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Hi,
I have a 450D. All of a sudden it will not auto-focus and the focus confirmation light flashes when I try to take a photo. It won't take photos in AF mode, only if i switch to MF. The started happening while taking some photos today. So I hadn't changed anything, was just taking photos and it stopped! Help!
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Unfortunately, most auto-focus systems require some light to focus with. My cameras have a "focus assist" light that throws a grid of lines out so it can focus. My wife typically covers this light with her hands, and so can't get it to focus in the dark. Check for that.
Slow down the shutter speed of your digital camera. Whenever you must take a photo in a low light environment decrease your shutter speed. It is virtually impossible to take a blurry digital photo with a an extremely slow shutter speed. Even if your digital camera has an automatic or semi-automatic mode, slowing down the shutter speed will still produce a better digital photo.
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Wait until your digital camera is completely focused. Most digital cameras will notify you that they are focus ready by a blinking light, on screen indicator or a noise. Confirm that your digital camera has locked onto your desired target before pressing the shutter release button. Some digital cameras may have trouble focusing on subjects easily. If this happens use an auto focus mode to produce a better digital photo.
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Prevent your digital camera from shaking. Shaky hands or sudden movement will definitely produce a blurry digital photo. When holding your digital camera, make sure the viewfinder is firmly pressed against your face before snapping a digital photo. If you do not have image stabilization on your digital camera, then think about investing in a tripod. This will allow you to steady your digital camera for the perfect shot.
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Make sure the digital image is definitely a blurry one and not just a soft image. On many occasions soft images are mistaken for blurry ones. Soft images occur often with digital cameras. When printing these images, the softness rarely shows through. You will be able to easily edit these photos by sharpening the details for a better printing experience.
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Take your time. Instead of rushing to take a digital photo, set aside enough time to shoot your image. Hurrying up will not produce an excellent digital photo. You don't need to be overwhelmingly slow when taking the photo, but try your best not to take a hasty one.
Those quick fast flashes usually mean the camera is trying to find contrast to take the photo but it can't. The scene might be to dark and the camera can not set it's focus and there for cannot take a picture. Move the camera slightly from left to right on the subject and see if it can manage to set focus. It's normal for the camera to give out these quick flashes as it is trying to find some sort of contrast in the subject, turning on a room light might help this?
Now when you manually focus, then the camera does not have to use it's built in auto focus sensor and will let you take a photo when you manually focus on the subject.
I could be that your lens isn't focusing. If the Auto focus can't find something to focus on the shutter won't fire. If you are shooting in low light sometimes it has trouble try shooting something that is well lit. also your auto focus point may be somewhere other than the center. there is a button on the top of your camera that looks like this [ ][ ] [ ] [ ] More or less that will switch where your focus point is. If you look in the view finder and see a red dot when you push on the shutter button that is your focus point. push the above button until the red dot is in the centre. that may fix your problem.
There are several contributing factors to this problem and I'll try to list a few that may be the cause. All Canon EOS camera auto focus modes us contrast to focus this means simply that no contrast there is no focus. There is a small green dot in the lower right corner of the viewfinder that will come on and stay on solid when auto focus as been achieved. By default the shutter will not operate "click" if auto focus has not been made.
Here are a few examples of where auto focus will ether search (focus back and forth) or fail completely.
A solid painted wall, glass between the camera and subject, mirror, chrome, any large body of water, clear sky. Another place you wouldn't expect is clear skin in your subjects face or body.
Cameras with multiple focus points and set to other then the middle will have a problem if the photographer is still attempting to use the center focus point.
Look for the green dot in the lower right corner of the viewfinder that's your focus confirmation.
It's likely your photos are blurry from camera motion, caused by taking a hand-held photo with a slow shutter speed, rather than out of focus.
The hand icon flashes when you don't have enough light to take a crisp (not blurry) photo without either using a tripod (or a flash). The reason for a flashing hand is you can't "hand-hold" the camera at the current settings - you need to use a tripod. If you are "zoomed in" (on a telephoto setting for your lens) you can sometimes get a crisp hand-held photo if you "zoom out" to a wider angle setting on the lens. (You need a steadier hand to hand-hold a telephoto lens setting than a wide-angle lens setting.)
You may have changed a setting that sets the ISO (the normal setting would be "auto") and if so, if you change the ISO to a high number, or to auto, this will help you take better photos in low light. Check your camera's user's manual to see how to check/change the ISO.
When you have more light the icon will stop flashing. If you need to take hand-held photos in low light then you need to use flash, or get a better camera that has better low light capabilities.
This is the camera trying to give itself enough light to focus with.
As it uses contrast to focus with you will get problems in low light conditions. There's no way round this I'm afraid except to light the subject better. As it's a digital camera and you're not wasting film, try manual focus and see what results you get.
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