Newbe Q about auto focus in 70D

Hi, I have always had a love for taking photos but, like many, never really knew the technical aspect of it all.I want to learn everything I can. I have purchased a 70D and am reading much and trying to play around with it. It is going to take me a while to understand this and I know I am in for a lifetime of learning. But here I am with a question that is probably going to make some squirm because I assume it is incredibly simple but I just cant figure it out (YET) hah Get ready, here it is! This seems to be happening in both the auto mode and manual mode, I press the shutter button halfway, it focuses, i press all the way and nothing happens. There are no indicators that I am trying to do something really rediculous. I am in daylight shooting a flower. so I let go and try again, halfway it focuses, all the way nothing. Shouldnt I be able to tell the camera to take the picture, whether or not IT wants to? blurry or not blurry? Then all of a sudden, I will try it again and it works. It is one of those things where I am trying to do searches on google and instead I am getting results for who the hell knows what, so I figured I should just register here and ask, because I will more than likely be here a lot now. So i am asking here, please go easy on me.( BTW the camera is brand new)

To focus, the camera needs:
1) Enough light - it can't focus in extreme dark
2) Enough contrast - it can't focus on things with no contrast (e.g. a plain blue sky)
3) A subject which is within the focus distance range of the lens (cannot be closer than the minimum focus distance.)
If you have all three, it should focus.
If the problem is inadequate light, then an external flash with focus-assist beam can help (e.g. the 430EX III-RT has a focus-assit beam which emits a red pattern that the camera can use to lock focus -- even in total darkness.)
If the camera is in "One-Shot" mode then it implies a feature called "Focus Priority". In that mode it will not take an exposure unless it can confirm that it has successfully locked focus on at least one focus point.
If the camera is in "AI-Servo" mode then it uses a feature called "Release Priority" and it WILL take an exposure as soon as you fully press the shutter button (and it will do this whether or not it was able to focus. This means you should use it with care or you may end up with out-of-focus images if the camera was not able to focus.)
If you switch the AF/MF switch on your lens to the manual focus (MF) position, the camera will always take an exposure as soon as you fully press the shutter button. In manual focus mode the camera will not attempt to focus (but iin some modes it will blink and/or beep as you manually focus the lens to tell you if it think YOU focused on your subject successfully. Regardless, it will always take the shot if you switch off auto-focus.)

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Should I spend the $280.00 to have Canon fix my 70D auto-focusing issue?

Should I spend the $280.00 to have Canon fix my 70D auto-focusing issue? Or just return back to my very much trusted Rebels?
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MelekalsCanon wrote:
Very much appreciate your taking time to send a response. As a new user I wasn't sure if anyone would bother. Allow me to add a little more to my first post. I fit in that niche between amateur and a person with clients. For over 10 years I have covered events for a non-profit agency capturing the look and feel of 20+ events per year and was given permission to purchase a few cameras over the year. My decision from the beginning was to use the Canon Rebel. Images were spot on and only once did I have an issue with one of them (after shooting outside events in 105 degree temps for 3 days).
So, when I retired a year ago it was for me a pretty simple choice to get a Canon for myself - especially since at that time the 70D was on the cover of magazines and was very highly touted. I also did a lot of desktop publishing and photo editing which helped me realize I wanted the best sensor, sharpness, resolution and lens I could afford - the 70D. My post was actually a result of reading many online responses including your very informative replies about the 70D focusing issues. My biggest concern is that I will spend several hundred dollars and maybe, just maybe get back a camera which captures better focused images, but still not as sharp as the lower end Rebels I was using. I had hoped to purchase my first "L" lens and really get excited - not repair the most expensive camera I've bought to date.
Thanks again and before it gets noted by someone...yes, I should have pushed this issue sooner and then at least the warranty would have covered the cost. An expensivve lesson learned. But I will have to add that at least one authorized Canon repair dealer told me they have had several folks feel like I did - that it was the photographer/me as a new user having the issue and not the camera. I now know it's my camera.
Let me clarify that I don't own a 70D, so anything I say about it is from watching what others have said, mainly in this forum. But it is disconcerting to see so much complaint about a camera that's supposed to have an innovative focusing system. One is strongly tempted to suspect that they went overboard in trying to make the camera serve both still photographers and videographers.
That said, I'm not a great fan of the Rebel line, because they lack autofocus microadjustment and I have at least one otherwise excellent Canon lens that would be useless without it. (The 70D does have AFMA, a point in its favor.)
As far as spending the $280 for the repair, I understand why it's a hard call. If I were in your shoes and were convinced that Canon understands the issue and would fix it correctly and permanently, I guess I'd go for it. If you don't think they do, but fell that you need something a cut above the Rebels, this may be a good time to buy a leftover or refurbished 7D. Even though I now have a 5D3, I still use my 7D's a fair amount and have been very happy with them. And the 7D2 has gotten such a favorable reception that's it's almost bound to make more 7D's available at a decent price.
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Dear Sir/Madam, Please help me out of this confusion. I wanted to know whether E71 model have Auto Focus feature in Camera, if yes the my mobile don't have that one. I recently purchased this model just 4 months before and the camera quality is not good also.

