Experts on focus issues Please SPEAK UP!!!!

Thanks for your comments..I think i have fixed the issue...

d

R. Slaughter said:

Expert, I'm not...But I've always got an opinion!

I'm going to go way out on a limb here... I see no evidence of
camera shake in the first three pics. The fourth? Maybe.

This is my thoughtful analysis (guesses) for each problem:

Pic#1: About to take a photo of the guy with glasses, aim,
half-press, focused perfectly on him, then the Sprint guy walks
into the photo and is captured accidently while the camera is still
(perfectly) focused on the guy with the glasses. No shake.

Pic#2: Using spot focus the couple is chosen as the subject, the
cam is pointed at them with their faces centered in the frame,
half-press, the camera focuses perfectly on a tiny spot on the wall
behind them, because they are not kissing at this point and the
"spot" focus sees between them the wall behind.
They then lean together to kiss, the shutter is fired and the wall
behind and the basket on the sill are perfectly focused...no shake.

Pic#3 In this shot, again, there is no evidence of camera
shake...actually, we have a perfectly focused/perfectly exposed
subject captured in this photo and it is the lady on the
foreground, of course. I n this case, the camera operated
flawlessly... but because the stop of f2.6 was used, the depth of
field available simply could not incorporate two subjects located
maybe 2' apart in focal distance.

Pic#4: I give up on this one... call it shake.

Ricky

R. Slaughter
'DEMOCRACY' is two wolves and a lamb voting on lunch.
'LIBERTY' is a well-armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.

C+54.772256^2Z

http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/galleries

Click to expand...

--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.

daryl.com said:

Thanks for your comments..I think i have fixed the issue...

Click to expand...

How did you fix it?

--

• Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/

daryl.com,

I just finished a series of tests with the on-board flash using my UZI, which it appears uses similar "logic" to your 5050.

With the on-board flash popped up, all 4 modes are available: P mode, S, A, and M.

In P mode, you can change the flash from fill flash, flash, and red-eye reduction. In a low-light situation in every flash mode, the default shutter speed of 1/30 second at f 2.8 appears. If I point the camera at a bright light, the shutter speed will increase to 1/200 second, and the flash will not fire in the fill flash setting, but will in the force flash and red-eye setting. In each case, the aperture remains at f 2.8. Now when I zoom out pointed at the overhead light in my study, I can gradually increase the amount of light and watch the camera display its logic. As the light takes up more and more of the frame the camera chooses the following settings:

f 2.8 1/200, f 2.8 1/320, f 2.8 1/400, f 2.8 1/500. At this point, my zoom crosses the f 2.8 miminum aperture and shifts to f 3.2

f 3.2 1/500, f 3.5 1/500, f 3.5 1/650, f 4 1/650, f 5 1/500, f 5.6 1/500, f 6.3 1/500, f 7 1/500, f 7 1/650, f 8 1/650, f 8 1/800, f 8 1/1000, f 8 1/1150.

In aperture priority, the camera will permit all three flash modes. In low-light situations, the camera will select a shutter speed of 1/30 second at EVERY aperture setting, from 2.8 to f 8. Using the same overhead light in my study to simulate varying lighting conditions, as I zoom out to fill the frame with more and more of this light, the shutter speed does increase to a max of 1/800.

In shutter priority, only slow sync and red eye mode are available. In low-light situations, the camera selects f 2.8 at every shutter speed, from 1/2 to 1/800 seconds. Using my overhead light again, the camera will select increasingly small apertures as I zoom out to fill the frame with this light.

In manual mode, there is only slow sync flash mode. In the low-light situation, I was able to use every combination of shutter speed and aperture and got a perfect exposure with every shot. In the bright light shots, I did get some overexposures when wide open with slow shutter speeds, but as I stopped down and increased the shutter speed, all of the exposures were correct.

Now please review this data and share with me your conclusions. These are mine:

1. Photographers are smarter than cameras!!

2. In P mode in a low-light situation (which is when we are more likely to use the on-board flash anyway), the camera has a preference for wide-open apertures and slow shutter speeds! These can kill us in two ways: this shutter speed permits enough of the ambient light into the camera to screw things up AND this wide-open aperture can make for a relatively small DOF, making sharp focus of subjects at different distances from the camera challenging.

