maxxum 7 af acting funny

I may be paranoind, but maybe someone can help me. I've been using

my maxxum 7 on full auto and today, when i press the shutter release

button to focus, it does a bunch of "quick" focuses and half the time

doesn't end up focusing correctly. I've tried all the focus modes

and it does it on all of them. I've also changed to my zoom lens and

it does the same thing. Is this normal? I've only had it about a

week and it doesn't seem like it was doing this before today. Any

input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Anita

Which lens did you use? Was there enough light? What were you focusing on? Are the batteries good?

Anita,

<p>

I've been using a Maxxum 7 since January 2003 and I haven't experienced that behavior. I would try the following:

<ul>

<li>Make sure you are outdoors at daylight. Pointing the camera to a brick wall (or a tree, or a dog) should help.</li>

<li>Set focusing mode (wheel at the front of the camera) to 'S'.</li>

<li>Turn eye-start OFF.</li>

</ul>

If that doesn't help, one last thing that I would try is to reset the camera to factory settings, by pressing the "custom" button while turning the camera on.

<p>

As I mentioned before, I've never seen that behavior, but then again I've never taken pictures in full auto. Maybe you should try to set the camera to aperture priority and see if it helps. I seem to remember that when tried the eye-start feature, the autofocus behaved like crazy, so I turned it off and never used it again.

<p>

If none of this (and whatever else is suggested by other people) doesn't work, I would strongly recommend taking the camera back to the shop where you got it and have it replaced.

<p>

Good luck,<br>

Julian

Anita,

 

As I know, if you are in the Full Auto Mode (on the right dial, the P with the square around it) you won't be able to change the focus mode.

 

Try to change it to Program mode (or any other "PASM" modes ) and try different focus mode again. I suspect that the Full Auto Mode choose the 'wrong' subject to focus to what you might have in mind..

 

Hope it helps..

 

Johnny

You may find that depending on which focus zone is selected using the jog-wheel on

the back, either the camera was not focussing where you thought it should or that the

focus zone selected had insufficient contrast to provide a lock even though other

areas had adequate contrast. Alternatively, in a shot with a variety of foreground and

back-ground subjects, the wrong zone (say the top left) selected can result in what

you think is the important area of the shot being rendered soft.

 

I have sometimes selected an off centre zone, locked it and then forgotten that I'd

fixed that zone. It's essentially the same kind of error as forgetting you're in spot

exposure mode rather than using the wide-area multipattern option.

 

The odd time the AF does go a bit funny refusing to focus, I believe that can also be

caused by extranaeous light coming in through the eyepiece.

I had a problem like this and then I realized I had it on continous focusing and I had it on the wide range focus setting instead of my focusing points.

 

I switched back to single focusing and my focus points and everything went back to normal.

 

I would try the focusing in non FULL Auto mode, make sure it's on single focusing and make sure my AF eye start switch is off, AND make sure im using my focus points and not the wide range area for AFing..if you still got a problem..I think only Minolta could help you out.

It isn't acting funny, it's acting green-square P. As another poster said, go to one of the other PASM modes, and set AF selection to S. C AF should be avoided unless you have a fast, up-to-date lens and are shooting action.