Hello FMers, Caleb my friend and photo pal asked me to post his problem hoping for some advice, so I've copied his question for you below ......
" I'm wondering if anyone has had a problem with the Canon 40d AF hunting a lot in normal lighting conditions?
I have a 40d and have been shooting it with my Canon 100-400mm lens
... it's that time of year for short eared owls, they are really difficult to shoot without the focus doing all the excessive hunting ! Ive noticed the problem since I bought the 40d and thought, well it's probably just me not being able to stay on the owls because my center focus point was off in roughly 70% of my pictures!
I decided to buy a bush hawk to help keep the focus on the bird. It did really improve the accuracy on the bird, but still the focus wants to zoom in and out while the bird is flying and never seems to snap in focus. I can't figure out why!
I have the owls flying right at me and when close to full frame I'm still not locking on them, the focus hunting continues!
I thought it might help to list some of the camera and lens settings to give you a better idea of how I'm shooting these owls!
100-400mm canon lens set on #2 is. pan setting at 6.5- 00 focus mode!
shutter priority, 1250-2000, AI servo, semi auto drive mode, Iso 320-400
and all custom functions are reset to default!
So if anyone could give me some advice on what they would do to test this problem before I send my camera off to get it looked at would be greatly appreciated!
I just don't want to send the camera off and it not being the problem, that's my concern! "
I might have focusing problems with my 40D. I tried to take a shot of the full moon a couple of weeks ago and the camera just would not auto focus properly. It seemed that it was hunting. I was using a 400/2.8. Tried the lens on the my 1D MK2N and no problem with the auto focus and was able to take the shot.
It could be the body that you are having a problem with. Is there another body that you can try?
Fish On wrote:
I might have focusing problems with my 40D. I tried to take a shot of the full moon a couple of weeks ago and the camera just would not auto focus properly. It seemed that it was hunting.
