I just bought the E05 R50 camera. I own an online business where I take pictures of mostly fishing lures, but also other smalls that I buy to resell. As far taking a picture of just one fishing lure or item goes, this camera does a great job. However, when I am trying to take a picture of two or more fishing lures together, or a fishing lure with it's original box, the camera will not focus on multiple items at the same time. It will focus on only one and the other(s) will be blurry. I have tried Macro, Group Photo, Manual Mode, Program Mode, Manual Focus, White Balance up and down and every setting on AF Area. I still have my old Canon PowerShot SX530 HS (bought about six years ago) and this has never been an issue with that camera. I am also finding that if I try to take a picture of fishing lure box, it will only focus on the end of the box closest to the camera, again, the back end of the box is blurry. Neither of these have been an issue with any camera I have had in the past, even ones when I first started this business 15+ years ago. Can anyone tell me why it's doing this and what I can do about it? I frequently need to take pictures of multiple items in the same shot so it simply doesn't work for me to not be able to do that. Please see the attached pictures of what it's doing. Thank you in advance for any help!
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
Hi and welcome to the forum:
When a camera (or any lens) focuses, there is only one point from the camera forming a sharp focal plane (at right angles to the line of view): that is a physical characteristic and it's actually extremely thin.
When we think of things being in focus, that is to a fair degree the combination of our eyes and brain accepting that there is sharpness. This phenomenon is called Circles of Confusion, where things appear progressively less in focus as they move away from the true focal plane and they start to show blur, or circles where there are points of light.
What appears to be acceptably sharp is called Depth of Field (DoF) and it is conditional on several factors:
Shallower DoF happens with:
- A subject being closer to the camera
- A longer lens focal length
- A wider aperture (i.e. f/stop value is lower e.g. (f/1.5 vs f/8)
- A larger camera sensor
A greater DoF occurs with the opposite conditions. Usually, not all will be working in one direction.
In your case you are shooting objects that vary some distance from the camera, demanding a greater DoF, but are close - so that narrows the DoF you are getting. Compared to the PowerShot, you are using a much larger sensor which decreases the DoF for the same f/stop. We don't know your aperture value or focal length - which we need to know to be more specific. With two factors alone decreasing your DoF, this is contributing to your situation where you got more in focus with the other camera.
To help figure out the DoF for various settings, you can use a calculator:
A Flexible Depth of Field Calculator (cambridgeincolour.com)
You need to know the type of sensor and its crop factor:
For your PowerShot with a 1/2.3" sensor, the factor is 5.62 (or as close as possible for the calculator)
For your R50, with an APS-C sensor the crop factor is 1.6
You measure the distance to the a point about 1/3 from the closest point of the subject to the furthest and use that for the distance.
You need your lens focal length (as read from the lens)
To get a greater DoF, you can try the following:
Move the subject further from the camera
Use a larger f/stop - i.e. something like f/11
User a shorter focal length, if you have a choice
With those settings you may get a slower shutter speed, so using a tripod, bean bag or other steadying device would be necessary - or placing the object in a very bright environment
To apply those settings, you may need to go into manual focus mode.
