Contax 645 AF hunting

The other day, I was shooting a model in a studio environment with a single 600 W.

incandescent spot as a side light. So there was quite a lot of light and contrast, and I don't

think it could be considered a low-light situation. However, my 645's AF kept hunting and

looking for the focus with the 140/2.8 on. I ended up focusing manually.

 

Is this normal for this set-up or do I have to look for problems with either the body or the

lens? I must add that I don't recall having had this problem outside during the two or three

outings I did with the 645. Thank you for your insight.

Normal.

Thanks, Marc. Relief, though a pain in the neck.

Hi Bernard, I am not intending to disagree with Mark, but if you can, try a different lens/camera combination. My 140 is a dream to focus (for a C645). The Contax is an odd dog AF wise, at times it will snap into focus at a tree at night, other times in bright light, it's hunting for something (I don't know what, pheasants?) My guess is the Contax got the AF sensor about right, but blew the math.

Hi Bernhard!

 

I've noticed on mine, a set of fresh set of powerful AA batteries (lithium) speed up always the whole system a lot!

 

Regards

 

Rainer

Bernard,

 

When my contax hunts it is a usual indication that the batteries need changing or charging remeber the biggest fault of this camera is that it is power hungry, it literally eats battery power.