Originally posted by innershell Guys please take a look at this picture taken using the same lens above. The front/back focus does not seem to be a significant issue with this camera, but the image captured is far from sharp.
Test Result Pictures
Is this normal or am I just being too anally picky about what's normal for this camera? If you guys have done this test, can you please upload the results for me to compare?
I cannot quite recognise the problems with focus. Look at the first image with the rails. It is obviously very near to the camera - so most of the image plain will be out of focus, as at f8 the depth of field is not that big.
And your focus chart is simply very soft, which could be attributed to the lens, but there are other factors as well: The paper is not white, or you underexposed severly. in both cases, the contrast is very low. And contrast is a determining factor of "sharpness", this alone would explain the lack of. On top, test charts are photographed at very close distances, I assume it is the same here (I cannot read any EXIF data). So the depth of field will again be very shallow. On top, the FA 50 is not optimised for near distances, as it is not a macrop lens. So it might perform much better at middle distances and at infinity. I know, this sounds vague – but that is just the result of the simple fact, that the photographs are not conclusive.
You can control for back or front focus by simply comparing photos taken with and without AF. if the latter are visibly sharper, you may have indeed a AF problem.
Ben