ZS200 Autofocus Unreliable

alcelc wrote:

JBN2337C wrote:

Thank you. I have tried pinpoint, or custom single, as small as possible. It’s utterly disappointing

Do you pre focus? If yes, would you fire only when the Green AF confirmation box covered your aimed focus point. If yes but you still miss focus ( front, back or no focus at all), then your camera should be faulty.

It would be helpful if you could post a sample which worried you with full EXIF and in full resolution enabling us a chance to look at it. Very often we might guess where the problem would be upon a sample.

I'll try to get a pic or two up ASAP. Yes, I do pre focus. I have it set up identical to my ZS100 & FZ1000, which both reliably hit the mark. I find I almost always need a 1/8 turn of the control ring to lock in focus on the ZS200 at any focal length.

It's not like I get a wildly blurry photo. However, details resolve with minor adjustment. (Example: Rivets or panel lines on a vehicle, veins on a leaf, feathers, or just proper edges or small text on anything.)

If I didn't have the other two Lumix cameras, I'd chalk it up to "Don't be lazy, this is what you need to do." Yet, a compact travel camera is meant to be used on the fly, otherwise I'd carry something else. Bugs me that it's capable of doing better, and I can't quite trust it to do better on it's own compared to it's older siblings.

I also wonder if this works into common misconceptions of a "soft" lens. It isn't. It's let down somewhere else in the chain...