Originally posted by grainbelt My main issue was around autofocus. It is my understanding that the center AF will try to pick a focus point within a larger area than the other focus points. Trying to half-depress the shutter, get a focus point, compose, and shoot was painfully slow.
I'm confused. Were you using center point mode or not? That's usually the fastest way to to get any camera to focus - don't let it waste time trying to figure out which focus point to use. Or you could put the camera in user select mode and tell it to use the center point, which is usually the fastest / most accurate.
But in low light, yeah, AF can be slow even when the camera knows to use the center point. It helps to point the camera directly at a very clear target - something with a lot of contrast. The camera is going to have a hard time focusing on a plain white shirt, for example. Also, some lenses propvide better contrast and focus performance than other. The FA50 is not known for super fast AF performance compared to, say, the DA40.