F505 Focusing Problem, etc.

I bought the DSC F505 about a month ago and later bought
the 32M MemoryStick. Happy with it in most cases but...

I'm constantly having focusing problems when shooting photos.
Tried both normal (center weighted) and
point focusing modes (You need to slightly push the shutter
release button to get the picture in-focus. I cann't realy
tell if it is focused or not from the LCD screen but a green
dot on the LCD stops flashing when in focus). A lot of pictures
(not all of them) tend to be focused on the back ground even
after I've been very careful on the focusing process.

I'm not excited with the LCD display either. It cann't even
frame in many situations not mention to use it during manual
focusing...

Another complain about the F505 is in-door pictures without
flash. The pictures get a lot artifact on dark area and even
on the main object (human face). I also use the Fuji MX-2900
and the MX-2900 can produce a lot better photos in the same
condition.

And finally the WB when shooting outdoors has way too much
read/pink overcast. It does not show on my calibrated
monitor as much as when priting using my Epson-750.
Just for a comparison, I printed photos with
F505 and with MX-2900 outdoors and send them to
the printer directly and to a on-ling photo printing place
( http://www.ezPrints.com ) at
the same time without any alteration whatsoever.
The photos with F505 are way too "pink" but
those with MX-2900 have good WB.

I love the F505 and intend to keep it. But I would like
to make sure if the above problems are due to the camera
not me. If so I want to find out ways to overcome them.
I still think the camera is too good to give up.

John

We need a little more information, John.

All autofocus cameras can be fooled by complex scenes and can, at times, focus on the background instead of the foreground. In general, the proceedure is to point the camera directly at your subject; press the button half way and then recompose your shot. The camera will assume that whatever is centered in the viewfinder is what you want to focus on and, like most autofocus systems, it likes vertical edges to measure against. In difficult siuations you can use manual focus. What are difficult situations? If you subject is moving, the autofocus may have trouble locking on. In those situations, pre-focusing on a predicatble location helps a lot. If you were photographing show horses jumping, you would have an excellent idea where the action is going to happen and manually prefocus.

In macro mode, the autofocus system can be fooled more easily and, if you are closer than the minumum 4", it will indicate a focus lock when there isn't one. The F55 has the same tendency.

As far as the LCD is concerned. We need to know how you hold the camera. If you hold it at eye level with your arms straight out in front of you, that is incorrect. You hold the camera close to your body at waist level and look down into the LCD. This allows you to use the reflected light from the sky to light the LCD and also steadies the camera. Most of the LCD problems come from people trying to use the camera at eye level.

Using an ISO100 camera indoors without a flash is just asking for all kinds of low-light problems. It is not a problem with the F505. It just needs more light.

Do you have a protective filter on your F505? The outdoor WB setting assumes sunrise or sunset (which has much more red) and the camera adds a compensating blue. If you have a white sheet of paper, you could do a manual white balance and test it. I use the AutoWB all the time in any case and haven't had any problems. In many cases it is a matter of personal preference whether you want your images warmer or cooler.

John said:

I bought the DSC F505 about a month ago and later bought
the 32M MemoryStick. Happy with it in most cases but...

I'm constantly having focusing problems when shooting photos.
Tried both normal (center weighted) and
point focusing modes (You need to slightly push the shutter
release button to get the picture in-focus. I cann't realy
tell if it is focused or not from the LCD screen but a green
dot on the LCD stops flashing when in focus). A lot of pictures
(not all of them) tend to be focused on the back ground even
after I've been very careful on the focusing process.

I'm not excited with the LCD display either. It cann't even
frame in many situations not mention to use it during manual
focusing...

Another complain about the F505 is in-door pictures without
flash. The pictures get a lot artifact on dark area and even
on the main object (human face). I also use the Fuji MX-2900
and the MX-2900 can produce a lot better photos in the same
condition.

And finally the WB when shooting outdoors has way too much
read/pink overcast. It does not show on my calibrated
monitor as much as when priting using my Epson-750.
Just for a comparison, I printed photos with
F505 and with MX-2900 outdoors and send them to
the printer directly and to a on-ling photo printing place
( http://www.ezPrints.com ) at
the same time without any alteration whatsoever.
The photos with F505 are way too "pink" but
those with MX-2900 have good WB.

I love the F505 and intend to keep it. But I would like
to make sure if the above problems are due to the camera
not me. If so I want to find out ways to overcome them.
I still think the camera is too good to give up.

