FZ7 manual focus problems

[benp]

Hi,

I'm having trouble getting my FZ7 to focus on distant subjects (e.g. the moon) with the manual focus. I'm wondering if there's something I'm doing wrong, and I'd be grateful if someone else who has this camera could assist me. It seems really simple, but I just want to make sure I'm not missing something obvious.

I mostly use manual focus when I want to take landscape pictures with the focus set at infinity, or for things like fireworks or lightning when the autofocus is too slow. Here is what I do: with the camera in P (or A/S/M) mode, I hold down the AF/MF button for half a second or so until the focus range appears on the right side of the screen. There is a yellow bar which I assume represents the distance range that should be in focus, and the bar moves up and down as you move the joystick. To focus at infinity, I hold the joystick in the up position until the bar gets to the top of the range and stops moving. But the pictures taken are always out of focus, i.e. focused on a shorter distance.

The camera has no trouble focusing on distant subjects with the autofocus, and the manual focus seems to work fine for closer subjects.

Can anyone confirm that I'm using it correctly, and does manual focus work properly for you?

Thanks,
Ben

[genece]

I will only try to help because no one else has.
I do not have a FZ7 but with the FZs I do have, there is no infinity focus...The models I have use a focus ring, but if you turn it all the way to what you would think is infinity, you really went past the focus point....So you must watch the EVF to know when you achieve focus.
I hope that helps and I am sorry if it does not help.

Most of the lens I have work the same way......

[benp]

Thanks for the reply. I will try that...

[Mike63]

Do you have the focus assist turn on, that helps me when shooting the moon and other difficult shots.

[genece]

Your kidding , right?


Do you have the focus assist turn on, that helps me when shooting the moon and other difficult shots.

[tim11]

AF assist on the moon? :confused:

[Paradox]

I shot the moon with my FZ50 last night. Only advice I can give, underexpose and watch closely for the correct focus. You'll have to shoot in manual, the camera stuffs up both the exposure and focus.

[benp]

I played around a bit more on the weekend, and it seems that, as Gene suggested, maximum focus distance is past infinity (so you can focus on really, really far-away things, I guess? :-) )

Apparently one possible reason for this is to stop the AF mechanism hitting a hard limit while it's trying to focus. Another possible reason is that the focal point changes with the focal length, since it's a vario lens rather than a true zoom lens, so what's infinity at one end of range may be past infinity at the other end. I would have thought that, since it's all electronic, they could have calibrated it and provided an infinity setting. It would make moon/landscape/firework photography a lot easier!

The EVF on the FZ7 isn't very good, so using the manual focus in general is pretty difficult (even with the expanded view of the centre), and really requires either a small aperture (to increase the DOF), or bracketing, or dumb luck :-).

[genece]

It is my understanding that with lenses for DSLRs the added distance is there to make up for changes in temp......so I guess the same can apply for the FZs.
I know I said most cameras/lenses work that way but after checking, I believe all lenses work that way.

[benp]

Ah, I suppose that is the more obvious reason... and also explains why it can't just be calibrated.

I seem to recall, with my previous camera, being able to set the focus to infinity manually for fireworks shots. I guess the difference is probably that that was at wideangle and f/8, whereas my recent efforts have been directed at the moon at full telephoto with a wider aperture.

I guess it all comes down to practice in the end :-)

Cheers,
Ben