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focusing brackets part 2 (pics)

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on my monitor. It looks like the camera picked the more contrasty cactus to focus on.
Jarrell
 
gak, I just downloaded today's shooting - I did the "bracket on the profile" three times today. Only once did I shoot several attempts. And, on one of them, I lost every shot to a blurry face - but the stray hairs on the person's profile are razor sharp. Shooting at dusk, in the shadows. (OK, so I'm a masochist...but the light is beautiful...)
Jarrell Conley said:
I used to do the same, i.e; use the outline of a person to rest the
bracket on. After looking at my test and others, I see that is an
"iffy" thing to do. It may focus were I want it IF the background
isn't more contrasty. I noticed my 990 is the same way. Now, I'm
more careful about where I put the bracket.
Jarrell
:-)
Click to expand...
 
Ed & Jarrell,

Using the 5700 with it's EVF gives us an advantage over a DSLR in this respect. We can much of the time see what the camera lens is focusing on in the EVF. I know it's hard to tell sometimes just like it is in manual focus. But if we watch the focusing in progress in the live view of the EVF we can see what's going on with our bracket focus on foreground/background shots. If I see the camera choosing the background for focus, I just move the bracket to a better contrast area and shoot only if I get a good focus lock. Do you guys or anyone reading this use this method before taking the final shot? Just curious what your thoughts are on this. Thanks.

Ron T
 
Jarrell: Thank you for this study. From your threads, I gather that the Nikon has a passive AF system, meaning it uses contrast for focus as opposed to an IR beam. I have never used Nikons, only Olympus which uses active AF system, but even it has difficulty focusing in"tight" situations. It is not a problem for me because I use the EVF to track. Thanks again. gc
 
I was saying that the EVF has an advantage over the DSLR in focus confirmation. The DSLR viewfinder of course shows where your lens has focused. Using an "optical viewfinder" of a non-SLR type camera would make more sense for comparison. Sorry.

Ron T
Ron T said:
Using the 5700 with it's EVF gives us an advantage over a DSLR in
this respect.
Click to expand...
 
I've been having trouble getting used to the EVF - just looks differently and behaves differently than what I'm used to - not better or worse, just different. I've stopped using my other cameras for a few weeks so that I can build familiarity with the EVF instead of always switching back and forth.

I don't have a good sense of in focus and out of focus yet on the EVF. I've found it a bit more difficult for me when I use my "both eyes open" shooting approach, too. I think it's just lack of brain familiarity. I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks.
Ron T said:
Ron T
Ron T said:
Using the 5700 with it's EVF gives us an advantage over a DSLR in
this respect.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Maybe this should get its own thread, but Jarrell has got me doing some experimenting of my own and I have noticed that in some situations when I place the brackets squarely on a low contrast object, my camera cannot obtain auto-focus lock (green LED flashes) in the manual autofocus mode. This happens regardless of whether I select a horizontal set of brackets or the vertical ones. Then if I select mode = off which defaults to the center brackets, the camera focuses perfectly on the object in the center of my viewfinder. If I then select manual mode and select the center brackets and focus on the same object, it struggles again. Has anyone else noticed this in other coolpix cameras or do I maybe have a problem with mine?

--
Seth
Nikon CP995, Canon S900
 
Jarrell,

Great study of the use of the 5700. I'm just curious how you took pictures of the camera LCD or EVF while doing this study?
Jarrell Conley said:
Here's the focusing test again, this time with six photos.
  1. 1 is with the less contrasty duck in front of the more contrasty
can in the background and the focusing bracket placed on the duck.
See the inset photo for placement of the bracket



As you can see the camera focused accurately on the duck.
in the second picture, the focusing bracket was rested about 50/50
on the duck and can (see inset)



My, my. What happened there.

In the third photo the bracket was put squarely on the can with a
little of the outline of the duck in it



for picture 4, the can was brought to the front and bracket was on
the can



In picture 5 the bracket was placed about 50/50 again. Look at the
difference between picture 5 and picture 2



and the last photo is with the bracket placed on the less
contrasty, background duck



I think this may relate to all the Coopix line, I know it does my
990 and 5700, but probably to others as well?
My conclusion is that the camera, if given the opportunity, will
march it's little focusing self right over to the brighter more
contrasty part of your scene if you give it half a chance and what
you wanted nice and sharply in focus will be soft. Actually, it
won't march, it'll just take the other into a lot more
consideration than you want it to.
What'cha think?
Jarrell

How to embed photos in your message!
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4033727
Owner and user of 990 and 5700 and Photoshop. When looking at my
pictures, never take it for granted I didn't enhance them.... :-)
Click to expand...
 