Hi Joshymathew
How about pressing the "T" key?
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I am so mad, I have only had my phone 2 weeks, and the auto focus has stopped working. I have tried to take auto focus off then on and rebooted the phone with taking the battery out. Nothing has worked. Has anyone heard about this problem?

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808 PureView - noise from auto-focus mechanism dur...

Hi,
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Thats totally normal. I've seen on my 808 too while shooting in complete silent environment.
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Canon Auto Focus

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Hi there
It's probably a very stupid question as I'm a total newb,
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Hi,
Don't want to sound harsh because we all were in the exactly same place as you, at one time or another. But it's obvious from your questions that you have little experience with Canon DSLRs and the 5D Mark III is a complex and fairly advanced model. I'd hate to see you get frustrated and not have fun using it.
So do yourself a big favor.... spend some serious time studying the camera manual and also consider buying and reading one of the guide books for your camera. I always make a point of getting a guide book, anytime I get a new, unfamiliar camera. (Others are probably good, too, but I can recommend authors David Busch, Micheal Guncheon and Charlotte Lowrie from personal experience).
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Another way to change those settings is by pressing the Q button on the back of the camera. This will call up a "quick access" panel on the rear LCD screen, showing all the major settings of the camera. Use the joystick to navigate to the "Autofocus" box on that screen, press "set" button to enter that section, then scroll through the choices (One Shot, AI Focus, AI Servo) until the one you want is highlighted, then press "set" once again. Now a half-press of the shutter release button or a tap on the AF-On button will take the camera out of this screen and setup mode, back into "shooting" mode.
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Hi,
When using the Close-Up Scene mode focusing of something, found that the Auto Focus feature can't find out the best focus level, the level is obviously down.
If the total level is 10 , then the actual level is: Actual Level = Best Level - 3
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nobody from nokia will respond on here this is a user forum. Also your question was a little difficult to understand. I have the n96 and my auto focus works fine. Is it possible it could be your FW what version are you running?
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I shoot video professionally and now experiencing the change from full hd to 4k.
Sony has the best 4k camera on the market these days, and me personally, I purchased this phone to be able to shoot 4k video using the smartphone.
Currently 4k app lacks some pro features to make the shooting, but that's ok. The main issue here is its auto focusing whenever picture changes. So many shots were ruined by this issue. It's not a bug or hardware problem, it's just lack of possibility to disable the auto-focus.
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[SOLVED:] SLIM not reading slim.conf (no password auto-focus)

