Cameras & Camcorders

[Mercouri]

Camera hasn't been in focus since I bought it 2 years ago at Best Buy.  I thought it was something I was doing wrong, bought an external shutter release, new tripod, new 70-200 lens - tried it on every combination of settings it has - and it still doesn't take half the photograph that my "silver sony" point-and-shoot cyber shot does.  I've been around and around with Sony's help people - in the Philippines - and they want $280 just to look at it. and I have to pay shipping.

Does anyone have any ideas about what I should do. I have a lot of sony accessories, extra batteries, memory cards, etc. but am ready to give Sony the heave-ho.

[Entropy]

Hmm, that's weeeeird...

Have you tried seeing what you can achieve using manual focus?  Maybe the AF mechanism is borked...  Unfortunately it sounds like you waited too long and it is out of warranty. 

Otherwise, I'm surprised two different lenses exhibit issues unless you got unlucky with bad samples of each.

[Mercouri]

thank you. I tried it again with both lenses, and it seems it's only the lens that came with the camera.  I bought a new Tamron 70-200 and the photo looks beautiful.

[deusexmachina Valued Contributor]

Might have an issue with back/front focusing with your kit lens. If it works fine with the Tamron, it's probably not your camera body. You can send your lens in to either Sony or precision camera. Probably looking at around $150 for repairs.  There are front/back focus issue tests that you can do here : http://focustestchart.com/focus10.pdf  to make sure thats the issue.

[Entropy · Accepted solution]

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Mercouri wrote:

thank you. I tried it again with both lenses, and it seems it's only the lens that came with the camera.  I bought a new Tamron 70-200 and the photo looks beautiful.

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Try seeing what happens if you manually focus the kit lens.

It could be either a back focus/front focus problem with the lens (many newer cameras allow this to be adjusted for on a per-lens basis), or it could be a general defect (such as a decentered element) with the lens that makes it unsharp regardless of attempts to focus.

There are a couple of methods for testing FF/BF out there, one is listed at http://focustestchart.com/chart.html

A basic test is to arrange three batteries, one slightly in front of the center one and one slightly behind.  Focus on the center one, and if the one behind it or in front of it is better focused, you may have a FF/BF issue with that lens.

[Mercouri]

Thank you for the battery and focus chart. /seems I can get the center one in "better" focus than the other two with the kit lens, but the Tanrom really brings the center one into SHarp focus.
'preciate it!

[Entropy]

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Mercouri wrote:
Thank you for the battery and focus chart. /seems I can get the center one in "better" focus than the other two with the kit lens, but the Tanrom really brings the center one into SHarp focus.
'preciate it!

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In that case, sounds like a defective lens that is unsharp even when focused.

Last thing - Does it improve when the lens is "stopped down"?  If it is still significantly blurry at f/8 in bright light when tripod mounted, it is highly likely to be defective.

Some kit lenses just simply provide "meh" image quality when wide open, but stopped down to f/8 should provide fairly good results.

[Mercouri]

thank you so much for your help. I'll try f8 tomorrow morn.