Ummmm?

[Jessca]

I recently got a s/h Canon 350D

now i am a complete novice when it comes to SLRs, so i dont know whether this is normal or not and would LOVE some help please.

i've been playing around with taking photos at dusk/ darker hours. and i've noticed that sometimes it will not take the picture, i half press the button so it focuses, then the circle flashes saying its ready, but it does not beep, and it wont take the picture when i press the button fully down.

it only seems to do this when it cant find something distinctive enough to focus on (if that makes sense, so it would take a photo of my golden coloured dog, but would not take a photo of my black dog)

i hope that makes sense.

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

[Luke W]

I recently got a s/h Canon 350D

now i am a complete novice when it comes to SLRs, so i dont know whether this is normal or not and would LOVE some help please.

i've been playing around with taking photos at dusk/ darker hours. and i've noticed that sometimes it will not take the picture, i half press the button so it focuses, then the circle flashes saying its ready, but it does not beep, and it wont take the picture when i press the button fully down.

it only seems to do this when it cant find something distinctive enough to focus on (if that makes sense, so it would take a photo of my golden coloured dog, but would not take a photo of my black dog)

i hope that makes sense.

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

It sounds like the autofocus isn't able to find anything of high enough contrast to focus on. It's not unusual in very low light.

[Jessca]

I recently got a s/h Canon 350D

now i am a complete novice when it comes to SLRs, so i dont know whether this is normal or not and would LOVE some help please.

i've been playing around with taking photos at dusk/ darker hours. and i've noticed that sometimes it will not take the picture, i half press the button so it focuses, then the circle flashes saying its ready, but it does not beep, and it wont take the picture when i press the button fully down.

it only seems to do this when it cant find something distinctive enough to focus on (if that makes sense, so it would take a photo of my golden coloured dog, but would not take a photo of my black dog)

i hope that makes sense.

Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

It sounds like the autofocus isn't able to find anything of high enough contrast to focus on. It's not unusual in very low light.

thanks so much for that. i was worried i bought a dud camera, the risks you take buying second hand i suppose.

thanks again Luke

[Clicking Mad]

I find this most noticeable when I have it set to "one stop" (AF - auto focus) as opposed to "ai focus" or "ai servo"

Edited January 7, 2009 by Clicking Mad

[Guest Tess32]

It also sometimes happens if you are focusing too close for a specific lens... Step back from the subject and try to AF and see if that's it too.

[rubiton]

Ifthe photo is being take of a still objec the one stop is the correct setting. The camera will not beep on AI Servo.

ften if its took dark the camera will hunt and try to focus and if it cant it will not take a photo. You can make it take a photo by changing the focus setting on the lens to M and setting the focus manually (just remember to turn it back to Auto or next time you pick up the caemra you'll wonder why the auto focus isnt working).

[Jessca]

thanks Clicking Mad, Tess 32 and rubiton for your help, i'll try it out tonight on those different settings and see how i go.

thanks again, its greatly appreciated.

[Gayle.]

There is a way to do it if you know how to use the * button to meter the scene. Pressing the * button will keep a memory of the settings required for about 16 seconds, I think. Then shine a torch onto the area you want to focus to give it more light so it can focus better, set your focus, turn the torch off and take the pic.

[chris.p.day]

There is a way to do it if you know how to use the * button to meter the scene. Pressing the * button will keep a memory of the settings required for about 16 seconds, I think. Then shine a torch onto the area you want to focus to give it more light so it can focus better, set your focus, turn the torch off and take the pic.

This is called Exposure Locking (or AE lock), this can be useful when the thing you want to focus on may not provide the best exposure information for the rest of the scene.

Usually for most cameras you can hold the AE lock button (usually the *) then recompose for the focus, half-press shutter for the focus lock, then recompose then full press of shutter to take photo.

I've used this when taking sunset shots at the beach looking into the sun, point the camera along the beach for exposure lock, point at waters edge for focus lock, then point at setting sun to take photo.

The exposure lock can become more important when using spot metering rather than center-weighted or matrix metering. Spot metering is useful when taking pictures of a person you can spot meter and focus on their face then recompose.

[Ripley]

chris, with the spot metering, after you have taken a reading, do you then switch the metering mode back to evaluated or centre weighted or something? Because that part throws me.

edited for typo

Edited January 15, 2009 by Ripley

[chris.p.day]

chris, with the spot metering, after you have taken a reading, do you then switch the metering mode back to evaluated or centre weighted or something? Because that part throws me.

You would use the spot metering to take the picture. That's why the AE lock button (*) is useful. Most cameras, once you get a focus lock, will still evaluate the exposure until you fully press the shutter. This can be a problem if the camera is pointing at something bright (or dark) but it is not your subject

Eg. scene is person next to a window with light streaming through, you want to frame so window is centre right of frame and person is on the left. You want to expose correctly for the person.

You compose and take picture and find the person is woefully underexposed but the window is exposed just fine!

So then you point your camera at the person, get an exposure lock (and most likely a focus lock as well) then recompose with window in the centre-right then take the picture, the person is better but still a little under-exposed.

So then you change to spot-metering from evaulative (or even centre-weighted) and do the same as above and finally the person comes out perfectly exposed!