3. Aperture priority mode addresses only the depth of field half of the problem, since slow shutter speeds are still preferred by the camera in low-light situations. The ambient light can still kill you.

4. Shutter priority is not much more help, in that the camera's preference for wide open apertures in low-light situations will produce a relatively small area of sharp focus.

5. Manual mode! Finally a solution! Enter a shutter speed that will reduce the effect of ambient light: 1/200 second. Enter an aperture that puts you in the sweet spot of the lens, say f 5.6. Since the flash is now completely TTL, you will have a vast DOF and a fast shutter speed and the flash will automatically send the perfect amount of light to get a good exposure. While there is no + - adjustment for the intensity of the flash per se, you can use aperture and shutter speed to get a little more or a little less out of the overall exposure.

6. Limitations: The obvious (or maybe not so obvious) limitation of this solution is that as you stop down the aperture, you are also effectively reducing the distance that the flash will reach. I do not have my DOF calculator handy for the UZI (could someone post the link to this as I have misplaced it and do need it), but unless I am mistaken, at f 5.6 and a camera-to-subject distance of about 6 feet, everything from about 3 feet to 15 feet will be in the area of sharp focus (again I need to consult my tables, but this should be close).

OK, let me know if this passes the sniff test and also let me know how this flash functioning varies from camera to camera.

Thanks,

jim

I didn't take the time earlier to offer fixes... Let me throw these in.

First, the method offered by Chas. Robinson elsewhere in this thread works quite well as a general method for snapshooting.

Another would be to use Aperature Priority f5 or f6 and esp focus. I dont know what shutter speed the 5050 will default to in this setting, but trial is required.

Alternatively, use Manual mode, f5 or so, shutter at 1/125 trial/error/adjust.

I'm not familiar with the 5050 and it's "my mode" settings. It may well offer an easy way to set the default in "P" mode to f5 or somesuch.

I've found that with any camera, when using the flash in a moderately-lit room, that it is necessary to set the shutter to at least 1/100 in order to avoid motion blur AND to avoid sometimes strange color effects that can occur in this situation.

You worry me, Daryl, with the cryptic "I fixed it"... makes me think you did something irrational and drastic, such as bought a different camera or tossed the 5050 in the trash or somesuch.

There is no need to take such measures... all of the issues are simple "learning-curve" issues. Its not a faulty machine.

--
R. Slaughter
'DEMOCRACY' is two wolves and a lamb voting on lunch.
'LIBERTY' is a well-armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.

C+54.772256^2Z

http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/galleries

I set the aperature to 5.6 and shot everything that way....seems to have fixed it...I still have issues in low light focusing, even with the AF light. I try spot and iESP, with not even 75% luck.

Eric Carlson said:

daryl.com said:

Thanks for your comments..I think i have fixed the issue...

Click to expand...

How did you fix it?

--

• Eric, http://www.InvisibleRobot.com/

Click to expand...

--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.

I hardly threw it in the garbage.. I cant part with technology so easily. I just took some more shots in aperature priority and set it at f 5.6. seems to have fixed it to an extent but I am still not confident in the ablity to utilize spot or iESP correctly...I just cant figure it out...I can sit 6 feet from my daughter and zoom half way in, take a picture in macro and one not in macro and the same thing typically happens....The AF light pops on, and the inner workings of the camera go crazy trying to find something to focus on....it is very hit or miss, even in spot mode....

I know the camera is a phenomanol piece of technology, there just has to be something that I am not doing....

R. Slaughter said:

I didn't take the time earlier to offer fixes... Let me throw these
in.

First, the method offered by Chas. Robinson elsewhere in this
thread works quite well as a general method for snapshooting.
Another would be to use Aperature Priority f5 or f6 and esp focus.
I dont know what shutter speed the 5050 will default to in this
setting, but trial is required.

Alternatively, use Manual mode, f5 or so, shutter at 1/125
trial/error/adjust.

