S3 Zoom

[insimbi]

Hello everyone. I've only had my S3 for two days now and haven't had a chance to play with it much yet.

Last night though, while inside my office, I turned it on and zoomed at the wall. It was kind of dark, but there was some light from the overhead fixture. Anyways, the wall I zoomed in on never seemed to focus - everything remained blurry. I was on the AUTO setting and had IS turned on.

I haven't had time to read the manual yet or play with any ISO settings, but shouldn't the lense focus on something once I zoom in on it? Just wondering...

Thanks! :)

[swgod98]

1) There is a minimum distance at which the camera can focus. This distance increases the more you zoom in. So, you may have been too close to the wall for it to focus on properly (at your distance from it).

2) Most (perhaps all?) UZ camera's have trouble focusing in dim light when zoomed in.

[JTL]

Not just UZs...all camaras...including DSLRs do not auto-focus as well in low-light/low-contrast situations. Auto focus is not "magic". When in passive mode, auto focus in most P&S cameras works by contrast detection. Low light=low contrast=AF difficulty. It's that simple. In active mode (when the focus assist comes on) they attempt to focus on the reflected light or bounced ultrasonic waves (depending on the camera)...not very accurate. Most DSLRs depend on phase detection, which is directly related to the amount of light available...

But, the real message here is: The best way to have good experiences is to be informed and have reasonable expectations! ;)

[BowerR64]

Thats what ive noticed also. Using various telephoto lenses does this also. One lens will focus good on somthing about 6 ft. away where a different one needs to be about 7-8 feet to focus properly. Sometimes a step back or forward or zooming out a click helps also.

The S2 has a stepped focus. If you go into manual mode you can see how you move the focus bar up and down in steps. So it can be a little over focused or under depending on the distance your shooting. I think you click the up or down button 2 times to see the bar move a step.

Say you focus on somthing and the green box pops up and it beeps twice take a shot then move in a little and shoot again, then move back and shoot again. One may look a little sharper

[XaiLo]

One more thing the zoom on the S2 is fast and at times it's really easy to over shoot your focal point. And no matter how much you try to adjust it, it won't adjust properly unless you back down to wide and zoom in slowly especially if you have AF set to continuous. hth