A2 Fpcus issues (again)

Vancemac · Apr 7, 2004

Disclaimer: I LOVE this camera.

I have just returned from China, and took about 600 pictures with the new A2 as its first real test. I am a bit concerned about this focus issue. Here is an example:

100% crop:

Virtually every concern I have had about this camera so far has ended up being attributable to user error or education, and I'm hoping the same is true here. But I get photos like the above A LOT. Any ideas?

And how does it happen that nothing is in focus? Nothing closest to the camera, and not the furthest horizon?

Thanks,
Vance

LeifShutter · Apr 7, 2004

I think you wouldneed to post more full size images for anyone to figure it out. For instance, I can't tell whether the person in the foreground is sharp. What focal length, and what aperture? If you were shooting wide open,with the limited depth-of-field, the focus could have been between your subject and the people in foreground, especially at telephoto. More full-sized examples are needed.

Vancemac said:
Disclaimer: I LOVE this camera.

I have just returned from China, and took about 600 pictures with
the new A2 as its first real test. I am a bit concerned about this
focus issue. Here is an example:

100% crop:

Virtually every concern I have had about this camera so far has
ended up being attributable to user error or education, and I'm
hoping the same is true here. But I get photos like the above A
LOT. Any ideas?
And how does it happen that nothing is in focus? Nothing closest
to the camera, and not the furthest horizon?

Thanks,
Vance

--

Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...

Vancemac · Apr 7, 2004

The crop was full size. But here is the full size original:

http://vmac.smugmug.com/photos/3338264-O.jpg

Here is another with soft focus:
http://vmac.smugmug.com/photos/3338274-O.jpg

Thanks,
Vance

Jim N'AZ · Apr 7, 2004

Do you operate with the DMF activated? If so, you may (as have several others) be inadvertantly moving the manual focus ring with your left hand/fingers while in auto focus mode. For that reason alone, I have turned off DMF. Regards, Jim

Vancemac said:
Disclaimer: I LOVE this camera.

I have just returned from China, and took about 600 pictures with
the new A2 as its first real test. I am a bit concerned about this
focus issue. Here is an example:

100% crop:

Virtually every concern I have had about this camera so far has
ended up being attributable to user error or education, and I'm
hoping the same is true here. But I get photos like the above A
LOT. Any ideas?
And how does it happen that nothing is in focus? Nothing closest
to the camera, and not the furthest horizon?

Thanks,
Vance

--
Jim N'AZ

Vancemac · Apr 7, 2004

Thanks Jim.

My "Direct MF" is indeed set to OFF. That would have been a perfect explanation, though, to the high number of results like this I am getting.

Thanks,
Vance

LeifShutter · Apr 7, 2004

The second pic appears to have at least some focus on the subject. Th eshirt looks fairly sharp, but the face looks alittle soft. Faces are tricky, and often look a little soft at a distance, especially if underexposed a bit.

On the first one, were you zooming while you were focusing?

Vancemac said:
The crop was full size. But here is the full size original:

http://vmac.smugmug.com/photos/3338264-O.jpg

Here is another with soft focus:
http://vmac.smugmug.com/photos/3338274-O.jpg

Thanks,
Vance

--

Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...

LeifShutter · Apr 7, 2004

Also, in the first pic in the square, what ISO are you shooting at? Looks kinda noisy? This can take away sharpness.

I would still have to see more pics. DO you shoot on Auto? I like to shoot on Apeture Priority, usually at 5.6 in order to get better sharpness. The lens is sharper stopped down a bit, and is more forgiving of small focusing errors.

fotog said:
On the first one, were you zooming while you were focusing?

Vancemac said:

The crop was full size. But here is the full size original:

http://vmac.smugmug.com/photos/3338264-O.jpg

Here is another with soft focus:
http://vmac.smugmug.com/photos/3338274-O.jpg

Thanks,
Vance

Click to expand...

--

Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...

--

Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...

Vancemac · Apr 7, 2004

fotog said:
On the first one, were you zooming while you were focusing?

