in need of a canon expert

[gazwhittle]

Got a little problem ive been taking images inside darkish building and it seems my camera is having trouble focusing with the poor light.

i dont want to use flash and would prefer open shutter style images.

is there anyway to make the onboard flash come on to set the auto focus but not fire when the shutter button is fully pressed?

btw i use shutter priority mode.

[gazwhittle]

dont worry ive sorted it for anybody else who wants to know.

go to cf.

set flash firing to does not fire

set af-assist beam to emits

edit still struggles to auto focus any ideas?

[Sam]

why not setup cam, pop it on auto let it focus, click lens to MF then back to the Manual setting :)

(im no expert its just an idea)

[gazwhittle]

why not setup cam, pop it on auto let it focus, click lens to MF then back to the Manual setting :)

(im no expert its just an idea)

its struggling to focus in poor light may have to buy a proper flash gun.

[rushy_23]

As its dark your shutter speed is very low to try and take in as much light as possible to see the "image".

You need a tripod and open your aperture as wide as possible. Play around with it (and the ISO) until you get the balance right.

Hopefully somebody more skilled can help you further.

[Sam]

its struggling to focus in poor light may have to buy a proper flash gun.

A tourch?? For focusing it with then turn it off

[devilsadvocate]

As its dark your shutter speed is very low to try and take in as much light as possible to see the "image".

You need a tripod and open your aperture as wide as possible. Play around with it (and the ISO) until you get the balance right.

Hopefully somebody more skilled can help you further.

Pretty spot on mate to be honest

What lens have you got?
Even expensive lenses will struggle to focus when there is very little light
Having a lens capable of F2.8 will help but bear in mind the depth of field at this Aperture
I think either a tripod as Rushy suggests or a flashgun may be the only things you can do

[gazwhittle]

im using a 17-85mm is usm f4.0 iso 200 (dont want noise) IS turned off and on a tripod with timer.

my settings are fine plenty of exposure just struggling with out of focus images due to auto focus not being able to lock on. impossible to manual focus as its to dark.

camera is just about managing to lock on with af assist flash emit turned on and flash fire turned off. but its a ball ache having to go into the camera everytime i want to use flash to turn the settings back on.

[Shadow]

I do a lot of photography in places that people generally aint allowed to be, storm drains, mines, nuclear bunkers, abandoned buildings etc etc, and a lot of the time I find the best way to focus on something without using on board strobe flashes (I use nikon anyway) is to invest in a cheap green laser pen, seriously if you can't see anything other then that it makes it piss easy ;) And you dont give out loads of light alerting your presence to security / police! :p

[Ryan]

as said give it some light to focus with.

A flashgun and AF assist beam will also only help a bit, if you have cheap slow glass you will allways have more issues with hunting in low light.