[Photogoof]

I finally did it. I bought a K-1. I haven't had much of a chance to use it, for various reasons, but this weekend I went out and took some shots of spring blossoms.

The thing is, quite a few of them are fuzzy. I was shooting on 6.7 yesterday, and 7.1 today, so they should (in my opinion) be in focus. Some are, some aren't. I'm shooting with a used 50-200mm lens that I bought recently, and it seems fine. Looking through the viewfinder, the shots all appear to be in focus (and the camera beeps and flashes red in the viewfinder), but the final result is less than satisfactory.

Any ideas? I'm posting one of my test shots here.

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[que es tu]

It looks a little back focused. Have you tried using a tripod and taking a photo using live view, verifying focus, then taking the same photo with the same settings with the view finder?

[microlight]

Maybe a couple of things here, difficult to say without seeing the exposure details. Looks like you might be back-focusing. So have you fine-tuned be focus on your lenses? Another culprit could be too slow a shutter speed. If you have a tripod try that plus manual focus using live view to see if that improves things.

Edit - PS @que es tu - great minds think alike! 🤣

[AfterPentax Mark II]

I finally did it. I bought a K-1. I haven't had much of a chance to use it, for various reasons, but this weekend I went out and took some shots of spring blossoms.

The thing is, quite a few of them are fuzzy. I was shooting on 6.7 yesterday, and 7.1 today, so they should (in my opinion) be in focus. Some are, some aren't. I'm shooting with a used 50-200mm lens that I bought recently, and it seems fine. Looking through the viewfinder, the shots all appear to be in focus (and the camera beeps and flashes red in the viewfinder), but the final result is less than satisfactory.

Any ideas? I'm posting one of my test shots here.

The red flash indicates the focus point used. What you should see is the green hexagon lighting up in the viewfinder. Did you set the camera to focus priority? I guess not, because it would have prevented you from making the exposure. Another thing is, that focusing might be difficult, because I think there is not enough contrast in the scene to allow for focusing. The lens, 50-200 is not bad, it is not to good either, but it might help not using it at maximum focal length. About 150mm you get far better results. The exposure time is a bit slow for taking pictures at 200mm, better if you set the exposure time longer or about the focal length you use. As the 50-200 is fully extended at 200mm you have more chance of unsharp pictures due to movement and it might be that the movement cannot be compensated by the shake reduction, which I expect is on. Hope this helps.

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Last edited by AfterPentax Mark II; 04-02-2023 at 09:19 AM. Reason: added some more information

[texandrews]

Are you using AF, or manual focus? You may need to dial in your lens. Try another lens if you have one. I have never had such a bad outcome with either my Z, or my K1 either before or after it was converted to a K1mkII, on any of my 25 lenses. Focus confirmation has also worked flawlessly for me. So, something is amiss here.


I will say that at 1/125th of a second it is very possible to get camera movement as well. Try re-shooting this on a tripod if you didn't use one, and focus with LV under magnification. If you did use a tripod, turn off shake reduction. See if any of this helps.

Edit: All of us seem to have answered at the same time!

[Photogoof]

Thanks! I hadn't tried using Live View. Or a tripod. This lens is used, but it's new to me, so I'm still getting used to it. What shutter speed/f-stop combo do you recommend? I'm using manual focus.

[que es tu]

To be fairly safe, use 1/250 Sec or faster and f8. That should take care of camera shake and any DOF issues. Also in live view, enable focus peaking, it’s a godsend!

[Photogoof]

To be fairly safe, use 1/250 Sec or faster and f8. That should take care of camera shake and any DOF issues. Also in live view, enable focus peaking, it’s a godsend!

Funny; I was messing around with the camera earlier, and I turned on focus peaking (this was after I did the day's shooting). So it should be better tomorrow. There are a lot of bells and whistles I have yet to explore with this new beauty.

[que es tu]

Funny; I was messing around with the camera earlier, and I turned on focus peaking (this was after I did the day's shooting). So it should be better tomorrow. There are a lot of bells and whistles I have yet to explore with this new beauty.

Ha! Tell me about it! I have had a KP for almost 3 years and I’m still messing with the bells and whistles!

[Bruce Clark]

A very tough subject for testing performance of new camera lens combo. For flowers I generally start at 1/250 sec at f11 in TAV mode so ISO is floating.
Be aware of minimum focus distance of lens and achieve focus by moving camera back and forward rather than using focus ring.

[othar]

A somewhat slow shutter speed probably doesn't help in this situation, but your example shows a missed focus nevertheless (as mentioned above: backfocus).

This can be caused by different issues:

1) By a technical issue (tolerance variation in production - from the camera and the lens; both might work fine in other camera/lens combinations, but might need some adjustment in your case)
-> this needs some testing with a tripod and an immobile subject with good contrast to verify, before you dial-in focus adjustments for your lens.

2) AF areas for each AF point are bigger than you might expect and focus might have been put on the green leaf under the blossom by mistake.

3) You might have been too close to your subject for your minimum focus distance of the lens and the focus stopped when it couldn't go any nearer.

4) User error: maybe you moved the camera closer after focusing was done (this is more likely when you use back-button focusing, but it can happen with half-press button focus too)

Not the issue here, but F6.7 is still a narrow focus plane when doing macro work, because of the reduced working distance, unlike when you are close to infinity focus. F11 or F16 are not that uncommon for macro photography if the lighting conditions permit such a narrow aperture.

[ramseybuckeye]

Reading this and the responses I think we all assumed it was an autofocus problem but you then mentioned it was manually focused. Focus peaking is only used on live view, it’s great on a tripod, but won’t help through the viewfinder. Manual focusing is not as easy on a an AF lens like the 50-200 because the focus throw is so short.

[AfterPentax Mark II]

Thanks! I hadn't tried using Live View. Or a tripod. This lens is used, but it's new to me, so I'm still getting used to it. What shutter speed/f-stop combo do you recommend? I'm using manual focus.

To be honest, with this lens which is capable of AF I think you should use it. At 200mm I would certainly use it. Depending on the 50-200 version, the DA, you can use AF and use quickshift. You cannot use it with the DA L version. After you have met with all the ins and outs of this combo, you might try manual focusing, but this lens is a bit difficult for manual focusing due to the narrow focusing ring.

[JohnMc]

A somewhat slow shutter speed probably doesn't help in this situation, but your example shows a missed focus nevertheless (as mentioned above: backfocus).

This can be caused by different issues:

1) By a technical issue (tolerance variation in production - from the camera and the lens; both might work fine in other camera/lens combinations, but might need some adjustment in your case)
-> this needs some testing with a tripod and an immobile subject with good contrast to verify, before you dial-in focus adjustments for your lens.

2) AF areas for each AF point are bigger than you might expect and focus might have been put on the green leaf under the blossom by mistake.

3) You might have been too close to your subject for your minimum focus distance of the lens and the focus stopped when it couldn't go any nearer.

4) User error: maybe you moved the camera closer after focusing was done (this is more likely when you use back-button focusing, but it can happen with half-press button focus too)

Not the issue here, but F6.7 is still a narrow focus plane when doing macro work, because of the reduced working distance, unlike when you are close to infinity focus. F11 or F16 are not that uncommon for macro photography if the lighting conditions permit such a narrow aperture.

#5 A gentle breeze moving subject just that much closer.

[OrchidJulie]

Something else to consider, if you're using manual focus with the OVF (optical view finder)... if your eyesight isn't perfect, be sure to adjust the diopter on the OVF accordingly. Makes a difference in what you see, believe me!