I'm not familiar with the 5050 and it's "my mode" settings. It may
well offer an easy way to set the default in "P" mode to f5 or
somesuch.

I've found that with any camera, when using the flash in a
moderately-lit room, that it is necessary to set the shutter to at
least 1/100 in order to avoid motion blur AND to avoid sometimes
strange color effects that can occur in this situation.

You worry me, Daryl, with the cryptic "I fixed it"... makes me
think you did something irrational and drastic, such as bought a
different camera or tossed the 5050 in the trash or somesuch.

There is no need to take such measures... all of the issues are
simple "learning-curve" issues. Its not a faulty machine.

--
R. Slaughter
'DEMOCRACY' is two wolves and a lamb voting on lunch.
'LIBERTY' is a well-armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.

C+54.772256^2Z

http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/galleries

Click to expand...

--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.

Sandman said:

5. Manual mode! Finally a solution! Enter a shutter speed that
will reduce the effect of ambient light: 1/200 second. Enter an
aperture that puts you in the sweet spot of the lens, say f 5.6.
Since the flash is now completely TTL, you will have a vast DOF and
a fast shutter speed and the flash will automatically send the
perfect amount of light to get a good exposure. While there is no
+ - adjustment for the intensity of the flash per se, you can use
aperture and shutter speed to get a little more or a little less
out of the overall exposure.

Click to expand...

On the Uzi and Ezi there is a + - adjustment on the flash. I'd expect other Oly models (most, but not all?) would also have this feature.

Press "menu", then "arrow down" four times. I haven't used it a lot, but it does seem to make a difference. I'll knock the flash down a bit if I'm real close to my subject.

This seemed to work for you for the focus but every photo seemed to be double exposed...kinda weird... ;> )

Looks like you had a great time at the Twinsday fest...

Bob

While the Uzi's AF works well in a lot of situations, there are some that will cause it to go "hunting", usually settling on the wrong spot.

I haven't tested it extensively, but often it's in lighting that's not bright, but not quite dark enough to cause the focus assist lamp to come on either.

One other thing to be aware of when aiming for focus. The AF system looks for contrast, so make sure when you're focusing to have something with strong contrast, and at the right distance in the frame, preferably centered. Once you've half-pressed to lock the focus you can move off the centered item to compose the frame you really want.

Re: Spot vs iESP focus.... let me try this explanation.

In iESP mode, the camera looks at the entire frame to decide on how to focus. In Spot mode it only looks at the area in the viewfinder between the center brackets "[ ]". This gives more control in telling the camera what part of the picture you want to focus on. As mentioned elsewhere, if you're shooting two people, you don't want that "spot" in between them, so aim at one person, half-press, then move back. I generally leave my camera in spot focus all the time. The aim, half-press, recompose sequence is second nature to me now.

Inigo,

Thanks! I thought I remembered reading about a flash intensity adjustment.

You know, this is one of the strengths of this forum. I've had mixed results using the on-board flash too and had not taken the time to put the UZI through the ropes to understand its internal logic. After this series of tests and writing this post, I feel much more knowledgeable about these issues and will probably get better results the next time I pop up the on=board flash. Honestly, since I got the Vivitar, I don't do a lot of on-board flash.

I do think Olympus made some assumptions in designing the algorithms / logic that are incorrect or at least not consistent with the way most of us shoot pics. While I know we all use fill flash, the chief time we use flash is in low-light situations!

Thanks again,

jim

PS: Do you suppose the connection of the FL-40 or the ProMaster or the Metz have any influence on these in-camera algorithms?

Responses below....thanks,

Sandman said:

daryl.com,

I just finished a series of tests with the on-board flash using my
UZI, which it appears uses similar "logic" to your 5050.

With the on-board flash popped up, all 4 modes are available: P
mode, S, A, and M.