I don't think so, but I'm glad you mentioned that... definitely something I should be conscious of! The manual zoom is so handy (and fun) it would be easy to get caught up in framing the shot right up to, and into, the half-push for focus.

Vance

Vancemac · Apr 7, 2004

fotog said:
Also, in the first pic in the square, what ISO are you shooting at?
Looks kinda noisy? This can take away sharpness.

Believe it or not, ISO 64. Crazy, huh?

LeifShutter said:
I would still have to see more pics. DO you shoot on Auto? I like
to shoot on Apeture Priority, usually at 5.6 in order to get better
sharpness. The lens is sharper stopped down a bit, and is more
forgiving of small focusing errors.

I was on Auto, except for locked in on ISO 64. For that pic, aperature was F/7.1 (and 1/400).

Klaudio · Apr 7, 2004

Vancemac said:
Disclaimer: I LOVE this camera.

Hi Vance,

You alreadu got severl good advices here.

I don't own an A2 but to check focus issues I would first of all make sure I use flex-focus. Leave the cross in the center, aim, half-shutter, and then recompose to your liking. The AF, expecially if you are using matrix metering may end up picking high contrast pixels that are not what you think (altough it give up visual feedback for that).

If you still get soft focus even with flex, that I would say there is an issue: either your camera or some bug in the new faster AF system.

Claudio

--
http://www.pbase.com/klaudio

http://www.pbase.com/mtf_foto_studies

LeifShutter · Apr 7, 2004

Yes, I checked the exif. The exif indicates you post-processed this, at least saved it in PS CS.

Seems a little grainy to me for ISO 64. Maybe the camera just hicupped? I have gotten some where I haven't been able to identify the point of focus, but only a few. If I were you, I would send every shot like that,(and just like that, the second seems to have some foucs,) to Minolta. Ask them what happened.

Vancemac said:
fotog said:

Also, in the first pic in the square, what ISO are you shooting at?
Looks kinda noisy? This can take away sharpness.

Click to expand...

Believe it or not, ISO 64. Crazy, huh?

Vancemac said:

I would still have to see more pics. DO you shoot on Auto? I like
to shoot on Apeture Priority, usually at 5.6 in order to get better
sharpness. The lens is sharper stopped down a bit, and is more
forgiving of small focusing errors.

Click to expand...

I was on Auto, except for locked in on ISO 64. For that pic,
aperature was F/7.1 (and 1/400).

--

Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...

Alex Permit · Apr 7, 2004

you seem to have quite a biit somethink like posterization on these pics. Do all your images have them? What are your other settings?

Vancemac said:
Disclaimer: I LOVE this camera.

I have just returned from China, and took about 600 pictures with
the new A2 as its first real test. I am a bit concerned about this
focus issue. Here is an example:

100% crop:

Virtually every concern I have had about this camera so far has
ended up being attributable to user error or education, and I'm
hoping the same is true here. But I get photos like the above A
LOT. Any ideas?
And how does it happen that nothing is in focus? Nothing closest
to the camera, and not the furthest horizon?

Thanks,
Vance

Aza · Apr 8, 2004

Hi Vance,

I've got the same problem as you. Lots of pictures where nothing seems in focus.

I was on vacation in Brazil and took about 660 pictures...I don't have an exact count on how many pictures got this problem but it was enough to bother me.

I have not been able to figure out what's wrong so I'm watching this thread with great interest

)

Jimmy

Vancemac said:
Disclaimer: I LOVE this camera.

I have just returned from China, and took about 600 pictures with
the new A2 as its first real test. I am a bit concerned about this
focus issue. Here is an example:

Vancemac said:
Virtually every concern I have had about this camera so far has
ended up being attributable to user error or education, and I'm
hoping the same is true here. But I get photos like the above A
LOT. Any ideas?
And how does it happen that nothing is in focus? Nothing closest
to the camera, and not the furthest horizon?

Thanks,
Vance

KEITH-C · Apr 8, 2004

I'm back safe( for those who know)

Are you sure that you are allowing the focus to lock before pushing the shutter release ? It is possible to fire the shutter before focus locks & this will give such results.

