getting fustrated..

I bought a Elan II with a 35-135 USM lens about a month ago. I'm

getting very fustrated with the Auto focus. Outdoors it's o.k. but

indoors, especially if i'm using ECF the focus is way too soft.

Contrast doesn't come anywhere close to my old FD lenses inc 3rd

party vivtars!

I suspect the metering is underexposing but don't think that it alone

is causing such softness.

 

Which is at fault, the lens or the camera or me?

I really don't understand how can that be. There shouldn't be any difference between ECF, manually selecting the focus point and manual focusing. As far as I understand, it should not matter HOW focus was achieved, but only WHERE was it achieved.

 

Other, more knowledgeable, forum members, I plead you. Please take the vale of my eyes.

On second thought, this may not be an ECF problem but an exposure one. If you were shooting in P mode, then when light gets dim (indoors) the camera will open the lens' aperture to the max. There, most lenses perform poorly. OTOH, when light is abundant (indoors) the camera will close the lens' aperture to, say, f/8-11 for more DoF. This is the sweet spot of most lenses and you'd be hard pressed to distinguish pro lenses from consumer ones.

Youre right of course, I was shooting indoors on P (my tripod being broken) and from tests the sweet point is f/11. I'll try shooting indoors again when I get my hands on another tripod.

First, test the AF for each sensor by using the telephoto range of your zoom and, using "one shot" mode, carefully AF on written text. You should satisfy yourself that each sensor can achieve accurate focus and that manually adjusting the focus ring does not improve the focus achieved by the AF system. If not, the body may need servicing. Also, ECF does not effect AF accuracy.

 

Second, test the meter by shooting mid tones subjects in both bright and dim light using slide film. Bracket the shots +/- 1 stop in ½ stop increments and review the slides. If you are consistently underexposing, adjust the ISO settings to compensate. I would have the camera serviced if exposure is not consistent or was off by more than ½ stop.

 

Third, wide open, the 35-135USM is not as sharp or as contrasty as your FD or Vivitar prime lenses, especially at the longer end. Most midpriced consumer zooms are not, and the 35-135 is no exception.

I will add a little to what Yakim is saying. If you are using Program mode, you will be shooting more wide open. You will also have a much narrower depth of field which will mean that your focus is more important. In other words, what you focus on will be in focus, but possibly not much more. Also, inside you will probably be focusing on closer subjects which will cause you to have a more narrow depth of field range at the same focal length -- it may be measured in inches and not in feet -- more of the picture will be out of focus or could appear soft. All of this may be obvious to you, but I thought that I would throw it out there anyway.