Canon Eos 3 focusing!

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

Hi all!
Just recently bought Canon eos3 and just got the very first scans back from the lab. To be honest I am disappointed! Focusing is just OFF!! All photos came back so blurry! I shot with Canon 50mm 1.4 lens, Auto focus and used central focusing points (not single central). I used build in metering. Maybe that was my mistake! I have also hand meter which I will def. use next time.
Do you have any suggestions on how to shoot? Would it be better shoot with manual focus?
I have Pentax 645 and I just Love it!
I have maternity shoot tomorrow and I am panicking!

Many thanks!

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

First, are the negatives out of focus and how are they exposed?

Chan Tran · Jan 6, 2018

Mada said:
Hi all!
Just recently bought Canon eos3 and just got the very first scans back from the lab. To be honest I am disappointed! Focusing is just OFF!! All photos came back so blurry! I shot with Canon 50mm 1.4 lens, Auto focus and used central focusing points (not single central). I used build in metering. Maybe that was my mistake! I have also hand meter which I will def. use next time.
Do you have any suggestions on how to shoot? Would it be better shoot with manual focus?
I have Pentax 645 and I just Love it!
I have maternity shoot tomorrow and I am panicking!

Many thanks!

Do you have a DSLR for the job? I don't think we can help you solve the problem by tomorrow.

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Also, exposure metering will not effect focus.

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

E. von Hoegh said:
First, are the negatives out of focus and how are they exposed?

Many thanks for your reply!
I haven't seen negatives I leave them at the photo lab. But yes I was suggested to overexpose more. And meter for shadows.
This time I used built in light meter so from now I do not trust it anymore. Next time I will use light meter. Can it be issue just because it was not exposed correctly?
Even my Olympus om10 taking better images than eos3

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

Chan Tran said:
Do you have a DSLR for the job? I don't think we can help you solve the problem by tomorrow.

Hey!

This will be my friend's maternity shoot so it's fine. I am abroad so I took only film camera as I want to shoot more film. This won't be paid job but anyway....

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

For example this photo.
But in the viewfinder focus was ok. The only issue that photos came back really not in focus. Shall I try manual focus and lets say with aperture f4?

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Mada said:
For example this photo.

I see out of focus eyes, but parts of the bouquet and some fine hairs are in focus. Possibly focussing behind what you want in focus? Did you focus on the eyes?
Do you have the instructions for the camera? Did you expose the film at the marked ISO, and is any exposure compensation used? Once again, exposure and focus are unrelated. Hard to be certain with no negatives.

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

E. von Hoegh said:
I see out of focus eyes, but parts of the bouquet and some fine hairs are in focus. Possibly focussing behind what you want in focus? Did you focus on the eyes?
Do you have the instructions for the camera? Did you expose the film at the marked ISO, and is any exposure compensation used? Once again, exposure and focus are unrelated. Hard to be certain with no negatives.

Yes, I have manual and have read all before shot but I am not a big PRO in all these specific things...
Yes, I do always focus on eyes and then recompose. This is Fuji 400H rated at 200 as I want to achieve that light and airy look-overexposed.
Regarding exposure compensation... No I did not use it. I should research a bit more I guess.

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Mada said:
Yes, I have manual and have read all before shot but I am not a big PRO in all these specific things...
Yes, I do always focus on eyes and then recompose. This is Fuji 400H rated at 200 as I want to achieve that light and airy look-overexposed.
Regarding exposure compensation... No I did not use it. I should research a bit more I guess.

Do you use the autofocus lock on the eyes when you do this?

I assume Fuji 400h is a C41 film, I use all c41 films "overexposed" 2/3 to one stop, i.e. a 400 ISO film at 250 ISO (2/3 over) or 200 ISO (1 over) to prevent muddy shadows. I do this because the film speed marked on the film seems optimistic, and I get better negatives this way. Your exposure looks OK, but without seeing negatives, who knows.

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

E. von Hoegh said:
Do you use the autofocus lock on the eyes when you do this?

I assume Fuji 400h is a C41 film, I use all c41 films "overexposed" 2/3 to one stop, i.e. a 400 ISO film at 250 ISO (2/3 over) or 200 ISO (1 over) to prevent muddy shadows. I do this because the film speed marked on the film seems optimistic, and I get better negatives this way. Your exposure looks OK, but without seeing negatives, who knows.

