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cant get the camera to focus on doll

Jun 28, 2010

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    1. My camera has a macro mode but when I try taking closeup shots, like for faceup details, the camera keeps wanting to focus on whatever is in the background and it is really hard to get it to focus on the doll. Especially if it is grass in the background. How do I fix this?

      If it helps at all I dont know exactly what my camera is but here is the info on the camera itself:
      HP Photosmart M437 5.0 megapixels.

      Please help if you can. It is really annoying
       
      #1 metalheadneko, Jun 28, 2010
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    2. I checked your camera's manual and its specs.

      The minimum focus distance changes depending on your zoom setting. If you are completely zoomed out (wide), the closest you can focus is 5 cm. If completely zoomed in (tele), the closest is 35 cm. This is assuming you are in macro mode, of course. If your doll is closer than these distances at those settings, your camera is simply not physically capable of focusing on it.

      Page 11 of the manual describes "focus lock", which looks like "focus and recompose" to me. Since I don't have the camera, I can only guess at how it works. I believe that there are focus brackets in the center of the screen at all times. When you half-press, it attempts to find focus in the brackets. So first put the bracket on the thing you want to focus on, then recompose the shot to what you actually want.

      About focus: focus to a computer means contrast. An autofocus computer shifts the lens back and forth slightly and finds the point of greatest contrast. So wherever you point that bracket, make sure there's some detail to look at--an obvious change in color like the edge of an eye, eyebrow or mouth. See here for an example for the kind of analysis the autofocus computer is doing.
       
      #2 gaiaswill, Jun 29, 2010
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    3. Thanks for the info! Seriously I wouldnt have known what to google or where to go for finding the manual online. I bought the thing second hand.
      I learned how to do that focusing thing but it only works half the time. The damn thing loves grass. But I took your advice about finding a point of greater contrast for the brackets and it seems to work better when I focus on the shirt first >.<
       
      #3 metalheadneko, Jul 2, 2010
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