Focus hunting

dancook

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Dan
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I'm shooting a portrait in the lounge, I have off-camera speedlights setup - it's day time outside but i draw the curtains to avoid any natural light interference.
Indoor lighting is now dim, camera is set to F8, 1/200 - if flash does not fire the photo will be devoid of light!

I'm using a 5dm2 with 85mm 1.2 II, centre spot focus.

Seemingly too often I find the AF hunting for focus.. or not obtaining it quick enough as my 'model' changes position !


Is it too dim? is it due to the lens? my settings? is there anything I can do?
 
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Using ST-E3-RT

I cannot believe they took the AF assist beam off the transmitter:bonk:

Your answer is to ensure your 'studio' is bright enough to focus but not bright enough to alter the image, to be honest it shouldn't be too difficult, in daylight I can use my house without shutting the curtains. Try ISO 100 or 200 at 1/200 and f5.6 or f8, without the flash the exposure should be completely black. There should be enough there to get you a flash exposure too without whacking up the guns too high.
 
Thanks,

I guess I feel it should perform better and hoped I was missing something else equally obvious - but if I will try that in future.

I'm also miffed about shooting at night .. I just want it to work flawlessly :)
 
Thanks,

I guess I feel it should perform better and hoped I was missing something else equally obvious - but if I will try that in future.

I'm also miffed about shooting at night .. I just want it to work flawlessly :)

Like I said, I can't believe that the trigger doesn't have AF assist. And it doesn't have a hot shoe either, that's a poor deal compared to a set of cheap Chinese triggers and flash guns.
 
I've not tried this with current camera's but.. the AF assist beam is just an infra red beam, so why not try an infra red illuminator, just point it at your target and perhaps that will help with focus?
 
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