Did not quite understood what you meant with ''Do you use the autofocus lock on the eyes when you do this?''

Watching YouTube at this moment and I am confused about rating the film. I want overexpose. Am I doing wrong that I set iso 200 ( instead of 400) on camera? I thought I am doing right but after one video I watched right now, she is telling to set iso only on light meter.
I hope you understand what I mean.

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Mada said:
Did not quite understood what you meant with ''Do you use the autofocus lock on the eyes when you do this?''

Watching YouTube at this moment and I am confused about rating the film. I want overexpose. Am I doing wrong that I set iso 200 ( instead of 400) on camera? I thought I am doing right but after one video I watched right now, she is telling to set iso only on light meter.
I hope you understand what I mean.

Stop watching youtube. You set a lower ISO than the marked speed for overexposure, higher ISO than the marked speed for underexposure. You set it on the camera, if the camera has built in meter and you are using it. You set it on the handheld meter, if the camera has no meter or if you are not using the camera's meter, in which case the camera will be set to "manual" and you will be setting aperture and shutter speed yourself.

If you focus on the eyes and recompose, the camera might refocus on a different area than the eyes when you recompose. Look for "AF LOCK" or "AUTOFOCUS LOCK" in the camera's instructions.

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

E. von Hoegh said:
Stop watching youtube. You set a lower ISO than the marked speed for overexposure, higher ISO than the marked speed for underexposure. You set it on the camera, if the camera has built in meter and you are using it. You set it on the handheld meter, if the camera has no meter or if you are not using the camera's meter, in which case the camera will be set to "manual" and you will be setting aperture and shutter speed yourself.

If you focus on the eyes and recompose, the camera might refocus on a different area than the eyes when you recompose. Look for "AF LOCK" or "AUTOFOCUS LOCK" in the camera's instructions.

Got it! Many thanks!!!!!! I do appreciate it! This is what I have been doing the only thing I was not using hand light meter. I will use it tomorrow.
Could it be that photos is not good because of distance? Closer I am more blurry photos will come out?
Anyway fingers crossed that tomorrow's photos will be better. I have Pentax 645 and I love it! Have not had any problems with the scans.

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Mada said:
Got it! Many thanks!!!!!! I do appreciate it! This is what I have been doing the only thing I was not using hand light meter. I will use it tomorrow.
Could it be that photos is not good because of distance? Closer I am more blurry photos will come out?
Anyway fingers crossed that tomorrow's photos will be better. I have Pentax 645 and I love it! Have not had any problems with the scans.

Read about the AF lock in the camera's instructions. Also read about the "eye controlled focus system" in the camera's instructions. As I have pointed out several times the exposure and focus are unrelated.

I have a feeling you do not know how to use the AF system in this camera.

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

E. von Hoegh said:
Read about the AF lock in the camera's instructions. Also read about the "eye controlled focus system" in the camera's instructions. As I have pointed out several times the exposure and focus are unrelated.

I have a feeling you do not know how to use the AF system in this camera.

Thanks! Will go through it right now.

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Mada said:
Thanks! Will go through it right now.

Stick with the instructions for the camera, I cannot stress this enough. Study them thoroughly, the AF system on this camera is quite complex and has several modes. Youtube is full of helpful idiots, and some who actually know what they are doing. How do you distinguish between them?

Chan Tran · Jan 6, 2018

E. von Hoegh said:
Stick with the instructions for the camera, I cannot stress this enough. Study them thoroughly, the AF system on this camera is quite complex and has several modes. Youtube is full of helpful idiots, and some who actually know what they are doing. How do you distinguish between them?

Especially those whose first camera didn't have film in it.

Les Sarile · Jan 6, 2018

In the example you posted, if you used only the center focus point - and locked to her eyes, and simply tilted the camera down to take that shot, I would have expected her eyes to still be in focus. Unless this was on a tripod, it is possible you could have moved a little bit backwards/forwards that the plane shifted specially if you were shooting wide open at f1.4.
Two other ways you could have used the EOS3 AF - one is to compose as you have and then manually selected the AF point closest to her face or use the ECF (eye control focus) to select that point. In either case you still would have to shift a little bit given the composition and the AF point coverage on the EOS3.

