E-330 focusing issues

[calypsonick]

Gus,

FWIW - Coming from the C8080 P&S I also encountered problems with focusing. The E330 did not lock on nearly as easily and quickly as the C8080. As suggested above, one solution is setting it to center spot focus. The multiple spot seemed to "confuse" the camera on what to focus on. Also, after experimenting with the different metering modes the one that seemed to work the best for me was the center weighted averaging.

Some other factors that affected my focusing were:

1. Light levels - the darker it was the more difficult for the camera to lock on to something.

What helped - Canister light to get a lot of light on the subject. Downside: will scare skittish critters away.

2. Lots of gunk floating in the water column.

What helped - Holding the light at an angle and away from the camera when lighting the subject. This reduces the amount of backscatter the light is creating and thus creating lots of "subjects" for your camera to focus on, other than your intended subject.

This does not answer your questions as to why one of your E330's is more problematic than the other but I hope it helps.

Nick

 

[gus055]

When I was in Mauritius this last October, I dove a site called the Cathedral. In the deepest part of these caverns it was very dark. I could not get the camera set right,exposeure was to dark,or blown out. My inexperience shows in the photos I took. I have no experience shooting at night either.

I use a pelican led for my focus light and I seem to have no problems focusing. I keep the camera set to center metering. If I am trying to focus on one small thing I set to spot metering.

Small animals can be very skittish, I have fish in my reef tank that will run from my hand in the tank. If I have food they will eat the food then go hide. Same goes for shrimp. My 12 years of keeping reef tanks helps me to be able to find the small animals in the ocean.

I enjoy the Oceans very much. I do ask myself why I still live in the desert,and not on the beach.

Thanks for the help everyone.