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Losing patience with a DSLR...
I've had an EVolt 500 for about a year. Truth to be told, it's the first auto focus camera I've ever owned, apart from a couple of pawn shop point & shoots. Here's what's bugging me: in what I consider to be reasonable low light conditions (early evening, cloudy, aiming toward stuff in my garden...so I'm pointing away from the sky) it won't manual focus. NOW: I don't want to be a complete idiot about this. Am I being unreasonable in my demands? Would any auto focus DSLR behave the same way, or is my EVolt sort of wimpy in this regard? The answer -- switch to manual -- is pretty obvious, but I find that the manual focus ring does very little. In bright daylight conditions, the camera does wonderful stuff. But take a small step away from the norm and it seems to call it quits. My ancient Minoltas -- film and manual focus that works -- do what I want when I want. Why not my EVolt?
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Every digital camera I've owned would autofocus in early evening light. Some might take 1 or 2 seconds (depending on subject and lens choice). I haven't used the EVolt, so these are just "general comments" because you mention it being your first autofocus camera:
Generally you can select a specific autofocus point in the viewfinder to be active. On some cameras the center autofocus spot is more active/fast/accurate than the others. Whatever focus spot you use, it must be aimed at something with contrast. Aiming it at blank sky or a field of snow or a blank white wall will result in either failure or very slow focus.
Hope that helps.
Tom
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 Originally Posted by Rob Ruttan  I've had an EVolt 500 for about a year. Truth to be told, it's the first auto focus camera I've ever owned, apart from a couple of pawn shop point & shoots. Here's what's bugging me: in what I consider to be reasonable low light conditions (early evening, cloudy, aiming toward stuff in my garden...so I'm pointing away from the sky) it won't manual focus. NOW: I don't want to be a complete idiot about this. Am I being unreasonable in my demands? Would any auto focus DSLR behave the same way, or is my EVolt sort of wimpy in this regard? The answer -- switch to manual -- is pretty obvious, but I find that the manual focus ring does very little. In bright daylight conditions, the camera does wonderful stuff. But take a small step away from the norm and it seems to call it quits. My ancient Minoltas -- film and manual focus that works -- do what I want when I want. Why not my EVolt? How well a lens can auto focus in low light depends on how fast the lens is. Moderately slow lenses don't autofocus well in low contrast and dim light conditions.
IOW, you get what you pay for.
Don Bryant
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Yeah, how fast is the lens? AF is TTL with this camera, no? Get thee a fast prime.
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I have photographed with folks in old buildings where the light level is very low. We all had problems with auto-focus in low light situations. The work around in this situation (low light, indoors) was an led flashlight. Shine the led flashlight on where you think the focus should be and the camera will focus on that bright spot. Lock your focus, turn off the flashlight and make the exposure.
One of the unknown, or rarely published advantages of digital over film is digital sensors do not demonstrate reciprocity. An exposure meter recommending a ten second exposure for film must be adjusted in exposure time and possibly in development. A digital camera will suggest a ten second exposure and that is what it will be and usually be right. If it's not right, then you can override the exposure with what you think will work. And then you can check it until you get it right. In low light situations in the field, that is a huge advantage that is rarely publicized.
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You get what you pay for, as the saying goes. Olympus makes fine cameras, but the EVolt 500 is not one of their high end models. For its price point, it doesn't have the features or technology found in their better cameras.
It's probably that you bought below your expectations. You need to move up in quality to get what you are after.
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Originally Posted by Joe Lipka One of the unknown, or rarely published advantages of digital over film is digital sensors do not demonstrate reciprocity. An exposure meter recommending a ten second exposure for film must be adjusted in exposure time and possibly in development. A digital camera will suggest a ten second exposure and that is what it will be and usually be right. If it's not right, then you can override the exposure with what you think will work. And then you can check it until you get it right. In low light situations in the field, that is a huge advantage that is rarely publicized. Sadly this advantage is generally made worthless as the sensors build noise the longer they stay open. The latest Nikons 'remedy' this by applying a noise filter to long exposures -- which doesn't work to my eye.
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Originally Posted by Joe Lipka I have photographed with folks in old buildings where the light level is very low. We all had problems with auto-focus in low light situations. The work around in this situation (low light, indoors) was an led flashlight. Shine the led flashlight on where you think the focus should be and the camera will focus on that bright spot. Lock your focus, turn off the flashlight and make the exposure.
One of the unknown, or rarely published advantages of digital over film is digital sensors do not demonstrate reciprocity. An exposure meter recommending a ten second exposure for film must be adjusted in exposure time and possibly in development. A digital camera will suggest a ten second exposure and that is what it will be and usually be right. If it's not right, then you can override the exposure with what you think will work. And then you can check it until you get it right. In low light situations in the field, that is a huge advantage that is rarely publicized. That's a fair comment Joe, but it should also be noted that we are currently blessed with some emulsions with almost unbelieveable reciprocity charaterictics... Tmax400 in B&W and some of the color slide films like Provia and Astia are truely amazing for their very slight reciprocity failure with long exposures. These are light and day compared to some of the older emulsions where seconds quickly turned to minutes of exposure.
Last edited by Donsta; 05-13-2008 at 05:32 PM.
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Don & Keith got right to the heart of it. Considering the body, I'm betting it has a slower consumer-grade zoom on it, which will kill AF in low light. Heck, even my 20D + 50/1.8 (or the 85/1.2 when I can get my hands on one) has trouble when light levels get low enough.
You are now discovering why many of us spend silly amounts of money on very fast lenses and higher-spec bodies. It's the wider performance envelope.
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Just wondering. Do you use the flash at all? The flash on the E500 also doubles as the AF assist light for low light light situations. You can also adjust the power of the flash.
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