Ricoh Backfocusing?

[dennisonb]

I feel like my Ricoh GR backfocuses quite often- This is an example- although perhaps not the best because maybe she leaned towards me a little bit while I was pressing the shutter, but I don't think so. I usually get this when I'm shooting people. It seems like the camera sees the edge of the back of their head as the highest contrast point against the background and focuses there. So in this case I feel like it sees the jawline and the black hair as the highest contrast point and focuses there.

I'm getting this quite alot. It doesn't 100% bother me as it looks like what my old pocket film cameras would do, but it is a little bit annoying. Any ideas? The autofocus is a bit of a downer as it's not that it can't focus (I don't have the hunting problem much) but that it just kind of misses the focus in general. Any tips? I seem to resort to spot focusing using the button at the center of the lever to try and fix it, but it's not such a great solution

Another thing I was thinking about- I shoot frequently at night in the dark, is attaching a tiny LED light to the hotshoe and run around with that on as a focus light. When I'm at events or parties no one will mind- they will think it's just a video and dance around silly like. Perhaps that would help my focus? Any experinces?

 

[dennisonb]

Here is another example of the backfocusing. It's so strange- sometimes I feel like it's explicitly trying NOT to focus on the face...... :?: :?:

 

[dennisonb]

Another example:

(I shoot fashion and socialites with the Ricoh)

 

[thelps]

I like your portraits, they have a casual feel but the subjects seem to be engaged and not shy.
It comes across as a casual but professional photo shoot.
I can see what you mean in images #1 and #2 but not so much in #3. Its perhaps not tack sharp.
With #2 it seems to have hit focus on the wall. The left part of the wall seems to be ok.

I seem to resort to spot focusing using the button at the center of the lever to try and fix it, but it's not such a great solution

I use this method also, often I point the spot mark on the eyes, half press the shutter to lock and recompose and shoot. This may be too slow for you though or introduce some camera shake. Our forum host, Pavel, did suggest that the Ricoh's tend to hit focus a little better with Macro on. I have found this is true. So even if you are not taking Macros focus may be more accurate but at the expense of focus speed. So it may not be a solution but worth a try.

Also, how about exploring snap focus? Set a distance and always move your subject or position yourself so that it will be in focus. Combine this with aperture priority to get enough DOF.

is attaching a tiny LED light to the hotshoe and run around with that on as a focus light. When I'm at events or parties no one will mind- they will think it's just a video and dance around silly like. Perhaps that would help my focus? Any experinces?

The GR does have a focus assist LED (lights up green I think), is that on? It should be a solution for dark areas.

 

[dennisonb]

The focus assist doesn't really do a very good job to be honest. It's blinding for the subject, and really- it does a pretty mediocre job of catching the focus.

It really seems like the contrast detect is a bit counter intuitive for shooting people. Landscape and street photography I see how it works perfectly- but if you shoot a portrait, it's almost always going to hit the edge of the persons silhouette.

I've been getting a bit better at the "snap" option, but often I'm using the camera late at night and at events when I'm drinking. Where accurately judging distance gets REALLY tricky, REALLY fast.

Here's another example from the Vivienne Westwood fashion show yesterday. I feel like the camera really should have gotten this in focus, it's just an example though. Some were in focus, but in this example, I think the camera clearly saw the higher contrast in the upper left hand side and was like, "ooooh! contrast! Focus!"

 

[dennisonb]

Here is another backfocusing example- where I think the camera should have clearly focus on the foreground subject. In situations like this I'd like the regular AF to be able to catch this, but it seems to *always* miss. Is this just my Ricoh that's doing this?

 

[riccadonna]

Well, well, everything has its limitations. We do would love a super thin APS-C size cam that had a 1.4 wide lens and focused like fire in the dark. Unfortunately that`s not the case with GR. When using my leica with lenses that had closest setting at 0.7m, I just stretched my arm with fingertips touchng the person. That was more or less 70cm. Still you had to close the lens down to f:8-11 to get enough DOF. So either snap set the distance, close down to at least f:5.6 and use the flash or.... I do experience focusing at the brightest area especially when using Multi AF for shooting from the hip. One would expect that software would calculate the different focusing fields and picked up the closest one but ofte it`s not the case. No help here. That`s why a real papparazzo uses the state of art AF machine and flash too, second best would be probably Olympus Pen with 24/2 lens. Otherwise I used to charm the object of desire with cheerfull request FREEZE PLEASE and AF them. That WORKS. Stanislaw

 

[dennisonb]

Good reply- but the frustrating thing is that I sometimes I cant get the Camera to focus on the subject. IE: even when using the spot focus button, it refuses to focus on the subject, but insists on focusing behind- getting the little green box to focus on the front of the subject is a real chore, many times I just can't get it to do it. I will try to take a picture of it next time from the screen. I know I'm asking a lot but there should be a 'closest subject' focus mode that works.