Fuji 9600 focus query

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MatthewS

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Hi all, I'm looking for a bit of advice re. a camera I've just purchased.

Not being that camera knowledgable, I've just upgraded from a 4 year old Olympus C-350 to a Fuji 9600.

I need to take indoor shots in connection with my work so am always looking to improve the quality of the shots hence the recent purchase. I'm getting on ok with the Fuji apart from seemingly one little niggle. Try as I might, I cannot get as good a focus with this Fuji as I could with the old Olympus. The depths of colour/ hue etc are lovely but the focus is either really bad or at best just not quite bang on.

I'm using the camera on AUTO on 9m setting, no flash, on a tripod and with the timer. The objects that I phtograph (antique furniture) have been lit a number of ways all indoors - natural light from rooflights, windows, extra light by 3 x 500w halogen lights. I've taken shots in the dark but lit by 3 x 500w halogen lights and these pics are the best ones I'm getting. The daylight ones are no good at all. Real close up shots are pin sharp - its the others which I need to do which I'm struggling with.

There definately seems to be a problem with the focussing with this camera and I've read other reports on the web about other users having the same sort of thing.

Any ideas anyone??
 
Just a thought you say real close up is pin sharp, you aren't in a macro focus mode are you? ( sounds silly but I have done this with a S602Z)
 
nope not in macro, theres a macro logo that comes up on the screen so I know its not that (mind you it is the sort of thing I'd do!)

I seem to have tried everything with this camera going from auto to manual and to date have taken approx 400 shots.

bear in mind its furniture I'm shooting eg a chest of drawers 4ft wide. I stand back about 15 feet and zoom it in till it fills the screen. Its these shots I can't get as clear as with the old Olympus.
 
Auto focus works by detecting contrast the adjusting the lens until that contrast is as strong as possible. Try a test shot of something with high contrast like a newspaper headline. If it can't focus on that then you may have a faulty camera.

You can download and print out a focus test sheet to see if it focuses on what you aim at.

These threads may help

focus chart
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8903

focus problems
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=3326
 
set it to AV mode and try again. set to about F8 or more. In low light the camera will open up the apature and reduce depth of focus. This will override it
 
Many thanks for the replies and the links. I'm going back to work tonight to action whats been suggested. One thing I have just found though is when the camera is zoomed in to its max. on auto setting it goes off very slightly focus even before max is reached. Given advice from the shop was to zoom right in, focus and zoom out again to get the required shot I can now see where some of my problems are coming from. Using the manual focus gets better results but I'm not there yet!

Am I right in saying that on AUTO mode in low light conditions the ISO setting is sometimes too high? I've been lowering the ISO also and this seems to have helped too.

Don't know what I'm talking out too much here to be honest and rather than thinking the camera has a fault I'm trying to keep an open mind!!
 
Post some sample pics here so we can see the problem.
 
Heres one I took tonight.

Lit by 3 x 500w halogen lights. Mid brown backdrop. White painted wall to left. Block wall and clutter to right. Chipboard floor.

Camera on tripod on timer. Manual focus. 'A' setting with aperture setting 8.
9M setting. Sharpness setting. 200 ISO setting. White balance in auto.

I know the colours rubbish but all I'm interested in is the focus aspect at the moment. This shot is typical of what I'm getting. Close up shots are pin sharp and I've got some test shots of a newspaper headline I can post up if need be - the focus on that seems very, very slightly out to me.

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4825/mondaynightworkshopdarkjr7.jpg

So really, 90 shots tonight and no further forward!
 
Looks OK to me. Did you sharpen at all after resizing it for web?

I would just use auto focus at the focal length you are planning to shoot at. Don't change the zoom after focusing. Manual focus in the 9600 isn't easy due to the EVF so it's usually best to stick with auto focus.

Do you want to use full sized hi-res images or are you planning to resize for web use?
 
the pic was straight from the camera with no editing. I want to load as good a quality pic as possible onto the website but don't want to have page loading probs obviously. I'm surprised you say it looks ok - perhaps its just me! I have loads of pics from my old Olympus compact digital and by and large they are much sharper and cleaner looking than the pics from the 9600.
Regarding using auto focus, I've been finding it very very hit and miss. I'd say 30% of the shots are noticably blurred even though it did focus and the camera was on a tripod.

I'll continue playing with it. I guess if a pro says its ok it must be!
 
MatthewS said:
Regarding using auto focus, I've been finding it very very hit and miss. I'd say 30% of the shots are noticably blurred even though it did focus and the camera was on a tripod.
Click to expand...

Actually that doesn't sound good. It might be worth taking it back to where you bought it. I have heard of problems with the 9500 (and I guess the 9600) 'missing' on auto focus so it might be worth going back to the shop and tell them about it (I own a 9500 and I've founds it to be fine 95% of the time).

But in the meantime have you sharpened after resizing for web? Take that picture you posted ... crop and resize the original for web then apply USM 100%, 0.3, 0 and see how it looks.



P.S. I'm no pro :p
 
Cheers Mohain. Firstly sorry to flatter you:thumbs: your stuff does look good though! Regarding your last paragraph - I ain't got a clue what you mean!!
I'm assuming some kind of editing? We use HP photo and imaging which is rubbish. I havn't downloaded the Fuji programme yet.

About my pics, I'm now wondering whether its to do with the lighting as I took some shots today of a small section (two feet square) of an item of furniture very heavily lit by 2 halogen spots (18 " away from subject) and there was much more definition and depth.
 
just sharpened an image up on HP and in the programme it looked terrible. I emailed the image to myself and it looks quite good.

Is the Fuji programme a good one?
 
Thanks for the complement :D Most of the pics on my site are taken with an S9500. USM is "Unsharp Masking", sharpening settings in photoshop. When you reduce the pixel dimensions the image will soften. In fairness the image you posted looks worse on my PC monitor than my laptop monitor. I don't know about the HP or the Fuji programs I'm afraid. You might want to consider checking out Elements, it's not too pricey and it might help your pics. I think you can download a 30 day Trial from the Adobe site. A very quick crop, clone, and sharpen produces this:

mondaynightworkshopdarkjr7_1.jpg


A small improvement. Still, if your getting missed autofocus 30% of the time with the camera on a tripod using self timer under resonably syrong light you really should send it to the shop to get it looked at.

Good luck :thumbs:
 
that pic looks good! Things are getting better now. I'm setting the camera to A and using f9 setting (as suggested here) - this is giving me sharper pics plus I've set the WB to sunshine and thats making the pics warmer. Also, I've been sharpening the images by up to 30 points and thats inproving them. Downloaded FUJI programme tonight so we'll see what thats like!

Good advice here - thanks for the info....
 
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