Been experimenting with the focusing of my new Canon Powershot S1 IS. I am working out how get good autofocus. I have discovered the following:
- The autofocus struggles at maximum (10x) optical zoom. It locks on better at lesser zooms.
- It is also worse when close to the subject (< 1m) which may be below the min autofocus distance.
- Autofocus triggers in ernest when the shutter is pressed halfway down.
- There is a white square box within the viewfinder that turns green when the autofocus locks and yellow when it gives up.
- I have seen it turn green when the picture was blatantly out of focus.
- It is possible to focus by finding a high-contrast edge a similar distance away to whatever I am trying to photo, locking on it by half-pressing the shutter, moving to my subject and fully pressing the shutter.
I am not so worried about the focusing as I was in my last post. It is not so totally automatic that you never have to think about it.
More notes:
- It was not unknown for my old Nikon Coolpix 2500 pictures to be out of focus.
- Forcing the Canon to 400 ASA it is possible to take acceptably grainy photos indoors with no flash. The resulting pictures are nicer as the lighting is more natural.
- The batteries go flat in about 2 hours. Will buy an alternate set of 4xAA NiMH's for it, maybe two sets.
Peter's Moblog
