FZ30 focusing problem between 300 and 420

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Udo Huebner - 14 Jul 2006 09:54 GMT

Hi all -

my FZ30 does not focus between zoom values of 300 and 420, the
green lamp blinks.
As distance I took nearly infinity.

If I first zoom to 300 (where the focusing works) and then go to
higher zoom (e.g. 320) the focusing still settles and the green
lamp is staedy. This works up to about 350. Above about 350 no
focusing happens.

Presumably it should be sent to a repair shop but
does any body know such a behavior?

Regards Udo

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David J Taylor - 14 Jul 2006 10:47 GMT

> Hi all -
>
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Regards Udo

How close are you trying to focus? There may be a limit on how close the
camera can focus at a particular zoom distance. Have you tried the Macro
setting? (Generic advice, not specific to this camera).

David

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Udo Huebner - 15 Jul 2006 10:54 GMT

David J Taylor schrieb:

>>Hi all -
>>
>>my FZ30 does not focus between zoom values of 300 and 420, the
>>green lamp blinks.
>>As distance I took nearly infinity.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> ...
> How close are you trying to focus? There may be a limit on how close the
> camera can focus at a particular zoom distance. Have you tried the Macro
> setting? (Generic advice, not specific to this camera).

Thanks David. As mentioned above I tried to focus at
near infinity (mountains some kilometers away).

Regards Udo

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David J Taylor - 15 Jul 2006 11:17 GMT

> David J Taylor schrieb:
>>
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>
> Regards Udo

Thanks, Udo, I missed the distance! As I said, my comments were generic,
not specific. One further comment is that I have seen cameras which have
difficulty in focussing on low contrast subjects, and it's possible that
your distant mountains may fall into this category.

Having said that, it does sound like a faulty camera, and I would suggest
you take it back to the shop for a replacement. Our Panasonic cameras
(FZ5 and FZ20) have no such focussing difficulty, and they are used a lot
at maximum zoom.

David

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Robert Klemme - 31 Jul 2006 12:24 GMT

>> David J Taylor schrieb:
>>>
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
> (FZ5 and FZ20) have no such focussing difficulty, and they are used a lot
> at maximum zoom.

Might still not be an individual problem but an issue with the design:

"Focus at extreme telephoto sometimes hunts, occasionally misses"

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz30/page17.asp

Kind regards

robert

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Udo Huebner - 01 Aug 2006 14:45 GMT

Robert Klemme schrieb:

>>> David J Taylor schrieb:
>>>>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz30/page17.asp

Thanks, Robert. I knew dpreview but forgot to look at it
for this fault(?) :-( .

Meanwhile, I am convinced that my FZ30 is not faulty.
I tested to focus again and again in cases where there
was no object at shorter distances (e.g. a tree nearer
to me) in the vicinity of the spot where I wanted to
focus (In most cases I am using spot focusing). Even at
zoom=420 the focusing worked correctly.

Instead, if there is a tree nearer to me (in reality)
and rather near to the measured spot area (in the foto)
focusing didn't work and sometimes was totally wrong.
Obviously, the indicated area on the panel for spot
focusing is too small! Measurements are not well
restricted to the indicated area.

So, I have to live with this disadvantage. Besides this,
I am really happy with the FZ30. Of course, noise is
sometimes a small problem but noise reduction helps
easily in most cases.

Regards Udo

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