I've HAD it with AF doing CRAP! HELP!

[Konowl]

Oh man... AF sucks on this camera.

For example... in portrait mode... simple shot of a guy at work... center his face on the box in the middle of the camera... and he's out of focus while the background is perfect.

What the heck?!?!?!??!

[Jesper]

AF can be very slow on the G3 sometimes. Just look at the LCD, you can easily see if it has focused on the background or on your subject. You can't see if the camera has focused correctly through the viewfinder.

[Elliott]

I have really enjoyed my G3 overall, but I have to agree that the auto focus is difficult to deal with at times. I know someone who has a G1, which has a little button on the back of the camera that lets him enlarge the photo he just took 2 or 3 times, so he can see more easily in the little LCD if the frame he just shot is really in focus. I have not been able to find that feature on my G3. Maybe I overlooked it, but if someone knows how I can do that with the G3, please post it.

[sdommin]

Elliott wrote:
Maybe I overlooked it, but if someone knows how I can do that with the G3, please post it.


In the playback mode, you just zoom in using the zoom lever (the same lever you used to zoom in to take the picture!). You can "blow up" the image to 10 times its size, and move around using the omni-button.

[phili1]

First make sure you have the ISO set and the White balance set manually. This save the Camera time. Then make sue your set to center focuse and metering. You do this in menu mode. For portrait use single focus. NOw you can move the center focus frame but all you have to do is point it at the subject, depress the button 1/2 way and it will lock focus and metering in, or useing the * will do the same thing. Recompose your shot and shoot. I have found the G3 to be quite fast in outdoor situations but a little slow indoors under low light. When I attaches my external flash it speed up. Pre focusing helps in action shots.

[Konowl]

phili1 wrote:
First make sure you have the ISO set and the White balance set manually. This save the Camera time. Then make sue your set to center focuse and metering. You do this in menu mode. For portrait use single focus. NOw you can move the center focus frame but all you have to do is point it at the subject, depress the button 1/2 way and it will lock focus and metering in, or useing the * will do the same thing. Recompose your shot and shoot. I have found the G3 to be quite fast in outdoor situations but a little slow indoors under low light. When I attaches my external flash it speed up. Pre focusing helps in action shots.

I had it set to portrait mode for a quick pic. I shouldn't have to spend 5 minutes setting up a quick portrait shot. That's BS. It's just the fact that AF doesn't work correctly (*snaps at some Canon engineers*)

Been reading up on how the AF works. I'll try to play around.

[dog010]

AF on the G3 is contrast detection; the better the contrast the faster it will focus. Pereferably you want a vertical line somewhere in that contrast area too.
(A neat trick to is turn the camera sideways if you've got a horizontal focal point and it will lock on. Then turn the thing right way up again.)
If you're too close, I think under 50cm, the AF will not lock on because the range is too small. Then you'll need to go to macro focus. Remember to focus on the eyes when doing portraits.

Good Luck,

[Dchemist]

You might check this previous post...

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17583

It is a great discussion on how the camera does AF.