In P mode, you can change the flash from fill flash, flash, and
red-eye reduction. In a low-light situation in every flash mode,
the default shutter speed of 1/30 second at f 2.8 appears. If I
point the camera at a bright light, the shutter speed will increase
to 1/200 second, and the flash will not fire in the fill flash
setting, but will in the force flash and red-eye setting. In each
case, the aperture remains at f 2.8. Now when I zoom out pointed
at the overhead light in my study, I can gradually increase the
amount of light and watch the camera display its logic. As the
light takes up more and more of the frame the camera chooses the
following settings:
f 2.8 1/200, f 2.8 1/320, f 2.8 1/400, f 2.8 1/500. At this
point, my zoom crosses the f 2.8 miminum aperture and shifts to f
3.2
f 3.2 1/500, f 3.5 1/500, f 3.5 1/650, f 4 1/650, f 5 1/500, f 5.6
1/500, f 6.3 1/500, f 7 1/500, f 7 1/650, f 8 1/650, f 8 1/800, f 8
1/1000, f 8 1/1150.

In aperture priority, the camera will permit all three flash modes.
In low-light situations, the camera will select a shutter speed of
1/30 second at EVERY aperture setting, from 2.8 to f 8. Using the
same overhead light in my study to simulate varying lighting
conditions, as I zoom out to fill the frame with more and more of
this light, the shutter speed does increase to a max of 1/800.

Click to expand...

I'm with you so far.....

Sandman said:

In shutter priority, only slow sync and red eye mode are available.
In low-light situations, the camera selects f 2.8 at every shutter
speed, from 1/2 to 1/800 seconds. Using my overhead light again,
the camera will select increasingly small apertures as I zoom out
to fill the frame with this light.

Click to expand...

Ok...

Sandman said:

In manual mode, there is only slow sync flash mode. In the
low-light situation, I was able to use every combination of shutter
speed and aperture and got a perfect exposure with every shot. In
the bright light shots, I did get some overexposures when wide open
with slow shutter speeds, but as I stopped down and increased the
shutter speed, all of the exposures were correct.

Now please review this data and share with me your conclusions.
These are mine:

1. Photographers are smarter than cameras!!

Click to expand...

Someday, Jim....Someday.

Sandman said:

2. In P mode in a low-light situation (which is when we are more
likely to use the on-board flash anyway), the camera has a
preference for wide-open apertures and slow shutter speeds! These
can kill us in two ways: this shutter speed permits enough of the
ambient light into the camera to screw things up AND this wide-open
aperture can make for a relatively small DOF, making sharp focus of
subjects at different distances from the camera challenging.
3. Aperture priority mode addresses only the depth of field half of
the problem, since slow shutter speeds are still preferred by the
camera in low-light situations. The ambient light can still kill
you.

Click to expand...

So how can someone picking up a lower end digital and just snapping away end up with better shots under the same scenario?

Sandman said:

4. Shutter priority is not much more help, in that the camera's
preference for wide open apertures in low-light situations will
produce a relatively small area of sharp focus.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

Sandman said:

5. Manual mode! Finally a solution! Enter a shutter speed that
will reduce the effect of ambient light: 1/200 second. Enter an
aperture that puts you in the sweet spot of the lens, say f 5.6.
Since the flash is now completely TTL, you will have a vast DOF and
a fast shutter speed and the flash will automatically send the
perfect amount of light to get a good exposure. While there is no
+ - adjustment for the intensity of the flash per se, you can use
aperture and shutter speed to get a little more or a little less
out of the overall exposure.

Click to expand...

I just tried it and it does seem to help out a ton....here is my question. When I set the A to 5.6 an the S to 1/200 the red -3.0 shows up blinking at me, I assume to let me know that the shot will be underexposed. Why does it do that when the shot ends up being good?

Sandman said:

6. Limitations: The obvious (or maybe not so obvious) limitation of
this solution is that as you stop down the aperture, you are also
effectively reducing the distance that the flash will reach. I do
not have my DOF calculator handy for the UZI (could someone post
the link to this as I have misplaced it and do need it), but unless
I am mistaken, at f 5.6 and a camera-to-subject distance of about 6
feet, everything from about 3 feet to 15 feet will be in the area
of sharp focus (again I need to consult my tables, but this should
be close).

Click to expand...

So is there a "norm" in relation to distances. I mean, I know that everyone's distances are different but what gives the best range of sharp focus (or should I say the widest range)?