This is similar to a shot I took with the EOS3+50mm f1.4+ECF on Kodak UC400 where the subject was not centered and I used the outer AF point.

Of course closing down will help get more areas in focus.

Manually focusing the EOS3 - and most all other AF cameras, is tricky specially with fast lenses as they have tiny viewfinders and no manual focusing screens as they did in the manual focus cameras. It also doesn't help that the EOS3 does not have diopter adjustment if your eyesight is not compatible.

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Les Sarile said:
In the example you posted, if you used only the center focus point - and locked to her eyes, and simply tilted the camera down to take that shot, I would have expected her eyes to still be in focus. Unless this was on a tripod, it is possible you could have moved a little bit backwards/forwards that the plane shifted specially if you were shooting wide open at f1.4.
Two other ways you could have used the EOS3 AF - one is to compose as you have and then manually selected the AF point closest to her face or use the ECF (eye control focus) to select that point. In either case you still would have to shift a little bit given the composition and the AF point coverage on the EOS3.

This is similar to a shot I took with the EOS3+50mm f1.4+ECF on Kodak UC400 where the subject was not centered and I used the outer AF point.

Of course closing down will help get more areas in focus.

"Of course closing down will help get more areas in focus."
As will learning to use the camera

Les Sarile · Jan 6, 2018

E. von Hoegh said:
"Of course closing down will help get more areas in focus."
As will learning to use the camera

My son in law is having as much fun using one of my f1.2 lens but on a manual body . . .

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Les Sarile said:
My son in law is having as much fun using one of my f1.2 lens but on a manual body . . .

I had an EOS 3 in my hands a few months ago. I would use one, but only if well paid to. Really well paid. I can do everything it does, except motor film advance, with my 50 year old Nikon and do it faster than I can use that damned thing.

Les Sarile · Jan 6, 2018

Mada said:
Many thanks for your reply!
I haven't seen negatives I leave them at the photo lab. But yes I was suggested to overexpose more. And meter for shadows.
This time I used built in light meter so from now I do not trust it anymore. Next time I will use light meter. Can it be issue just because it was not exposed correctly?
Even my Olympus om10 taking better images than eos3

This is puzzling as the EOS3 has a very sophisticated metering system?

Overexpose and meter for shadows is a very good system as far as color negatives - and other film types, are concerned. However, most minilabs provide overexposed results in their automatic scan process so this usually leads to blowing out highlights even for color negatives that have exceedingly wide tolerance especially when it comes to overexposure.

This example clearly shows just how much overexposure latitude film (Kodak Portra 400 and Okdak Ektar 100) has particularly when compared to digis.

Personally, I use that system in conjunction with knowing the exposure characteristic of the film I am using as well as do my own scanning.

This is an example of the typical automatic results from a Noritsu minilab will provide compared to my own using the same frame of Fuji 100 color negative.

Most minilab (Agfa, Fuji and Noritsu) overexposure is not this subtle.

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

The OP is working with scans of unknown quality,she doesn't get the negatives back.

also unfamiliar with the camera...

edit; "she" Sorry!

Mada · Jan 6, 2018

Ok so... To be honest it's a bit complicated for me as a female to understand it all and with English as my second language
So I am studying AF lock but in the viewfinder it just doesn't appear (*)!
IF I will choose shoot on MF can I skip all this we were talking before?

E. von Hoegh · Jan 6, 2018

Mada said:
Ok so... To be honest it's a bit complicated for me as a female to understand it all and with English as my second language
So I am studying AF lock but in the viewfinder it just doesn't appear (*)!
IF I will choose shoot on MF can I skip all this we were talking before?

You can, but focussing will likely be more difficult than your OM-10 or medium format camera, due to no center split image/microprism focussing aid in the center of the viewfinder. You will also need to set exposure manually, I don't remember how to do this with an EOS. I think the lens does not have an aperture ring?

Canon Eos 3 focusing!

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