Better Focus - S70...

[Erik Il Rosso]

It seems that some of my photos are not as sharp as they should have been because slightly out of focus...

Any tips for obtaining a better focus with my Canon S70 ???

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

 

[RonFrank]

It seems that some of my photos are not as sharp as they should have been because slightly out of focus...

Any tips for obtaining a better focus with my Canon S70 ???

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

Unfortunately this is one of the downfalls of the S70. The focus system on it could be better. One thing that help focus.. more light. If you have a light canon, or a strobe with a focusing beam, or even a bright dive light that MIGHT help.

Other than that my only suggestion is.... purchase a DSLR

 

[alcina]

Erik -

Don't toss the S70 out yet!

More light is always good. Remember that your camera is looking for contrast. If you subject doesn't have a sharp contrast in the desired plane of focus, lock your focus (half press) on something the approximate distance then recompose -use your fins to move in and out until it looks sharp in the viewfinder. Even dslr users have to use this (or similar) technique!

Use the half press as above. Not only does this give you the freedom to recompose, for some reason many cameras like this way better - they'll take a photo on full press but don't seem to nail the focus sometimes. Half press will also let you wait for that one great moment before taking the shot - it helps reduce the time from pressing the trigger to getting the shot.

Slow down. However slowly you are going, go slower. Take more time with each subject. You don't have to spend 20 minutes, but allowing at least a minute isn't unreasonable. It helps you to get stable which will only help your camera to focus faster and enable you to get better shots.

Make sure you are shooting in manual mode. In the program modes often the camera will choose a shutter that is too slow causing any movement to be captured in the frame: from you, from the camera, from the water, from the critter etc. And/or the camera will choose a wide open aperture which is going to give you softer photos.

Know your camera. Test it out on land to see where its sweet spot it for focus. You'll likely find that there is a particular distance at a particular zoom level that your camera loves. You'll also find that there are apertures that your camera likes better, too. www.dpreview.com often has good information to get you started on finding these sweet spots.

Take more photos! You can only get better - but, remember in order to improve you must apply corrections. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting better results isn't in the cards. So look at your photos before you dive. Decide what you would like to try in a similar situation and go from there.

Most importantly - have fun!!!

 

[RonFrank]

I've certainly been reasonably happy with the S70. However there are a good number of shots that will be OOF on any given set of shots.

My frustration is really that it's almost next to impossible to KNOW if the image is in focus. You have a focus indicator, however that does NOT guaranty that the subject IS in focus, but rather that SOMETHING in the image is or was in focus.

Half pressing can help, but not necessarily if the subject is moving.

One other thing I do is shoot in the more manual modes (A,Tv,M) and lock focus based on the center rather than letting the camera choose the focus zone.

Alcina brings up a VERY good point, make SURE your shutter speed is adequate to stop action, and prevent camera shake. ALL you images are going to appear out of focus if you are shooting at 1/4 second

 

[Erik Il Rosso]

My frustration is really that it's almost next to impossible to KNOW if the image is in focus. You have a focus indicator, however that does NOT guaranty that the subject IS in focus, but rather that SOMETHING in the image is or was in focus.

One other thing I do is shoot in the more manual modes (A,Tv,M) and lock focus based on the center rather than letting the camera choose the focus zone.

Alcina brings up a VERY good point, make SURE your shutter speed is adequate to stop action, and prevent camera shake.

There are 3 good points in your msg but...

1) Most of my pics look very good on the LCD display but once dowloaded onto my pc I discover the some of them are slightly OOF or better, the focus plane is not where I wanted it to be...
I find almost impossible to use the LCD to decide if the image is in focus or not and so I am forced to take 2 or 3 shoots of the same subject (it does not hurt)...

2) My focus is locked on the center rather than letting the camera choose where to focus but nonetheless I still get slightly OOF photos...

3) I am currently shooting in Tv mode, 1/100th sec, I think it is fast enough...

Canon website says to get focus at the minimum focal distance and then keeping the button half pressed move the camera forward or backward in order to obtain best focus possible...
I tried this trick but without any visible success, maybe my eyes are not capable to read the LCD dispaly correctly but most of the time I cannot tell if the image is getting better or worse in focus terms...