Sandman said:

OK, let me know if this passes the sniff test and also let me know
how this flash functioning varies from camera to camera.

Thanks,

jim

Click to expand...

--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.

daryl.com said:

I hardly threw it in the garbage.. I cant part with technology so
easily. I just took some more shots in aperature priority and set
it at f 5.6. seems to have fixed it to an extent but I am still
not confident in the ablity to utilize spot or iESP correctly...I
just cant figure it out...I can sit 6 feet from my daughter and
zoom half way in, take a picture in macro and one not in macro and
the same thing typically happens....The AF light pops on, and the
inner workings of the camera go crazy trying to find something to
focus on....it is very hit or miss, even in spot mode....

Click to expand...

Daryl: Lets leave Macro out of this. Listen, I want you to be happy with the camera, and i'd like to help, if possible.

Macro is for use at something like three feet or less.

Lets stick with non-macro for now.

First: is the AF illuminator ON? If not, turn it on in the menu.

When half-pressing the shutter, the light should come on, illuminating your daughter, if not, try turning off some of the lights in the room until its dark enough for the lamp to light. Try a few shots this way and try both spot and esp.

daryl.com said:

I know the camera is a phenomanol piece of technology, there just
has to be something that I am not doing....

R. Slaughter said:

I didn't take the time earlier to offer fixes... Let me throw these
in.

First, the method offered by Chas. Robinson elsewhere in this
thread works quite well as a general method for snapshooting.
Another would be to use Aperature Priority f5 or f6 and esp focus.
I dont know what shutter speed the 5050 will default to in this
setting, but trial is required.

Alternatively, use Manual mode, f5 or so, shutter at 1/125
trial/error/adjust.

I'm not familiar with the 5050 and it's "my mode" settings. It may
well offer an easy way to set the default in "P" mode to f5 or
somesuch.

I've found that with any camera, when using the flash in a
moderately-lit room, that it is necessary to set the shutter to at
least 1/100 in order to avoid motion blur AND to avoid sometimes
strange color effects that can occur in this situation.

You worry me, Daryl, with the cryptic "I fixed it"... makes me
think you did something irrational and drastic, such as bought a
different camera or tossed the 5050 in the trash or somesuch.

There is no need to take such measures... all of the issues are
simple "learning-curve" issues. Its not a faulty machine.

--
R. Slaughter
'DEMOCRACY' is two wolves and a lamb voting on lunch.
'LIBERTY' is a well-armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.

C+54.772256^2Z

http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/galleries

Click to expand...

--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.

Click to expand...

--
R. Slaughter
'DEMOCRACY' is two wolves and a lamb voting on lunch.
'LIBERTY' is a well-armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.

C+54.772256^2Z

http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/galleries

R. Slaughter said:

Daryl: Lets leave Macro out of this. Listen, I want you to be happy
with the camera, and i'd like to help, if possible.

Click to expand...

OK

R. Slaughter said:

Macro is for use at something like three feet or less.

Lets stick with non-macro for now.

First: is the AF illuminator ON? If not, turn it on in the menu.

Click to expand...

Yes, it has been on the whole time.

R. Slaughter said:

When half-pressing the shutter, the light should come on,
illuminating your daughter, if not, try turning off some of the
lights in the room until its dark enough for the lamp to light. Try
a few shots this way and try both spot and esp.

Click to expand...

I have tried both ways, spot and iESP, and I cant tell any difference in the way the camera focuses. It goes crazy when trying to get focus on my daughter's face. I have put in fresh batteries and everything.....

Next?

--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.

daryl.com said:

I just tried it and it does seem to help out a ton....here is my
question. When I set the A to 5.6 an the S to 1/200 the red -3.0
shows up blinking at me, I assume to let me know that the shot will
be underexposed. Why does it do that when the shot ends up being
good?

Click to expand...

I just did the same thing in some tests which will be posted shortly.

All shot at F2.8, 1/200th. The EVF showed RED at -3.0 (the max it will show). I think that even with the flash on, the metering is still showing you what you'd get WITHOUT flash, which obviously is confusing.