John

Click to expand...

Hi Robert,

Thank you very much for the quick reply.
Please see comment below.

John

Robert MacLellan said:

We need a little more information, John.
All autofocus cameras can be fooled by complex scenes and can, at times,
focus on the background instead of the foreground. In general, the
proceedure is to point the camera directly at your subject; press the
button half way and then recompose your shot. The camera will assume that
whatever is centered in the viewfinder is what you want to focus on

Click to expand...

I did exactly what you mentioned here - putting the object in the center first,
getting focus green dot stop flashing, and recompose. My problem seems that the
green dot stops flashing even the focus has not set correctly yet. It's great to
have some vertical object to focus on but you may not always have the option...
(My another camera is a Nikon N90 and you need to do exactly the same thing
to get picture focused)

and,

Member said:

like most autofocus systems, it likes vertical edges to measure against.
In difficult siuations you can use manual focus. What are difficult
situations? If you subject is moving, the autofocus may have trouble
locking on. In those situations, pre-focusing on a predicatble location
helps a lot. If you were photographing show horses jumping, you would
have an excellent idea where the action is going to happen and manually
prefocus.
In macro mode, the autofocus system can be fooled more easily and, if you
are closer than the minumum 4", it will indicate a focus lock when there
isn't one. The F55 has the same tendency.

Click to expand...

Member said:

As far as the LCD is concerned. We need to know how you hold the camera.
If you hold it at eye level with your arms straight out in front of you,
that is incorrect.

Click to expand...

No I didn't do that. Like many people here I've been reading all the posts

here (and observed many hot words exchanged on the "F505 holding skills" topic). I
also have a Sony Camcorder with the side LCD display and learnt to use it
about 5 years ago. When I compose outdoors using F505, I first not to try to

get a composation but moving my camera up and down and swing my LCD at the same time
to get the best LCD
display first and then see if in the range the LCD works if I could find
some good shots (Trust me, I want to justify my new toy badly).

Member said:

You hold the camera close to your body at waist level
and look down into the LCD. This allows you to use the reflected light
from the sky to light the LCD and also steadies the camera. Most of the
LCD problems come from people trying to use the camera at eye level.

Click to expand...

Member said:

Using an ISO100 camera indoors without a flash is just asking for all
kinds of low-light problems. It is not a problem with the F505. It just
needs more light.

Click to expand...

That's okay if indeed it's the F505's fault. But I still miss the good in-door
shots without flash. At least I know that MX-2900 is better in this (only this)
aspect. (My friend has a Olympus C2000Z and it takes better photos in
low light conditions then my F505)

Member said:

Do you have a protective filter on your F505? The outdoor WB setting
assumes sunrise or sunset (which has much more red) and the camera adds a
compensating blue. If you have a white sheet of paper, you could do a
manual white balance and test it.

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm indeed using a filter from my Nikon N-90 (sky light)
I've tried using the manual white balance and it works great. But it is
not very convinient sometimes...

Member said:

I use the AutoWB all the time in any
case and haven't had any problems. In many cases it is a matter of
personal preference whether you want your images warmer or cooler.

Click to expand...

The pink overcast on my photos is way too much for "any" tasts which I
care (all my fiends, my family, and especially my wife). It appears neither
warmer nor cooler, just "pinky". Although it can be fixed using PhotoDelux (one
step instant fixing) easily, I still like the freedom to use the photos right
from the camera.

Member said:

John said:

I bought the DSC F505 about a month ago and later bought
the 32M MemoryStick. Happy with it in most cases but...

I'm constantly having focusing problems when shooting photos.
Tried both normal (center weighted) and
point focusing modes (You need to slightly push the shutter
release button to get the picture in-focus. I cann't realy
tell if it is focused or not from the LCD screen but a green
dot on the LCD stops flashing when in focus). A lot of pictures
(not all of them) tend to be focused on the back ground even
after I've been very careful on the focusing process.

I'm not excited with the LCD display either. It cann't even
frame in many situations not mention to use it during manual
focusing...

Another complain about the F505 is in-door pictures without
flash. The pictures get a lot artifact on dark area and even
on the main object (human face). I also use the Fuji MX-2900
and the MX-2900 can produce a lot better photos in the same
condition.

