GA's focus in huge steps? This means that they can never focus 100% correctly?

[nom]

Some of my photos shot with the GA645Zi are not sharp where they

SHOULD be. A friend's full body portrait at about 4 meters away,

focused carefully on his face, shows my friend slightly soft while

the soil, leaves etc that were 40-50 cm closer to the camera are

amazingly sharp! I always check the AF setting before shooting to

avoid apparent errors that some times occur, but you can only focus

in steps with GA's. I thought that they give an approximate setting

i.e. 3m but in reality they focus accurately on the object. Now I

start suspecting that they only focus in the (15) steps that we can

see in the manual focus mode. Please tell me that I am wrong and they

focus accurately in the intermediate distances!...

[andrew_schank]

I think what you are experiencing is more of the limitations of AF on a rangefinder camera in general. Sometimes the sensors just grab something different than you intend them to. Also, whenever you focus on an object in the center of the finder and do a focus lock and re-compose, some parralax error is thrown into the equation, and it can be enough to throw the focus off. We had a big discussion about this at the Leica forum. That is why the current crop of AF SLR's have multi sensors that you can choose off axis if needed. The other problem I had with the Fuji's was that there is a delay between when I trip the shutter where the lens focuses, and the picture is taken. If my subject moved a few inches in that time (and with children they often did) the camera would miss the focus as there is no focus tracking like a high end AF SLR. The Fuji is a nice compact 645 camera with a great lens, but it has its limitations. I'd like to see the next generation incorporate some of the SLR AF features, like multi sensors at different points in the finder, focus tracking, and faster response time.

[t.e.___]

Keep practicing! I own the GA645 and know it does not focus in only 15 steps. It takes practice to get used to the AF but once learned it is very acurate. Double check your distance that is given when you focus and if the distance does not look right then try focusing again or tilting the camera bit while focusing. Also get used to the area in your viewfinder that is marked for AF and its correct placement on your subject. I'm actually amazed how well the AF and meter works in my GA645 and rarely get an out of focused picture.

[gerard_taillefer]

Jordan!

 

I own myself a GA645 and I have NEVER NEVER had a problem with focusing. I have taken pictures at the closest distance (0.7 meter) with the lens wide open. NO PROBLEMS.

 

Haven't you got the manual? In the Q&A part of it, Fuji explains that in the autofocus mode, "lens focusing is driven through 870 control steps. If these steps were used inmodified on the distance display, you would have a very complex number to read, which would only be confusing. So, instead, we follow the ISO recommendations of 14 divisions for the display in the viewfinder." (Remember this is a professional camera, reliable, sharp, beautiful...)

 

I just like to add that it took me time to get at home with all these choices between autofocus and manual focus etc but I think it's a good idea to consider the first 10 or 15 rolls as learning how the camera works, what to expect in certain difficult situations, what you can/should do in that case etc.

 

GT