Struggling with focus. Please help!

[RedZeppelin]

I have a Sony DSC-H2 camera. I use it primarily to take pictures of my two-year-old daughter. Unfortunately I absolutely can not get the camera to focus properly when I zoom the lens.

Here's an example:



CLICKY for full size version where you can really see the blur.

You can see that the chair behind her is perfectly focused, but she's blurry, and she wasn't moving.

I use flexible spot focusing set on monitor mode, and I'm always careful to put the focusing dot on something with high contrast such as an eye. And I always take my time with shot, waiting several seconds to let the camera try to focus.

But no matter what I do all my zoomed shots come out like the above, and it's driving me crazy.

I keep my camera in shutter priority mode at 160 because my daughter is always in motion and I want to cut down on the blur. I let the camera choose the aperture.

I always use flash.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? I'm about ready to give up and put my camera back in full auto mode like a rookie, that that's wasting a pretty good camera.

Thanks.

[inkista]

Have you tried center-spot AF?

Are you using a half-press and seeing if you've got focus confirmation before taking the picture?

Have you tried shooting without zooming, but just getting closer? (On my G9, my minimum focus distance gets larger the more I've zoomed). Alternatively, have you tried Macro mode? Your minimum focus distance at the Telephoto end of the lens (manual: p.95) is just shy of a yard (at the wide end of the range, it's 2cm).

Have you tried using a tripod and timer/remote to make sure it's not camera shake? (remember, the more you zoom, the faster your shutter speed has to be to avoid camera-shake blur). Alternatively, are you holding your camera correctly? Are you getting the vibration warning (the little hand)

Have you tried backing off from the extreme edge of the zoom range? Zoom lenses are sometimes softer at the extreme ends of their ranges. With a superzoom like that, I'd doubt it's at its sharpest all the way out.

Have you tried stopping down? Lenses are rarely at their best wide open. If you're going to use the flash, anyway...

[clockdoc]

Good advice from inkista. Have you tried a test on a stationary subject such as a wall that has some contrast line in it to see if it is you camera's autofocus that may need adjusting? Use a tripod if possible.

[Itanium]

inkista covered it all up..

EXIF of original tells its f/3.5 so that could be the problem as inkista said, try stopping down

It wasn't extreme zooming (19.2mm) so that can be eliminated from causes. Thats just around 3x zoom for H2, I guess.

[snapdragon]

Originally Posted by RedZeppelin

I have a Sony DSC-H2 camera. I use it primarily to take pictures of my two-year-old daughter. Unfortunately I absolutely can not get the camera to focus properly when I zoom

You can see that the chair behind her is perfectly focused, but she's blurry, and she wasn't moving.

I use flexible spot focusing set on monitor mode, and I'm always careful to put the focusing dot on something with high contrast such as an eye. And I always take my time with shot, waiting several seconds to let the camera try to focus.

But no matter what I do all my zoomed shots come out like the above, and it's driving me crazy.

I keep my camera in shutter priority mode at 160 because my daughter is always in motion and I want to cut down on the blur. I let the camera choose the aperture.

I always use flash.

Can anyone offer any suggestions? I'm about ready to give up and put my camera back in full auto mode like a rookie, that that's wasting a pretty good camera.

Thanks.

I may be wrong about this ,as I only know my camera & I use multi Mode , and I think that is the same as your ( flexible spot focusing ) , and I find that in that mode anything that is at that same distance will be in focus and everything else is out of focus . the low f # makes it even more so , as I use this mode for my water droplets . It looks to me like your little one is sunk into a nice soft sofa making it the same distance as her eyes so that is why it is in focus . try center weight . a heigher shutter speed 250 for kids on the go will also help ,at 160 she may have moved a tad ,with the focus on something as small as her eye and a sofa at the same distance I think it would be hard to keep the focus where you want it .If your camera has sports mode , try that and compare your results , I find that if you check the auto modes it gives you a starting point as to what your settings should be ,and then you can tweek them in manual . an old friend gave me that advice when i first started and i still use it ,with good results . hope this helps .

[RedZeppelin]

Thanks for all the advice!

The problem definitely isn't camera shake because almost always something in the background is perfectly focused (like the chair in my above example).

I was only about 6 or 7 feet from my subject when I took that shot, so as Itanium pointed out it wasn't really an extreme zoom.

Since I was in Shutter Priority I was letting the camera determine the f-stop, but from the comments here it looks like I may need to force it higher to increase DOF. Artistically I rather like the small DOF though because it keeps the focus on my daughter, not the furniture or the messy room behind her.

I'll test on some stationary objects to see how it focuses while zoomed, as well as play around with center focus instead of flexible spot.

Thanks again, all!