Help with focus on a 70 -300mm

tim

tim

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Tim Preston
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Hi my new lens arrived yesterday, an Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm. I am having difficulty focusing at long distance.

The lens is fine up to just over 150mm, this is adjusted by a thick band near to the body. For longer reach there is a finer band near the lens cap. If I adust the lens to full stretch I just get blur and no definition at all.

Any hints or tips?

Thanks

Tim
 
Is this new? second hand? intended for your camera or adapted for it?

more info!!
 
Not sure what you are referring to re the different adjustments for different reaches...? The zoom works by using the same wide twisting mechanism - at every focal length, not just up to 150mm. The thin band towards the end of the lens is the manual focus ring - if you choose to use it that is!

Are you using the Auto Focus on the E400...?
 
It is brand new, specific for the olympus E series. I have tried both the auto and manual focus.

The wide band moved anticlockwise takes the zoom out to 150mm the narrow band turned clockwise then take the lens out to 300mm (markings on the lens body) anything over 150 1:6 loses the image even at long range.

Thanks
Tim
 
That doesnt sound right.
When there are two rings to twist one is the zoom the other is the focus.
From looking at a few photos of it, the the zoom ring is the one nearest the camera body and the one nearest the front is the focus ring.

This is your lens (apparently)
ZUIKO_70-300_4.0-5.6_1_L.JPG


----------This is the focus ring

---------------------------------------------------------This is the zoom ring



If you are twiddling the focus ring no wonder you never get a sharp shot. In Auto focus you leave the one at the front alone and zoom with the
large one at the back.
 
can you post the exact model number for the lens? al the ones i have found have a single twist which goes from 75-300
 
It is the one OG has posted dont worry i will have a play!

As for the sharp shot OG I have not posted any images with this lens!
 
The wide band should take you from 70 through to 300 mm, and the narrow band is the focus ring, used at any focal length for manual focus.

If what you say is happening, then there's certainly a problem with the lens. Can you take any shots with another lens of the 70-300mm at 70, at 150, and at 300 please?
 
The Lens (apparently);)

P1010069.jpg


This is as far as the lens extends with the wide band
P1010070.jpg


If you then wind the narrow band it expads to this
P1010071.jpg


Should it not do this off the wide band?

Tim
 
As Joe says the front ring might move the barrel in and out a bit, but not that much.

I can see from your 2nd shot that the wide band is the zoom ring. Its marked 70,100,150,200,300.
If it doesnt extend out to 300 with the main ring (the big one at the back) that seems seriously odd / bust.

The front focusing band shouldnt move/extend the barrel by that much. It will more than likely shift a few of the internal elements
and might (depending on the construction) rotate the barrel and shuffle it a little in/out.
If I was you I'd be looking at a trip to your local shop to compare it against another one (and get someone to look at yours) if need be.
I can't see how it could be that wrong. My guess is that you are misunderstanding something.
 
I see macro markings on it, is there a macro switch anywhere?
 
On the third image can you see the mark 1:6 to the left of the 150mm on the narrow part of the body? thats as far as it extends with the wide band. Although it twists to 300mm on the chunky part of the body visible in shot 2 the 300mm marking on the narrow extended part of the body does not appear from the main part of the body
 
Right, I think I might know what's happening here... and the good news is that your lens could be OK.

Are you sure you have your E-400 AF focus mode set to S-AF(MF) - this will allow the camera to do a single shot Auto focus, and will also allow you to override the focus by turning the manual focus ring. The further away the object you are trying to focus on, the further out the lens goes (it gets longer). So, if you focus on something fairly close say 15' away at say, 70mm, providing there's enough light this evening then the lens will auto focus on that object. If you then turn the zoom wheel (the wide one) you will see the image get closer (obviously) in the viewfinder.

Now... stay in S-AF(MF) mode, bring the zoom back to 70mm and change your object of focus to something far away, say something outside (again, if you do this this evening, ensure there's enough light) then when the camera has autofocused, zoom out using the wide ring to 300mm. You will then notice that the lens is fully extended and in focus.

Let me know how you get on with this little experiment. I too have a wonderful E-400 and it works fine on mine.
 
Ok these images are taken at 16ft from the subject

70mm
P1010082.jpg


150mm
P1010083.jpg


300mm
P1010084.jpg


The lens is not extending fully but do these shots look about right for a 300mm capability?

Sorry to be a pain

Tim
 
Yep - they look fine to me for low light conditions. Try tomorrow when you are outside at something much further away, and you will see the lens extend to the full length for distant objects.
 
Yep. The last is roughly a bit less than 1/3rd @300mm of the field of view in the 1st @70mm. They are pretty much sharp too.

I'm guessing therefore that your lens has some sort of macro capability and that the front focussing ring allows you to focus really close (squinting I think it says 1:4 @300mm), its not "really" macro, but a reasonable approximation (true macro starts at 1:1). So the markings are nothing to do with the zoom you have dialled in, but are the macro settings. Try focusing on something close (say a pen) @300mm from about 1 meter away or less (96cm says one review http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/15135/olympus-zuiko-digital-ed/). I'd guess you can. This being the case then we've been running down the garden path the wrong way.

Normal shooting dial in the zoom you want on the zoom ring. Macro shooting <1m (??) the approximate "magnification" of the subject. In your case at 300mm it'll record quarter life size.


NB: Non macro zoom lenses only focus down to about 1m away (my 70-200 has a min focus of 1.4m).
 
Yes it's fine. I think the lines refer to macro not focal length. If the image continues to grow in the viewfinder when you turn the zoom ring past 150mm then it's zooming fine. When you earlier turned the narrow ring you were pulling it out of focus. If you look inside the barrel of the lens when you turn the two rings you'll see different sets of elements move.
 
Problem solved thanks for the help especially music man. I was just a little scared I had spent 300 quid on a duff lens.

It does have a macro on it OG here is a pen as suggested.

P1010088-1.jpg


Thanks everyone!!

Tim
 
:thumbs:
 
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