Give me a couple minutes and I'll have my spot focus (and one flash compensation) shots up.

Will you do some comparison shots between spot and iESP....? Thanks,

d

Inigo Montoya said:

daryl.com said:

I just tried it and it does seem to help out a ton....here is my
question. When I set the A to 5.6 an the S to 1/200 the red -3.0
shows up blinking at me, I assume to let me know that the shot will
be underexposed. Why does it do that when the shot ends up being
good?

Click to expand...

I just did the same thing in some tests which will be posted shortly.
All shot at F2.8, 1/200th. The EVF showed RED at -3.0 (the max it
will show). I think that even with the flash on, the metering is
still showing you what you'd get WITHOUT flash, which obviously is
confusing.

Give me a couple minutes and I'll have my spot focus (and one flash
compensation) shots up.

Click to expand...

--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.

Sandman said:

Sandman wrote:
the flash will not fire in the fill flash
setting, but will in the force flash and red-eye setting.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing the info you shared...I have one question though about the part you wrote above...

Isn't the fill flash setting the same as the forced flash the lightning bolt icon? The auto flash setting is no icon, fill flash is lighting bolt icon and the redeye is the eye icon as far as I remember...is there another forced flash setting I am not aware of...thanks...

Bob

Daryl, (message snipped)

daryl.com said:

I'm with you so far.....

daryl.com said:

In shutter priority, only slow sync and red eye mode are available.
In low-light situations, the camera selects f 2.8 at every shutter
speed, from 1/2 to 1/800 seconds. Using my overhead light again,
the camera will select increasingly small apertures as I zoom out
to fill the frame with this light.

Click to expand...

Ok...

daryl.com said:

In manual mode, there is only slow sync flash mode. In the
low-light situation, I was able to use every combination of shutter
speed and aperture and got a perfect exposure with every shot. In
the bright light shots, I did get some overexposures when wide open
with slow shutter speeds, but as I stopped down and increased the
shutter speed, all of the exposures were correct.

Now please review this data and share with me your conclusions.
These are mine:

1. Photographers are smarter than cameras!!

Click to expand...

Someday, Jim....Someday.

Click to expand...

LOL! You are getting there and so are all of us! I've learned tons doing this test

daryl.com said:

daryl.com said:

2. In P mode in a low-light situation (which is when we are more
likely to use the on-board flash anyway), the camera has a
preference for wide-open apertures and slow shutter speeds! These
can kill us in two ways: this shutter speed permits enough of the
ambient light into the camera to screw things up AND this wide-open
aperture can make for a relatively small DOF, making sharp focus of
subjects at different distances from the camera challenging.
3. Aperture priority mode addresses only the depth of field half of
the problem, since slow shutter speeds are still preferred by the
camera in low-light situations. The ambient light can still kill
you.

Click to expand...

So how can someone picking up a lower end digital and just snapping
away end up with better shots under the same scenario?

Click to expand...

I think the reason for this is many of the lower-end cameras have a fixed aperture, typically rather small, that makes for a VERY large DOF. The proper exposure is obtained by shutter speed alone! At least this is the way a camera with no way to focus achieves this objective.

daryl.com said:

daryl.com said:

4. Shutter priority is not much more help, in that the camera's
preference for wide open apertures in low-light situations will
produce a relatively small area of sharp focus.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

daryl.com said:

5. Manual mode! Finally a solution! Enter a shutter speed that
will reduce the effect of ambient light: 1/200 second. Enter an
aperture that puts you in the sweet spot of the lens, say f 5.6.
Since the flash is now completely TTL, you will have a vast DOF and
a fast shutter speed and the flash will automatically send the
perfect amount of light to get a good exposure. While there is no
+ - adjustment for the intensity of the flash per se, you can use
aperture and shutter speed to get a little more or a little less
out of the overall exposure.

Click to expand...

I just tried it and it does seem to help out a ton....here is my
question. When I set the A to 5.6 an the S to 1/200 the red -3.0
shows up blinking at me, I assume to let me know that the shot will
be underexposed. Why does it do that when the shot ends up being
good?

