Difficulty with autofocus for night time shots

[Frogger]

Hi,

I decided to take my camera out last night to take some shots of the light decorations as part of the Vivid Sydney festival. However, I got quite frustrated with getting the autofocus to... well, autofocus. The edges were very soft in the photos I took, especially when you consider that I used a tripod. Do you have any tips?

Photos attached were taken using a Tamron 17-50 @ F2.8, ISO800 on a Canon 400D.

Thanks for looking,

Rob.

[35mmNewbie]

My suggestion would be to lower your iso and use a longer exposure. Does your camera have live view? If soo zoom in and manualy focus. I'm pretty new to this so I appologize if im way off from solving your problem. hahah

[Frogger]

No worries 35mm... appreciate your input.

I chose a higher ISO as I don't really have an option to use too long an exposure. The images projected on these buildings actually cycle through every 5-10 seconds. Nonetheless, the lower ISO would only address the noisiness/grain of the picture and not the lack of focus.

The 400D doesn't have live view and I'm pretty ordinary with manual focus. Might give it a try though if that's the only work around.

[35mmNewbie]

No worries 35mm... appreciate your input.

I chose a higher ISO as I don't really have an option to use too long an exposure. The images projected on these buildings actually cycle through every 5-10 seconds. Nonetheless, the lower ISO would only address the noisiness/grain of the picture and not the lack of focus.

The 400D doesn't have live view and I'm pretty ordinary with manual focus. Might give it a try though if that's the only work around.

heh:o i'd hang in their until some one else chimes in haha

[Frogger]

Haha it's all good.

So... any other tips or advice?