Canon 400d Indoor question

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I was at a pal's last Friday, recording a podcast and I thought it would be nice to take a few pictures...

For some reason, my camera decided that it didn't like humans and refused to take pictures of them. I had the 'nifty 50' lens attached at 1.8, and the ISO at it's highest (I was really only after pictures for posterity, and not aesthetic value).

It was late in the evening, and the only light was the artificial light of a front room. The camera would take pictures of everything except people, which it just refused to do. Nothing happened when I pressed the button. At breakfast the next day (in natural light outdoors) the camera worked fine.

Any ideas?
 
I guess that's possible. It just seems odd that it would take pictures of everything else, like a cat or a microphone on the coffee table...

Should a/the camera take a picture all of the time regardless of conditions or are there situations where it would refuse? ie. subject too close, not enought light etc
 
Could you get it to focus at all. Normally (if it is switched on) there is a confirmation beep when the focus is set. Did you get that beep at all?
 
The only thing I can think is that the camera couldn't focus asuming your using AF.
I have the 400D and the Niffty and have never had that problem.
Failing that, like david says, could be a fault.
 
Slvrbck said:
The only thing I can think is that the camera couldn't focus asuming your using AF.
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Yeah, it was on AF. I did try on MF and it would take a picture of a human, but it was out of focus. If it cannot focus on AF, would it not take a picture of should it just take an out-of-focus one?

Like I said the next day, everything was fine (albeit in daylight), which is why I lean towards conditions as opposed to a fault.
 
Sounds a lot like it couldn't focus in AF but then you say you had a high ISO and the niffty at 1.8????
 
Slvrbck said:
Sounds a lot like it couldn't focus in AF but then you say you had a high ISO and the niffty at 1.8????
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Yeah. I'm not exactly a genius at this kind of thing, but I know my way around the camera...

Maybe I had the settings too high? if that's possible...
 
I wont be your camera refusing to take photos of humans, trust me ;)
 
davidbridges said:
I wont be your camera refusing to take photos of humans, trust me ;)
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LOL Perhaps I own the world's first sentient camera?

I guess I'll just keep at it and see if it happens again... I didn't have a lot of time to run many diagnostics on that particular evening.
 
i wonder if skin is not high enough contrast in lowish light. A microphone has hard edges and good contrast. Could it be that?

Also, in one shot mode i think it is... it will not take the pic but in servo focus it will take it anyway.
 
Janice said:
i wonder if skin is not high enough contrast in lowish light. A microphone has hard edges and good contrast. Could it be that?

Also, in one shot mode i think it is... it will not take the pic but in servo focus it will take it anyway.
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Servo focus, you say? I'll give that a whirl also.
 
i got rid of my nifty fifty as it constantly had problems focusing in low light, the 50 1.4 was much improved
 
Internets said:
Servo focus, you say? I'll give that a whirl also.
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Well, you dont want it to take shots that arent in focus though do you?

I agree that the nifty fifty is ace.. but can be difficult with focus in the low light.
 
It could be for two reasons :-

1, Human faces don't have high enough contrast for the 400D AF to work at that light / ISO level


2, Your friend is very very ugly and the camera gods wouldn't allow a photo to be taken


:shrug:







;)
 
Spooky:eek: It wasnt a vampire reunion night was it and do you ever meet these friends in day light apart from this I cant help
Bob:shrug:
 
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