Focusing issue

<p>Good day everyone!<br>

I am using a Konica Minolta Maxxum 7D camera with a 75-300mm Minolta lens set up on a monopod trying to capture a humming bird eating from a flower. Today my lens is having difficulty focusing. It keeps zooming in and out not grabbing onto the flower or lil bird. What am I doing wrong here? I've had this issue before with black and white solid colors but thought it was because there was nothing for the lens to "grab" onto such as a line or change in color. I have also had this problem with trying to focus on the eye as they say to do. I am at the long end of my zoom... 300mm "Thank you"<br>

Respectfully<br>

Holly </p>

<p>As you surmised, there might not be enough of an area of contrast for the focusing mechanism to zero in on. My suggestion is to manually prefocus where the hummingbird is inserting his beak in the flower and shoot that way as the hummingbird flits around the flower. From personal experience...it is a tough shot...you'll probably need to take several to get an acceptable one.</p>

<p>I shot the picture OK yesterday but today I'm having a issue and not sure as to the reason why?</p><div></div>

Could it be that those rapidly flapping wings are confusing the auto focus? Try using manual focus.

<p>Leaving the bird out :) My camera will not even focus on the flower it's self?</p>

<p>The difficulty might lie in the fact that theAF is looking for contrast delineations in what is essentially a field of extreme red...tough for any AF and especially pure colors such as that. Try letting AF see a spot that's essentially the same distance as what you want to shoot, but maybe containing an edge or something that the AF can lock onto.</p>

<p>Did you change it (intentionally or accidentally) from Single-shot AF to one of the continuous focus modes? It may be trying to follow a subject even though it's not moving if you did.</p>

<p>The closest focusing distance is 4.9 ft (using the macro setting). You may be too close to the subject.</p>

<p>If as Alan suggests you are too close for the lens to work then you could investigate extension tubes though these may not connect the lens with the camera electrically and you will have to work in manual mode and possibly set your camera to the "no lens mode" if it requires this.<br>

It is irritating when AF doesn't work for one, which is why one should be willing to change to manual focusing, something I have to remind myself, not to be a slave to automation.</p>

<p>If you move the camera to the left so the flower is centre of frame will it get focus? I normally have my camera set to 'spot focus' which would mean it would not focus on the flower in the photo ... though my latest purchase permits me to pick the focus spot and it has already proved a useful feature not previously available to me :-) <br>

Previously I would centre the spot I want in focus in the viewfinder, take half trigger to get the camera to focus, and then having found focus while still holding HT move the camera to the composition I want. You can hold HT for quite awhile waiting for the subject to arrive, or else some cameras permit you to switch to manual focus without upsetting the focus you have found with AF without having to go into the menu.<br>

I find spot focus used as above a more useful mode giving me better control of focus than larger focus area options.</p>