Yesterday I began having issues with SLIM. I'm not sure if they're related, but while running Puppy , I inadvertently deleted the desktop icon for my Arch home directory on /dev/sda8. I rebooted Puppy and it reappeared. After running Puppy, something went wrong with my clocks (system and hardware) and the times were all wrong. I fixed that with NTPD. I currently dual boot Arch and Windows 7 from the hard drive, and occasionally from a USB stick, Puppy Linux. I'm using an ASUS K50IJ laptop. I run Xfce4. I do not have any disk encryption enabled.
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I have tried:
1. Reinstalling archlinux-themes-slim
2. Uninstalling archlinux-themes-slim and slim, then reinstalling slim
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5. Reviewing /var/log/slim.log files for oddities. I found one:
Before the trouble started, I the message in the log was:
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections
X.Org X Server 1.12.2
Release Date: 2012-05-29
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux 3.0.32-1-lts x86_64
Current Operating System: Linux asus 3.4.4-2-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Jun 24 18:5
9:47 CEST 2012 x86_64
Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda4 ro
Build Date: 30 May 2012 07:24:13PM
Current version of pixman: 0.26.2
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sun Jul 8 15:30:48 2012
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
/usr/bin/xauth: file /home/rasteenb/.Xauthority does not exist
/usr/bin/startxfce4: X server already running on display :0.0
Now I get:
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.slim: unexpected signal 15
slim: waiting for X server to begin accepting connections.
slim: System is booting up.
slim: pam_authentication(): Authentication failure
slim: System is booting up.
slim: pam_authentication(): Authentication failure
slim: System is booting up.
slim: pam_authentication(): Authentication failure
slim: System is booting up.
slim: pam_authentication(): Authentication failure
slim: System is booting up.
slim: pam_authentication(): Authentication failure
Now I'm stumped.
Rob
Last edited by rasteenb (2012-07-17 11:16:03)

I solved this - slim was not the last daemon I started in rc.conf. By moving it to the end, I get password auto-focus and everything works.
Now my rc.conf looks like
# DAEMONS
DAEMONS=(syslog-ng dbus acpid @network @wicd @openntpd @cupsd @crond slim)
I found this recommendation in the Display Manager wiki page while researching the problem:
Ensure you start the display manager last in the DAEMONS array, otherwise X will later allocate a tty device which was previously claimed by Getty (see /etc/inittab). Not placing the display manager at the end can cause X crashes, and is therefore unsupported.
I'd just been lucky before that there wasn't a conflict.
There is a "flicker" during login where I'm shown the XFCE splash, then the SLIM splash again, then the XFCE desktop. Not sure what's going on there, but it's no big deal.
Cheers,
Rob

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Auto focus only works when using the actual camera app. Skype and WhatsApp seem to ignore the "auto focus" setting that I've turned on in the default camera app and the Nokia Camera app...
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Auto focus on my 2 year old T3i has stopped working, any suggestions.

auto focus has stopped working. camera is almost 2 years old. I can take pictures at normal distance but if I try to take a picture that requires zoom it will not work and all my pictures are fuzzy.

Check the lens and make sure the "AF/MF" switch is in the "AF" position (Auto-focus is on).
Do you own other lenses and does this happen with them?
Are other functions of the lens working? e.g. if you change the f-stop does it affect the exposure (showing that the camera is communicating witht the lens to control the blades.)
Make sure the contacts on the body and lens are clean. Clean them only with a non-abbrassive cloth (e.g. don't use a "pencil eraser" for example) because the gold plating on the contacts is thin and can be worn off if you use an abbrassive cleaner.
Eject the battery from the camera... wait several minutes, then re-insert (this basically "reboots" the firmware. Turning off the power switch doesn't "technically" shut it down... it puts it into a kind of "sleep" state. But removing the batteries, allowing any capacitors with stored power to self-discharge, then re-inserting the batteries will cause the camera to boot fresh and this will sometimes clear up problems.
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Thanks for the advice Phonehacker, this Forum is so helpful on a variety of subjects, and the users are so patient, that's why I enjoy it so much My diet is now perfectly organised and my larder is full of Brown Bread and Red Wine
If I have helped at all, a click on the White Star is always appreciated :
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Newbe Q about auto focus in 70D

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