focused on the carpet which had a vivid texture
as opposed to focusing on my son.

Click to expand...

People pics are particularly difficult for contrast detection
focusing systems because skin is not contrasty. Try dressing your
subjects in patterned clothing or similar high contrast garments,
solid colors can be problematic. Try also to fill the frame with
your subject and focus on an area with the most contrast, perhaps
the neck where clothing and skin contrast each other, and then
reframe the shot.

As other posters have also stated try to keep your shutter speed
above 1/60 sec at wide angle and 1/200 at full telephoto.

--
Bud
A few photos: http://www.pbase.com/bud_b
Got questons? Look here:
http://www.cs.duke.edu/~parr/photography/faq.html

Click to expand...

Hi Curt:

This problem has been asked quite a few times in this forum. Sometimes I hope this web site has a function which "intelligently" groups all the related posting that one can see all the related recommendation at once. You can however use the "search" function to get more related info.

I used to have about 3/10 out of focus shots when I first have the S85 but this reduced to about 3/100 after familiarized myself with the behavior and limitations of S85.

I believe the "bracket" is still the point of focus but S85 would focus or fall back on other high contrast area if it fails to find enough contrast within the bracketed area. I think the design philosophy of S85 is "a picture which is focused wrongly is better than no picture".

Above recommendation of choosing a high contrast area of similar distance is definitely true. Be aware also that sometimes the focusing system can fail too even the in-bracket area is of high contrast but the subject focused moves (or hand shake) and hence compromises the contrast. My overall experience is digital camera of this class is usually not very suitable for moving objects or sports photography （I would use the manual focus in this case）. As far as autofocus is concerned, digital cameras are still pretty much immature compared with 35 film cameras, and there is clearly a learning curve and adaptation needed for someone who comes from a 35mm film or SLR background.

Having said that, I'm very happy with S85, this can be shown by the amount of pictures that I took compared with when I was with my previous 35mm film cameras. One thing is sure, because you can see the pictures and photos directly after the shots, one can easily compare the result with the actual scene straight away or when it is still fresh in mind, making the learning process much easier. Of course this has a side effect, i.e. one also tends to see the limitation or shortcoming of digital camera more readily and clearly.

My experience with S85 is very much like many others, the more you use it, the better you get along with it and produce better photos.

Enjoy.

Louis_s
http://www.pbase.com/louis_s/gallery/s85_samples

Curt Hastings said:

I am looking for some pointers on focusing the S85.

I have shot a bunch of pics (700) using the S85 over the past three
weeks. Most of the pics have been of scenery or macro and have
turned out wonderful.

Recently I started shooting more people and the S85 seems to be
focusing on objects other than the intended subject.

So my questions are:

In the view finder there are cross hairs. Does the camera try to
find objects INSIDE the cross hairs for focus? or does the camera
try to find objects placed ON the cross hairs for focus?

In the LCD viewer there are brackets... again how does the camera
use these brackets to find focus?

And thirdly, what does enabling spot AE/AF do regarding focusing?

My best example was shooting a pic of my son sitting on the floor
playing a video game... I took the picture from above and it
appears the camera focused on the carpet which had a vivid texture
as opposed to focusing on my son.

I will post some pics if necessary...

Thanks,
Curt

Click to expand...