And finally the WB when shooting outdoors has way too much
read/pink overcast. It does not show on my calibrated
monitor as much as when priting using my Epson-750.
Just for a comparison, I printed photos with
F505 and with MX-2900 outdoors and send them to
the printer directly and to a on-ling photo printing place
( http://www.ezPrints.com ) at
the same time without any alteration whatsoever.
The photos with F505 are way too "pink" but
those with MX-2900 have good WB.

I love the F505 and intend to keep it. But I would like
to make sure if the above problems are due to the camera
not me. If so I want to find out ways to overcome them.
I still think the camera is too good to give up.

John

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

John11804 said:

And finally the WB when shooting outdoors has way too much
read/pink overcast. It does not show on my calibrated
monitor as much as when priting using my Epson-750.
Just for a comparison, I printed photos with
F505 and with MX-2900 outdoors and send them to
the printer directly and to a on-ling photo printing place
( http://www.ezPrints.com ) at
the same time without any alteration whatsoever.
The photos with F505 are way too "pink" but
those with MX-2900 have good WB.

John11804 said:

John

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

John,

You are exactly correct the F505 does have too much pink, I have not found any way to get rid of it except post processing which is time consuming for every shot with fesh tones. I am going to ask Sony but getting to somebody that knows anything about digital photagraphy is a long shot much less someone who has heard of the F505. Focus is a problem! and it's hard to see until you download to large screen. I am thinking of returning my 505 but prefer to resolve the PINK problem. I too am using a protective filter (Tiffen UV no tint).
Adrian

Experiment with the skylight filter off and see if there is any improvement. remeber that the outdoor WB is for sunrise/sunset daylight and not noonday sun and the indoor WB is for studio lights and not standard incandescents. In most cases, auto WB is the way to go.

Robert MacLellan said:

Experiment with the skylight filter off and see if there is any
improvement. remeber that the outdoor WB is for sunrise/sunset daylight
and not noonday sun and the indoor WB is for studio lights and not
standard incandescents. In most cases, auto WB is the way to go.

Click to expand...

I am wondering if there is a filter that could be added to reduce that pink overtone? I spoke with Sony tech support and they said they do not know of any way to correct except in PC software. There does not appear to be any way of calibraing the color balance except white balance adjustment. This is really a bummer to adjust every picture but I guess that's digital photatgraphy?

I was reading in the manual and it appears that the green dot is NOT a focusing aid at all. According to the manual, that > 0

Also, the LCD is completely WYSIWYG and if it is really dark, then you know that the picture you take will be too dark as well.

John said:

I'm constantly having focusing problems when shooting photos.
Tried both normal (center weighted) and
point focusing modes (You need to slightly push the shutter
release button to get the picture in-focus. I cann't realy
tell if it is focused or not from the LCD screen but a green
dot on the LCD stops flashing when in focus). A lot of pictures
(not all of them) tend to be focused on the back ground even
after I've been very careful on the focusing process.

I'm not excited with the LCD display either. It cann't even
frame in many situations not mention to use it during manual
focusing...

Click to expand...

I have confirmed from Sony that the owners manual is incorrect at the bottom of page 32. Under ther Notes section, the bullets are misleading. The 'dot with triangles on the sides' are in fact the manual display for focus. As you turn the focus ring the triangles will appear/dissappear on each side of the dot until both triangles stay on, which in theory is a focused image. They have nothing to do with the Program Auto Exposure lock indicator which is the green light when either the shutter button is depressed half way or fully depressed untill a lock takes place. Matt.

Robert MacLellan said:

John said:

I'm constantly having focusing problems when shooting photos.
Tried both normal (center weighted) and
point focusing modes (You need to slightly push the shutter
release button to get the picture in-focus. I cann't realy
tell if it is focused or not from the LCD screen but a green
dot on the LCD stops flashing when in focus). A lot of pictures
(not all of them) tend to be focused on the back ground even
after I've been very careful on the focusing process.

I'm not excited with the LCD display either. It cann't even
frame in many situations not mention to use it during manual
focusing...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Well, there is a lot that English speaking users could say about Sony manuals and not much of it very good.

Matthew Steven said:

I have confirmed from Sony that the owners manual is incorrect at the
bottom of page 32. Under ther Notes section, the bullets are misleading.
The 'dot with triangles on the sides' are in fact the manual display for
focus. As you turn the focus ring the triangles will appear/dissappear
on each side of the dot until both triangles stay on, which in theory is
a focused image. They have nothing to do with the Program Auto Exposure
lock indicator which is the green light when either the shutter button is
depressed half way or fully depressed untill a lock takes place. Matt.

Click to expand...