AF misses. Canon

ThrillaMozilla wrote:

rwl408 wrote:

ThrillaMozilla wrote:

You can get that blink even if auto focus is off, and even if it's not focused at all.

When an AF point blinks red, it means that AF point has acquired focus! The green focus confirmation light just reflects the fact that one or more AF points have blinked, nothing more.

No, that's the way it seems to work under most conditions, but it's not how these cameras actually work. I'm sitting here with my SL1 (which is working perfectly, in case you're wondering), and I can confirm that these cameras don't work that way.

With OneShot focus it's easy to get the center point to blink without a focus lock. I just focused on a nearby flat surface with no contrast, and held the shutter release half depressed. The center point blinked, and the green focus light flashed continuously but did not stay lit. The image is definitely way out of focus.

I think in your test you have fixed the AF point, most likely to the center AF point. In this case as soon as you half-press the shutter button, the camera informs you the AF point to be used by blinking it immediately. The actually focus is acquired only when the (same) AF point blinks again (and the focus confirmation).

But if you set the AF point selection to AUTO, there will be only one blink from the AF points to indicate who is in focus after you half-press the shutter button. That is the confusion.

That's just one way to defeat auto focusing. There are others. I don't know exactly how the user's older camera works, but as far as I can tell, lots of people make that mistake and blame the camera. There's a reason the green light is called a focus confirmation light.