Last and most stupid question, plural of "Photo" is "Photoes" or "Photos" ???
English is not my native mother language but I was taught that if a word ends with an "O" you have to add an "Es" at the end of it for the plural form...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

 

[alcina]

If you are shooting in Tv mode at 1/100 your shutter might be fast enough, but might not be. You might want to try upping the speed for the same image and seeing what happens. In Tv mode you are going to have to be careful that your camera doesn't open your aperture up all the way or your images will appear soft.

The LCD is a bugger - none f them are perfect for checking focus. Multi shots are the way to go. Perhaps invest in one of the magnifiers, too.

Photo plural is photos

 

[RonFrank]

It seems that some of my photos are not as sharp as they should have been because slightly out of focus...

Any tips for obtaining a better focus with my Canon S70 ???

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

Lets face it, there are some drawbacks to using PnS camera's. One is defiantely the focus. While my D1x has predictive focus tracking that really works well, instant shutter response, and an acceptable frame rate at 3fps, my S70 hunts, is next to impossible to determine if things are razor sharp, and has shutter lag and a frame rate for practical purposes especially with moving subjects of less than 1 shot per second.

That said, I did 10 dives with the camera in Florida (should have done more, but I was new so did not take it down on 8 dives dohh :11doh: ) and got some very nice results. However I also missed some VERY great shots. I did shoot, but they just did not come out well, and it was NOT user error but rather moving subjects, and slow shutter response combined with slow focus.

1/100 of a second should be enough to prevent camera shake, and stop action. Stopping down the lens is one way to increase DOF, but not always possible. Another big disadvantage of the PnS, really unacceptable results at ISO's over 200.

I'm going to try and get a DSLR underwater for my next outing, but it's hard for me to justify the very expensive UW housing when I live somewhere that I can't really do much with in the way of UW photography.

It sounds like you are doing things right. If you get in a situation where you want to make damn sure you do everything possible to get a shot, shoot the scene as much as possible, and focus between each shot.

The S70 really does lack a bit in focus aquasition. I compared it to both the Oly 8080, and the Sony V3 on land. The Sony was likely the best for quick and accurate focus, but unfortunately I was not interested in spending close to $600 for a housing. For that, I'd add some $$ and go the DSLR route.

If your lively hood is not dependant upon UW photography, IMO enjoy what you have, and upgrade when you can afford to do so. I do shoot professionally (land based), but my thought is that my S70 works well enough for now even if I'm somewhat dissatisfied with results that could be stunning if I just had a DSLR underwater...

 

[Erik Il Rosso]

It sounds like you are doing things right. If you get in a situation where you want to make damn sure you do everything possible to get a shot, shoot the scene as much as possible, and focus between each shot.
The S70 really does lack a bit in focus aquasition. I compared it to both the Oly 8080,

If your lively hood is not dependant upon UW photography, IMO enjoy what you have

As fas as I understand maybe it is not my fault if I get some OOF shots...

I take underwater pics just for fun...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

 

[RonFrank]

As fas as I understand maybe it is not my fault if I get some OOF shots...

I take underwater pics just for fun...

Ciao Erik Il Rosso

Well one COULD say that it IS your fault, as you CHOSE to take a photo that the camera could not get in focus

However photography is an equipment based activity, and results are in part based on equipment. While GENERALLY there are a whole lot of fools out there getting bad results, and blaming equipment without reason, in YOUR case it certainly sounds like you are doing everything you can.

Try adding some light to the scene when focusing. That COULD help.

 

[vkalia]

First - are you sure your OOF is caused by camera misfocusing, or could it be caused by you inadvertently moving your camera?

If you have a reasonably powerful flash, try shooting at a smaller aperture - the higher DoF will help cover small errors in photography. At a pinch, you can even manually focus your camera to its hyperfocal distance (or some approximation thereof that covers everything in your desired zone of focus), stop down and rely on the flash to expose your subject.

You can use higher ISO to boost you shutter speeds, if need be. Make sure you use Noise Ninja or Neatimage when you post-process (and shoot RAW!).

Vandit