Help: Macro with G5

When I zoom in under Macro mode, I can hardly get a focus. But I hear the lens keep searching for one. It's simply all blurry. Why's it so? How to rectify that?

How far are you from the target object when you hit the macro button? You've got to be within the G5's Macro range. This can be found on page 69 of the manual. 5 to 50cm at wide angle end and 15 to 5cm at telephoto end.

Alternatively, you could turn off the continuous focus option and just go in close and try to focus by depressing the shutter halfway. I find the continuous focus mode extremely irritating.

Lastly, you could go in close again, hit the macro button, and hit the MF (manual focus) button, and use the spinner to get your object in focus.

Hope this helps.

Jason.

ps: some of my G5 macros

http://www.pbase.com/mr_jason/testmacros

Bust said:

When I zoom in under Macro mode, I can hardly get a focus. But I
hear the lens keep searching for one. It's simply all blurry. Why's
it so? How to rectify that?

Click to expand...

Bust said:

When I zoom in under Macro mode, I can hardly get a focus. But I
hear the lens keep searching for one. It's simply all blurry. Why's
it so? How to rectify that?

Click to expand...

You may look at http://www.lensmateonline.com/G3G5macrocomp_instructions.html

Bust said:

When I zoom in under Macro mode, I can hardly get a focus. But I
hear the lens keep searching for one. It's simply all blurry. Why's
it so? How to rectify that?

Click to expand...

I have the s50 but arent you supposed to use wide angle in macro to get closest and I dont think you should zoom when using macro just move the camera back and forth closer and farther..........Lenny

Hi Jason, is it that I've to get close first then hit the macro button? i.e. I set the aperture to F8, get closer, hit macro and then manual focus, is that right? I'm a newbie, so i don't exactly know what i'm doing (most of time, haahaa) Really appreciate the help from all you guys!!! I'm learning...

mr_jason said:

Alternatively, you could turn off the continuous focus option and
just go in close and try to focus by depressing the shutter
halfway. I find the continuous focus mode extremely irritating.

Lastly, you could go in close again, hit the macro button, and hit
the MF (manual focus) button, and use the spinner to get your
object in focus.

Hope this helps.

Jason.

ps: some of my G5 macros

http://www.pbase.com/mr_jason/testmacros

Bust said:

When I zoom in under Macro mode, I can hardly get a focus. But I
hear the lens keep searching for one. It's simply all blurry. Why's
it so? How to rectify that?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Hey, no problem, I'm pretty much a newbie also.

Dosen't matter when you hit the macro button, could be before or after you get within the specified range.

Why don't you try using the non-continuous auto focusing first? After hitting the macro button and getting within range, depresses the shutter halfway till you get the green box, which is a sign focus has been attained.

As for the MF button, this is an alternative to using the auto-focus. You can hit that after gettin in range, and spin the dial to attain the sharpest visual focus you percieve.

2 different ways to achieve focus.

Bust said:

mr_jason said:

Alternatively, you could turn off the continuous focus option and
just go in close and try to focus by depressing the shutter
halfway. I find the continuous focus mode extremely irritating.

Lastly, you could go in close again, hit the macro button, and hit
the MF (manual focus) button, and use the spinner to get your
object in focus.

Hope this helps.

Jason.

ps: some of my G5 macros

http://www.pbase.com/mr_jason/testmacros

Bust said:

When I zoom in under Macro mode, I can hardly get a focus. But I
hear the lens keep searching for one. It's simply all blurry. Why's
it so? How to rectify that?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

You could use wide to telephoto, as you go toward telephoto end the closest focus distance becomes longer (15cm vs 5cm a 3X difference IIRC), but the zoom magnification becomes greater by 4X, so your maximum net magnification should be slightly greater at full tele. Second, and perhaps more important, your lens to camera distance will be greater (even for the same image magnification) so you have more room for lighting and less perspective distortion.

Aside on close up "filters'

Should you need to go even closer and elect to use a +diopter close up filter you will get a greater effect from a given filter power at the telephoto end of the zoom range, since the degree of reduction of fucus distance of the closeup lens is related to the sum of the focal length of the lens + focal length (1/diopter) of the closeup lens. At 28mm telephoto (0.028m) the G5 lens is about +36 diopter, at 7mm (0.07m) wide it is about +143 diopter, so adding a +4 diopter close up lens has more effect at telephoto than wide.

LENNYUK said:

Bust said:

When I zoom in under Macro mode, I can hardly get a focus. But I
hear the lens keep searching for one. It's simply all blurry. Why's
it so? How to rectify that?

Click to expand...

I have the s50 but arent you supposed to use wide angle in macro to
get closest and I dont think you should zoom when using macro just
move the camera back and forth closer and farther..........Lenny

Click to expand...

If you're taking shots of insects and the like, go visit Mark Plonsky's page for some good ideas and great shots - http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/article.htm

You can see the equipment he uses on http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/equip.htm

Hope Mark doesn't mind me sharing his urls.

I use a similar technique - handheld, 1/100, F8, 50iso, zoom to get your framing right, switch to manual focus, flick the main dial until I get as small a focal range as possible, and then move the camera forward and back to get a good focus.

It takes a practice, but once you get the hang of it, you'll use it all the time (with or without close up lenses, reversed 50mm 1.4 lens etc).

Tripod > Melbourne > Australia

Thanks for the tip Tripod. So you don't switch to Macro mode? Is it manual control all the way through?

tripod said:

If you're taking shots of insects and the like, go visit Mark
Plonsky's page for some good ideas and great shots -
http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/article.htm

You can see the equipment he uses on
http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/equip.htm

Hope Mark doesn't mind me sharing his urls.

I use a similar technique - handheld, 1/100, F8, 50iso, zoom to get
your framing right, switch to manual focus, flick the main dial
until I get as small a focal range as possible, and then move the
camera forward and back to get a good focus.

It takes a practice, but once you get the hang of it, you'll use it
all the time (with or without close up lenses, reversed 50mm 1.4
lens etc).

Tripod > Melbourne > Australia

Click to expand...

That's right, full manual, manual focus and a gentle swaying action. I'm sure I look like a pervert, but it's worth the weird looks.

Bust said:

Thanks for the tip Tripod. So you don't switch to Macro mode? Is it
manual control all the way through?

Click to expand...

--
Tripod > Melbourne > Australia