As Walt said, I'm with Charlie on this one. Given the lighting
conditions you're actually doing quite well at only 3 out of 24. My own
out of focus rate under similar conditions would be about twice yours.
Some of it is autofocus failure in the dark and some of it is Chuck's
manual focus failure in the dark.
If I'm using autofocus and I find that it can't lock in I'll try picking
something bright that's about the same distance away or slightly closer
and focus on that. That also works with manual focus too. I was
shooting a party last Saturday night and the dance floor was wood but
had inlaid aluminum strips in a criss-cross pattern every two feet.
Where the strips crossed was the only thing that I or the camera could
focus on. For dancers and other moving subjects, try to anticipate the
motion so that you get it going across your field of view rather than
toward or away from you. I know, easier said than done, but if you're
having difficulty focusing and the subjects are moving rapidly toward or
away from you it's really potluck to get a good shot.
If I'm shooting with the A1 it has tremendous depth of field so I just
manually focus at 2 meters and shoot away. Even if I have to shoot at
f/4 sometimes as long as I'm at an equivalent focal length of 40mm or
less most everything of interest will be in focus. I generally set up
studio flash to get the background light on the dance floor to f/5.6 and
then use other on camera flash set for about f/8. This gives fair depth
of field but doesn't help any on the focusing.
I don't own one yet but I have used one in these dark conditions and the
autofocus on the Canon 20D is a big step ahead of previous Canon
models such as the D60 and 10D. Never used an E-1 other than in a store.
Chuck Norcutt
Geilfuss Charles wrote:
> Andy, Not sure I'd blame the eyes. From your description, I can't
> think of a more difficult situation for focusing (even with 18 year
> old eyes). Short of switching to autofocus equipment (which may or
> may not work in low light conditions), you may want to switch to the
> old instamatic trick: f11 and hyperfocal settings. This along with
> TTL flash may do the job.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message----- From: olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of andy pang Sent:
> Tuesday, October 18, 2005 2:58 PM To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx Cc:
> pangandy@xxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [OM] eyesight going down south
>
>
>
> Hi All, My eyesight is not getting any better. My last roll of film
> got 3 out-focus pics out of 24, most of them are ballroom dance, so
> it was dark, indoor and fast-mocing subject :-( Any suggestion to
> improve : Varimagni, auto-focus cam &lens etc please help andy
>
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