Focus Problem I recently bought Olympus C-750. The real problem i have with it so far is that when I point the camera towrds the subject, its focus is adjusted automatically and the subject looks very focused and clear, but when i press the shutter button, the camera re-focuses and makes the subject blurr and in the end pictures come out very blurry. Kindly help me out with that, i.e: do i need to do some setting to avoid that??? and plus i cannot find the manuual focus option in the camera. thanks

If practically new have the auto focus circuitry repaired under warranty. If not under warranty it will cost a pretty penny since working on those units is labor intensive and the parts are proprietary and expensive..

Could be some moisture causing the sticking. You could bury the camera in rice for a couple of days to absorb the moisture. As far as focusing on a correct subject in a close-up, you should set your auto focus on spot focussing. Then, only a tiny portion of the center of your screen is the focus point. Center the important part and press the shutter half-way to lock the focus and then you can move the camera to a better position and press the rest of the way.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTITf correct focus cannot be obtained
When the subject to be focused is not on the AF target mark (not positioned
in the center of the composition), you can use the following steps to obtain the
correct focus on the subject. This operation is referred to as "focus lock".
Determine the position of the subject after focusing (Focus Lock)
1 Press the power switch.
• The camera turns on in the shooting
mode.
• The lens extends and the monitor turns
on.
• The orange lamp lights.
2 Turn the mode dial and select a
shooting mode.
"Shooting mode" (P.36)
3 Position the AF target mark on
the subject you want to focus on.
• When shooting a hard-to-focus
subject, point the camera at an object
about the same distance away as the
subject.
Press the shutter button halfway
until the green lamp lights.
• When the green lamp lights steadily,
the focus and the exposure are locked.
• When the green lamp blinks, the focus
and exposure are not locked. Release
your finger from the shutter button, reposition
your subject and press the
shutter button halfway again.
5 Keeping the shutter button
pressed halfway, recompose
your shot.
6 Press the shutter button fully.
Try the above, info from D-535, C-370 and X-450.
I can email you the complete manual if this works.
Regards
Phillip

* Get AF off the shutter release and onto the * button using the custom function. * Use the center focus point only. Force yourself to pick what you want in focus, AF, then recompose and shoot, a habit far more effective than computer driven multiple AF points for just about everything. * AF performance degrades in low light no matter what camera you own. This is life. At least if you control the when/where of AF, you can try and choose high contrast points in the scene to focus on, points that will help mitigate the low light. * Not sure if this applies to you, but it does apply to many a pixel peeper...if something prints sharp at 8x10 or 11x14 then AF has succeeded even if it's a little off at 100% in Photoshop. AF is not perfect and the tolerances are not necessarily up to producing 40" enlargements, which is what 100% in Photoshop is. Having said that, in good lighting with good target contrast the AF on your 20D often will nail focus so perfectly that it will hold up even at 40".

Take a look at this discussion of shutter lifepsan. http://www.dphoto.us/forum/archive/index.php/t- 4531.html To summarize these posts, average number of cycles (one instance of open and close shutter) is somewhere between 50,000 and 150,000 cylcles. As one poster pointed out, we seem to take more pictures with digital than with film cameras, so a hundred thousand cylces might not be that many. I have a c2500L bought used at online auction and have probably taken about 1500 pics so far. Don't know how much previous owner used it. It's amazing how many pictures you take when you don't need to spend money on film and processing! The c2500L is a really nice camera and I hope that mine lasts many years. My c2500L is an early one with version 1.0 firmware (later models have version 1.20 sticker on side) and was built in about 1999 I think. As for autofocus, mine works great as long as I have the focus mode (regular, macro, super macro) and zoom level set correctly for my distance to subject. Fortunately, the green focus indicator lamp near viewfinder flashes when focus isn't right. A few other thoughts on focus: taking picture through glass, in mirror, or scene with no contrast (like a solid grey sky) might require you to use the manual focus or focus lock modes. Window glass fools camera, which tries to focus on glass instead of your desired subject. For mirror, you need to double the normal focus distance (measure distance from camera to mirror, focus on something twice as far, then lock focus and take your pic in mirror). With SLR film camera, mirrors and glass don't cause trouble because you are focusing manually. One other note on fuzzy or dark corners on pictures: if you use filters, especially a thick filter like a polarizer, you should probably get a 43mm to 46mm adapter and use bigger filter. At widest angle zoom, my polarizer causes vignetting in corners because the filter actually is "seen" by lens in corner of pics. Oops, I should have thought of that before buying filters I guess. Hope this helps some.

Normally the camera measures the distance to the subject using the 3 auto focus frames (left, center and right auto focus frames) in the viewfinder and selects the most appropriate point automatically. You can also select any one of the three points.

If the camera is having a difficult time auto-focusing, you can try the FOCUS LOCK feature. This feature allows you to focus on another subject roughly the same distance from you and then move the camera back to the intended subject and take the picture without losing focus. First, turn the camera on and locate the Autofocus Target Mark in the center of the LCD. The AF Target Mark resembles an open and close bracket [ ]. Position this AF Target Mark on a subject roughly the same distance away as the subject the camera is having trouble focusing on. Press the shutter button halfway enabling the lens to focus. While holding the shutter button halfway down, aim the camera at the original subject and press the shutter button all the way down.

If the camera is having trouble doing an auto focus you can try the FOCUS LOCK feature. This feature allows you to focus on another subject roughly the same distance away from you, and then move the camera back to your original subject and take your picture without losing that focus. First turn the camera on and locate the AutoFocus Target Mark in the center of the LCD. The AF Target Mark resembles an open and close bracket [ ]. Position this AF Target Mark on a subject roughly the same distance away from you as the subject that the camera is having trouble focusing on. Press the shutter button halfway enabling the lens to focus. While keeping the shutter button pressed halfway, move the camera back to include the subject you originally wanted in the image, then press the shutter fully. (Please see page 42 in the D-535 Zoom Reference Manual in Section 3, under the heading titled “If Correct Focus Cannot Be Obtained”, for a more detailed explanation.)

If the camera is having a difficult time auto-focusing you can try the FOCUS LOCK feature. This feature allows you to focus on another subject roughly the same distance from you and then move the camera back to the intended subject and take the picture without losing focus. First, turn the camera on and locate the Autofocus Target Mark in the center of the LCD. The AF Target Mark resembles an open and close bracket [ ]. Position this AF Target Mark on a subject roughly the same distance away as the subject the camera is having trouble focusing on. Press the shutter button halfway enabling the lens to focus. While holding the shutter button halfway down, aim the camera at the original subject and press the shutter button all the way down.

If the camera is having trouble doing an auto focus you can try the FOCUS LOCK feature. This feature allows you to focus on another subject roughly the same distance away from you, and then move the camera back to your original subject and take your picture without losing that focus. First turn the camera on and locate the AutoFocus Target Mark in the center of the LCD. The AF Target Mark resembles an open and close bracket [ ]. Position this AF Target Mark on a subject roughly the same distance away from you as the subject that the camera is having trouble focusing on. Press the shutter button halfway enabling the lens to focus. While keeping the shutter button pressed halfway, move the camera back to include the subject you originally wanted in the image, then press the shutter fully. (Please see page 20 in the D-425 Advanced Manual in Section 2, under the heading titled “If Correct Focus Cannot Be Obtained”, for a more detailed explanation. This Advanced Manual is provided on a separate CD, in Adobe PDF format.)