To be sure take some trial photos of a building with foreground details & focus on brickwork & windows. If you can get accurate focus then the camera is working correctly - if not send it back!

Sometimes in landscape photos focussing will fail because the centre of focus is in a sky area or an area of low contrast but your 'square' pics should have been OK.

Camera movement is less obvious in digital compared to film and does affect sharpness but 1/400 should have been enought to freeze slight movement.
Keith-C

John Shelton · Apr 8, 2004

We all need to start to methodically track it.
John

Vancemac said:
Disclaimer: I LOVE this camera.

I have just returned from China, and took about 600 pictures with
the new A2 as its first real test. I am a bit concerned about this
focus issue. Here is an example:

100% crop:

Virtually every concern I have had about this camera so far has
ended up being attributable to user error or education, and I'm
hoping the same is true here. But I get photos like the above A
LOT. Any ideas?
And how does it happen that nothing is in focus? Nothing closest
to the camera, and not the furthest horizon?

Thanks,
Vance

--
John

summerwind · Apr 8, 2004

i really like the both cameras (obviously) and one of my decisons to buy the Pro1 first was focusing accuracy....the Pro1 not as quick as the A2, but it's accurate.
the A2 is lightning fast, but not as accurate.

but, it's not big deal as the A2 is being used for work, and the images i need will not show this deficiancy for the size of the images i need to print or email.

sometimes a lightning fast AF system such as that when comparing a 10D to a D60 has shown that you lose something, and accuracy is it.

have i thoroughly compared the A2 with the Pro1 since owning both?

you bet, and as much as i have convinced myself not to measurebate, i still did a focus test like those carried out with the DSLR's, and there is no way that the A2 is striving for accuracy.

Vancemac · Apr 8, 2004

Alex Permit said:
you seem to have quite a biit somethink like posterization on these
pics. Do all your images have them? What are your other settings?

Alex, I'm not quite sure what you mean... can you elaborate please?

Thanks,
Vance

fdlsys · Apr 8, 2004

How about this:

What was the humidity like when you took those China/Brazil photos? There are at least two things that will influence the perceived sharpness of the photo using any camera:

Highly sensitive AF system can be tricked by the light refraction in the air saturated by high humidity,
Condensation (misting) that happens on the lens itself that would explain all of the symptoms you guys are having - 'noise', 'focus' and 'posterisation'? Are you using filters on your lens? Threaded fitting on Ax seals the moisture inside the filter-lens gap perfectly...

My .02$

Mihajlo
South Africa

Rob_G · Apr 8, 2004

but does anyone think this has any co-relation with the diagonal banding that are clearly there? ISO 64???! Gees.

I'm not one to make this co-relation, just putting it on the table for discussion. Even though there might not be any link at all, I would suggest that his camera is defective overall.

Several people have asked if diagonals meant more noise, less resolution... could this be a good example/proof of inferior pic quality as a result of effects of the banding?

Rob

(who is trying very hard not to notice diagonals and comment on the subject more often than not!...)

Andreas_F · Apr 8, 2004

Your pictures remind me of those posted by Jeff Keller on the DCResource site. His preliminary conclusion was that he got a defective camera....
http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/minolta/dimage_a2-review/gallery.shtml
I just notice that he took the gallery off line.

I have the same problem with my A2, although, matters appear to have gotten better after I started using the spot focus (Flex Focus?), which is probably a good idea anyway.

Andreas

Vancemac said:
Disclaimer: I LOVE this camera.

I have just returned from China, and took about 600 pictures with
the new A2 as its first real test. I am a bit concerned about this
focus issue. Here is an example:

100% crop:

Virtually every concern I have had about this camera so far has
ended up being attributable to user error or education, and I'm
hoping the same is true here. But I get photos like the above A
LOT. Any ideas?
And how does it happen that nothing is in focus? Nothing closest
to the camera, and not the furthest horizon?

Thanks,
Vance

A2 Fpcus issues (again)

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