Getting the best from Olympus TG2

My experience is same as you.  I don't have all the answers but some suggestions

1. If you believe you have steady hands set ISO to 400 in not too dark shooting situation like indoor lighting.  IQ degrade a lot after ISO 400

2. The biggest problem of TG-2 is missed focus when there are lots of little light in a dark scene (such as street light).  The solution to this is to point the camera at other point, acquire focus with half press shutter than move the camera back to original street light scene and press fully down to shoot

But there are many times the camera just miss focus in low light for no obvious reason.  This is a big problem and happen very often in night time.  The green box confirm focus but image come out blur.

Right now my only solution is to use "spot" focus (central focus) which seem to help a bit but still lots of missed focus images.  I wish someone can offer other solutions.

Besides this problem this is a great camera in good lighting.  Some of my ISO 100 image can be confused with image I take with my NEX-5N

Mittskitts wrote:

I have a TG-1. I use center focus and look for something with a high contrast edge to focus on that is at the correct distance, then recompose.

Can you explain what is high contrast edge? So this missed focus thing also happen in TG-1?

Would disable the focus assisted beam help? any other solution?  This problem is the most severe among all cameras I have ever used

and I have used at least 7 cameras since 2006

Many thanks Jefftan. I will try this out and let you know. We had the most fantastic moonrise the other evening and try as I might I could not get a good clear shot of this moonrise. Are my expectations too high with this camera?

Thanks Mittskitts. Also some good advice and I will play around with this for the next few days and let you know how this worked for me.

Heppyhooka wrote:

Many thanks Jefftan. I will try this out and let you know. We had the most fantastic moonrise the other evening and try as I might I could not get a good clear shot of this moonrise. Are my expectations too high with this camera?

What about using a tripod for the moonrise than you can use ISO 100 which will bring out the best from the camera

This camera is indeed very good at ISO 100, no missed focus in good lighting and pics can look like taken from my NEX-5N (an APS-C camera 13 times the sensor size) This is no small achievement for a small sensor compact waterproof or not

Better than I expect before I buy this waterproof camera and certainly better than all waterproof camera that I used before Sony TX5, Panasonic TS1

If only I can solve the missed focus problem in low lighting, I will be very happy

But even if I can only use it in good lighting at ISO 100/200 and get excellent pics, I would still be happy and not regret buying this great camera

Heppyhooka wrote:

try as I might I could not get a good clear shot of this moonrise. Are my expectations too high with this camera?

This may be due to the miss focus problem in poor lighting that I am also having great trouble with

Whenever light level fall, this camera has trouble focusing.

One solution is to focus somewhere else using spot (center) focus with some bright subject than recompose

another is to take multiple pics until you get a properly focus one.  My experience is if the first miss focus, the second one or third one may be OK

no perfect solution that I can find now.  Hopefully there will be a firmware update

My TG2 seems to have an intermittent focus problem.
Something focus seems to physically stick.

When this happens, I can sometimes get focus working with a gentle tap to the camera with the palm of my hand. When this does not work, i need to reboot the camera.

I have also noticed that this condition is more likely to happen after I try to make a change in zoom/focal length. Additionally, more likely to happen after sitting a few minutes with camera "on" (waiting for "the shot").

Anyone else with similar TG2 condition?

It is a great little camera and I like it a lot for whitewater kayaking. I'll observe the TG2 for a couple more days. It will prob be sent back to Olympus for repair...hopefully under warranty.

jmac221 wrote:

My TG2 seems to have an intermittent focus problem.
Something focus seems to physically stick.

When this happens, I can sometimes get focus working with a gentle tap to the camera with the palm of my hand. When this does not work, i need to reboot the camera.

I have also noticed that this condition is more likely to happen after I try to make a change in zoom/focal length. Additionally, more likely to happen after sitting a few minutes with camera "on" (waiting for "the shot").

Anyone else with similar TG2 condition?

It is a great little camera and I like it a lot for whitewater kayaking. I'll observe the TG2 for a couple more days. It will prob be sent back to Olympus for repair...hopefully under warranty.

My missed focus problem is always happen in low light.  Very rare in good lighting

It happen very often to be a big problem in low light.  Way to work around it is to use central focus than point the focus point at a bright subject, half press shutter to lock foucs than recompose

but the remove the fun of photo taking

I think I also have to send it back for repair

Jmac221, are you also having lots of missed focus in low light (green focus confirmation box but image come out blur)