Click to expand...

It is my understanding that the red -3 in the viewfinder indicates that flash will be needed for a proper exposure. This red -3 appears in the UZI viewfinder also.

daryl.com said:

daryl.com said:

6. Limitations: The obvious (or maybe not so obvious) limitation of
this solution is that as you stop down the aperture, you are also
effectively reducing the distance that the flash will reach. I do
not have my DOF calculator handy for the UZI (could someone post
the link to this as I have misplaced it and do need it), but unless
I am mistaken, at f 5.6 and a camera-to-subject distance of about 6
feet, everything from about 3 feet to 15 feet will be in the area
of sharp focus (again I need to consult my tables, but this should
be close).

Click to expand...

So is there a "norm" in relation to distances. I mean, I know that
everyone's distances are different but what gives the best range of
sharp focus (or should I say the widest range)?

Click to expand...

Yes! We need to find the link for the DOF chart for the UZI. I remember several being available last year on the web, but I can't seem to find it. Basically this table lists camera-to-subject distance on one axis and the aperture setting on the other. When you look these two variables up, the table will tell you the total depth of field. Some of these DOF calculators will even tell you the distance in front of and the distance behind your subject that will be in sharp focus. Someone will find the link for us.

Keep working with us! There is a solution!

Cheers,

jim

Jim, when I popup the flash my UZI goes to f 2.8 at 1/60. This is in all modes. This is with software 73.

--
Bill Huber, Fort Worth, Tx
Oly C2100 - FL-40 Flash - B-Macro
UZI, http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber

Bob S,

You are right, Bob, I did not make myself clear on that.

Auto flash is when the flash is popped-up and no flash icon is present. If the camera detects insufficient light, it will fire the flash. If there is sufficient light, no flash will fire.

Forced flash and fill flash are the same. Whatever the camera's exposure reading, you will get a flash!

Red-eye reduction is an auto flash as well, with a pre-flash for the red-eye portion.

Thanks for clarifying that point.

Cheers,

jim

Now I'm getting confused... the AF lamp is on (you can see it actually shining on her face (?) and the camera is still hunting for focus while not in macro mode? If yes, try this..turn off all the lights to see if this helps.

Try shooting from four feet. Then try shooting a target with a lot of contrast...dark picture frame, edge of a sheet of paper on a dark background.

What I'm shooting for here is to determine first, if there may be an actual mechanical problem with the camera...will not focus anywhere on anything?.... or do we just need to learn how picky it is?

The camera requires contrast to focus....try focusing on a plain colored wall, and it wont work...stick a piece of colored tape on the wall and it will.

The problem with the focus's need for contrast is made worse in low light.

Just fer grins... have your daughter hold a small book or other small contrastingly colored object next to her face, lets see if it will focus now.

daryl.com said:

R. Slaughter said:

Daryl: Lets leave Macro out of this. Listen, I want you to be happy
with the camera, and i'd like to help, if possible.

Click to expand...

OK

daryl.com said:

Macro is for use at something like three feet or less.

Lets stick with non-macro for now.

First: is the AF illuminator ON? If not, turn it on in the menu.

Click to expand...

Yes, it has been on the whole time.

daryl.com said:

When half-pressing the shutter, the light should come on,
illuminating your daughter, if not, try turning off some of the
lights in the room until its dark enough for the lamp to light. Try
a few shots this way and try both spot and esp.

Click to expand...

I have tried both ways, spot and iESP, and I cant tell any
difference in the way the camera focuses. It goes crazy when
trying to get focus on my daughter's face. I have put in fresh
batteries and everything.....

Next?

--
http://www.daryl.com/2002 - photo calendar
http://www.pbase.com/daryl - pbase supporter

Was shooting with an Olympus C4040. Had to make
the move to the C5050, and glad I did.

Click to expand...

--
R. Slaughter
'DEMOCRACY' is two wolves and a lamb voting on lunch.
'LIBERTY' is a well-armed lamb denying enforcement of the vote.

C+54.772256^2Z

http://www.pbase.com/nufsed/galleries