a40 autofocus problems

[loki]

Hello.

I just purchased an A40, and while I'm fairly happy with the Camera, so far, I've been really frustrated with the Autofocus system. I've already checked to see if I need the AiAF patch, but the download page indicates that my camera has already been patched.

I seem to have a huge amount of trouble with getting the autofocus to fix on the object I'm trying to shoot, even in fairly good light. For example, I was trying to take a shot of my black cat, on a red blanket, as a test shot, under overhead lights, and could never get the cat in focus, even using the single focus point mode. Other things I've had trouble with have been shooting objects close up - it seems like the camera is unable to focus if the entire field of view is on the same plane - example shooting a document, with a tripod, or a flat object on a table.

Is there something I'm missing? Have you all found techniques around this problem? I'm aware of the ability to focus lock, but that's a huge pain if you have to do it for every interior shot.

thanks.

[MerdoQ]

This is very annoying, I really look forward to buy this digicam, The tests reveal this is a very good cam, but so many people are complaining about its autofocus problem.

May be you can try to patch it, even if canon says it"s not necesarry...
good luck

[ldelicato]

Sorry to hear of your problems, i have an A40 and so far have not come across autofocus problems. maybe if you post a couple of your trouble shots that might help others come up with a solution?

cheers
louise

[Conk]

No focus problems here either. Are you getting a green light? I know that all your settings need to be taken into account if shooting in manual mode. If you're talking automatic I suggest you forget that option exists. Maybe you should load the patch anyway. I loaded it as soon as I brought my camera home. It can't hurt.

[nuno]

Hi all !
I have an A40 and at the website it said that it needed the patch ! Still the autofocus works fine !

I tried to shoot an airplane taking off in a blue sky and i was suprised !!!! The camera had a single point focus, the square has pointed to the plane !

that's wy i don't applied the patch.

regards

[JohnMN]

Read your autofocus problem. I have had some problems aswell with some of my pictures. Now I always use the single point focus instead of the three point as the camera always seemed to focus on the object to the right or the left of what I wanted, so I switched to the single point. Some subjects like animals that are say black in colour are hard to focus on, I think this is mentioned in the manual along with six or seven more. It might be best to reframe the shot or forget about it if you can't get it after a number of tries. As mentioned before, wait until you get the green light and the two beeps and that tells you focus has been locked.

[tomx15]

Canon wrote some very poor autofocus software as I have the exact same problems. They admit (I talked to Canon's support line today) that the A40's autofocus is contrast-based and indeed experiences difficulties.

Also, tech support told me that to take a picture with ANY Canon digital camera the shutter action is a two step process:
1. Press the shutter half way down and WAIT for the auto focus to work (a lot of times it doesn't because of the contrast focus system issue)
2. After you hear the beep and it's in focus, THEN push the shutter all the way down.

Guess how many pictures you'll miss with this process. It's too bad they can't write a faster auto-focus software program because the quality is very good too excellent when it works.

The tech support guy says that all digital cameras work this way that you have to do the 2-step process. I guess that's a good enough excuse for Canon.