GCam said:
Jarrell: Thank you for this study. From your threads, I gather
that the Nikon has a passive AF system, meaning it uses contrast
for focus as opposed to an IR beam. I have never used Nikons, only
Olympus which uses active AF system, but even it has difficulty
focusing in"tight" situations. It is not a problem for me because
I use the EVF to track. Thanks again. gc
Click to expand...
--
How to embed photos in your message!
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4033727

Owner and user of 990 and 5700 and Photoshop. When looking at my pictures, never take it for granted I didn't enhance them.... :-)
 
Seth, you are right. I just tried taking pix of a pale blue flower and had the same problem. Where there was contrast, the brackets did fine focusing, but on a part of the flower with low contrast, I couldn't focus at all. Changed to no brackets and focused right away. (Was a macro.)
--
Muriel - 995, 775, WC-63, TC-2E
 
5700.
Jarrell
Muriel S said:
Seth, you are right. I just tried taking pix of a pale blue flower
and had the same problem. Where there was contrast, the brackets
did fine focusing, but on a part of the flower with low contrast, I
couldn't focus at all. Changed to no brackets and focused right
away. (Was a macro.)
--
Muriel - 995, 775, WC-63, TC-2E
Click to expand...
--
How to embed photos in your message!
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4033727

Owner and user of 990 and 5700 and Photoshop. When looking at my pictures, never take it for granted I didn't enhance them.... :-)
 
My brother gets some great shots with the 990 I gave him. He is a point and shoot photographer and it now surprises me that he ever gets the nice pictures he gets. I am sure he doesn't work at. He must be the luckiest guy in the world. This is just great stuff to read.
Jarrell Conley said:
I used to do the same, i.e; use the outline of a person to rest the
bracket on. After looking at my test and others, I see that is an
"iffy" thing to do. It may focus were I want it IF the background
isn't more contrasty. I noticed my 990 is the same way. Now, I'm
more careful about where I put the bracket.
Jarrell
:-)
Click to expand...
 
ed,

I have been using Sony Camcorders with EVF for many years. With it's continuous auto focus always on I seem to have made a habit of always watching where the camera has selected focus, I do this because I don't really trust AF. This made it very easy for me when I got the 5700, the EVF just fits right in. However, the 5700 viewfinder focus is not as visable as my film SLR viewfinder but it can be managed.

Ron T
ed nazarko said:
I've been having trouble getting used to the EVF - just looks
differently and behaves differently than what I'm used to - not
better or worse, just different. I've stopped using my other
cameras for a few weeks so that I can build familiarity with the
EVF instead of always switching back and forth.

I don't have a good sense of in focus and out of focus yet on the
EVF. I've found it a bit more difficult for me when I use my "both
eyes open" shooting approach, too. I think it's just lack of brain
familiarity. I'll know for sure in a couple of weeks.
Click to expand...
 
GCam said:
Jarrell: Thank you for this study. From your threads, I gather
that the Nikon has a passive AF system, meaning it uses contrast
for focus as opposed to an IR beam. I have never used Nikons, only
Olympus which uses active AF system, but even it has difficulty
focusing in"tight" situations. It is not a problem for me because
I use the EVF to track. Thanks again. gc
Click to expand...
--Which Oly model uses the active system? I had a D340 and 460Z; both used contrast passive system The current E series also lists contrast.

.
Vince Hickey
 
between a passive and an active system?
Jarrell
Vincent Hickey said:
GCam said:
Jarrell: Thank you for this study. From your threads, I gather
that the Nikon has a passive AF system, meaning it uses contrast
for focus as opposed to an IR beam. I have never used Nikons, only
Olympus which uses active AF system, but even it has difficulty
focusing in"tight" situations. It is not a problem for me because
I use the EVF to track. Thanks again. gc
Click to expand...
--Which Oly model uses the active system? I had a D340 and 460Z;
both used contrast passive system The current E series also lists
contrast.

.
Vince Hickey
Click to expand...
--
How to embed photos in your message!
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4033727

Owner and user of 990 and 5700 and Photoshop. When looking at my pictures, never take it for granted I didn't enhance them.... :-)
 
Jarrell Conley said:
Here's the focusing test again, this time with six photos.
  1. 1 is with the less contrasty duck in front of the more contrasty
can in the background and the focusing bracket placed on the duck.
See the inset photo for placement of the bracket



As you can see the camera focused accurately on the duck.
in the second picture, the focusing bracket was rested about 50/50
on the duck and can (see inset)



My, my. What happened there.

In the third photo the bracket was put squarely on the can with a
little of the outline of the duck in it



for picture 4, the can was brought to the front and bracket was on
the can



In picture 5 the bracket was placed about 50/50 again. Look at the
difference between picture 5 and picture 2



and the last photo is with the bracket placed on the less
contrasty, background duck



I think this may relate to all the Coopix line, I know it does my
990 and 5700, but probably to others as well?
My conclusion is that the camera, if given the opportunity, will
march it's little focusing self right over to the brighter more
contrasty part of your scene if you give it half a chance and what
you wanted nice and sharply in focus will be soft. Actually, it
won't march, it'll just take the other into a lot more
consideration than you want it to.
What'cha think?
Jarrell

How to embed photos in your message!
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=4033727
Owner and user of 990 and 5700 and Photoshop. When looking at my
pictures, never take it for granted I didn't enhance them.... :-)
Click to expand...
--
PC writes:
 
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