G6 often does not focus sharp

[Har]

I am using the G6 for 8 months specially for making lots of foto's in gardens. I have always difficulty to get a sharp shot of a stem of a flower standing for other plants (the background has more contrasting item then my subject). I have tried all the settings of the camera but it is a hell of a job to get it sharp. I have done a test with 3 (contrasting) subjects in line with a distance of 50 cm and tried manual focussing and that works well. The Canon Helpdesk have no answer to my question. Maybe you have? :lol:

[jimsolt]

I am using the G6 for 8 months specially for making lots of foto's in gardens. I have always difficulty to get a sharp shot of a stem of a flower standing for other plants (the background has more contrasting item then my subject). I have tried all the settings of the camera but it is a hell of a job to get it sharp. I have done a test with 3 (contrasting) subjects in line with a distance of 50 cm and tried manual focussing and that works well. The Canon Helpdesk have no answer to my question. Maybe you have? :lol:

If the manual focus works well, the problem must lie in the auto focus . . . right? I couldn't say for sure, but this probably means the camera is focusing on something other than what you wish. The only way this can be solved is to make sure you are focusing on the subject you wish to be focusing on. There are various ways to do this -- focusing and holding down shutter release half way while you reframe, etc. You manual should have the basic instructions for ways to do this. Try some of them and see if you don't get better results. In some situations, manual focusing might be the best method to use.

Jim

[dbump]

If you're taking pictures in portrait orientation (camera on it's side), that can make autofocus tough (the camera is looking for sharp lines of vertical contrast--rotate the camera, and your stems are now horizontal lines). If that's the case, try to half-press the shutter button while pointing at something with a hard horizontal edge that's the same distance from the camera as your subject.

You can also try the focus bracketing, but then you spend three images to get one good one. Might be worth the trade-off if you have a large card.

If you're in macro mode, which is likely, keep in mind that the DOF is very shallow, which makes it even harder to get sharp focus on your subject.

Also check:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=90623&highlight=hyperfocal
I use Don's method--autofocus with a half press, and then physically move the camera back and forth until the display appears sharpest. Actually, this works even better with manual focus, due to the zoomed detail area. It's not an exact science by any means! Focus bracketing is extra insurance here.

If you're not in macro mode, check out articles on hyperfocal. One of the forum contributors has an excellent explanation and details for the G-series (this applies to the G6 too): http://homepage.hispeed.ch/flowe/digifoto/hfd_dof.htm

[dcains]

I think you'll also find that setting the autofocus option to "single", rather than "continuous", tields better results.

[zeus]

also you can set the area of the scene, which to choose as the point for AF
Read in manual about the set bottom

[Mannytkd]

This looks like an old question that was asked many months ago. I've never had a problem with my G6, the AF works fine, but these days i use M-focus for all my landscape pics, but in macro and supa-macro its set to AF and i always use the flash for fill. Check out the site and take a look at the macro pics and flower pics too?? Are you using flash? My G6 is always set to iso50, f8, and fill flash, the flash out put is lowerd and then i adjust the exposure settings to me that perfect balance.

[woffles]

This looks like an old question that was asked many months ago. I've never had a problem with my G6, the AF works fine, but these days i use M-focus for all my landscape pics, but in macro and supa-macro its set to AF and i always use the flash for fill. Check out the site and take a look at the macro pics and flower pics too?? Are you using flash? My G6 is always set to iso50, f8, and fill flash, the flash out put is lowerd and then i adjust the exposure settings to me that perfect balance.

Curious as to how you use manual focus for all your landscape pics? Do you set it to infinity yourself or some other range?

Sorry to hijack the thread.

[Livingston]

I've had a similar focus problem with some early tests I've done on my new G6. I was testing the setting for indoor at night and took a picture of an object with about 2' of depth. When the G6 picks a focus point is the range of focus half in front and half in back, all in back, all in front of the actual focus point?

[jimsolt]

I've had a similar focus problem with some early tests I've done on my new G6. I was testing the setting for indoor at night and took a picture of an object with about 2' of depth. When the G6 picks a focus point is the range of focus half in front and half in back, all in back, all in front of the actual focus point?
The traditional wisdom is that about 1/3 of the acceptable focus range is in front of the focal plane and 2/3 is in back of it. There are many variances involved so at best this is just a rule of thumb.

Jim

[Mannytkd]

....yes i do, for maximum DOF iset the M focus to 5-feet, iso50, F8 and adjust for correct exposue using shutter, and i always now shoot in RAW.


Curious as to how you use manual focus for all your landscape pics? Do you set it to infinity yourself or some other range?

Sorry to hijack the thread.