Nothing in focus syndrome

[raagamuffin]

All, 

I was shooting with my XT2 with the latest firmware last week and almost all of my landscape images from a particular session are out of focus - not one area of the image is in focus. Has this happened to anyone with the latest firmware? 

I don't think I accidentally hit the 'M' button, since the pictures right after that were taken (after a power cycle and no menu changes) have the expected area in focus. 

Its a little annoying, but one would have to keep reviewing after every shot to ensure area of focus, which detracts from usability especially in quickly changing scenes. 

 

[Ostravaczech]

I had this happen when I used zone focus.  Many of my shots were out of focus.  When I switched to single point, all was fine.

[raagamuffin]

Ostravaczech, 

Interesting, I was in single point with the aperture at F11 with my 35mm 1.4 when this occurred. I have to research this some more to figure out why it gets triggered. 

Incidentally, I was close to your neck of the woods (Grand Canyon) when this happened, so I don't know if the location has a certain voodoo.

 

 

 

[Ostravaczech]

6 hours ago, raagamuffin said:

….

Incidentally, I was close to your neck of the woods (Grand Canyon) when this happened, so I don't know if the location has a certain voodoo.

 

 

 

@raagamuffin - Oh, that’s funny ….. because it happened to me at GC last year so there must be something about that place, I suppose.  Anyway, I am sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.

[veejaycee]

@raagamuffin

I realise you said you don't think you switched to manual but what can happen at small apertures is this - You set a small aperture f11 then half press the shutter button and everything becomes sharp so you assume you have AF on target when in fact all you've done is use AE to close the aperture to f11 - same as if you were checking DoF. Everything appears sharp so you take the picture but at full size on PC screen even at f11 the softness is more obvious.

I've been caught out like this myself when I've half pressed the shutter button  and AF has apparently functioned but then thought "hello - this should be on back button focus". It is on BB focus but the half press of the shutter button closing to a small aperture gives the appearance of AF operating - when it isn't - it is in fact AE operating.

That's a possible scenario based on my experiences anyway.

[raagamuffin]

VJC,

Interesting thought. Does AE operate in a linear fashion with AF? That is, AE first, then AF gets triggered? 

If that is the case, then I'm a bit more troubled by the implementation, how does one know when AE fires and when AF does? Only reviewing every picture would confirm it. 

In your experience, what have you done to alleviate this scenario? 

 

 

[veejaycee]

You can only be 100% sure to avoid this by devoting the AE-on button to exposure, the AF-on button to focus and turning OFF shutter AF and shutter AE. You will then lock exposure with AE back button, lock focus with AF back button and only use the shutter button to take the picture.

However, you are not likely to suffer this problem very often and it is not reasonable to expect anyone to do this in practice so it's just something to remember as a possible cause when you do find your pictures oof when you assumed they would be sharp. You are more likely to get caught out when shooting wide angles at small apertures and the GC is a place where you are most likely to do just that - perhaps that is one time you might follow the above practice.

With so many automated functions with so many overrides and parameters to set - this is just one of those things that will sometimes happen. All you can really do is check your switches and settings now and again.