Help, camera focusing problem

andy g · Post by **andy g** » 03 Nov 2003, 13:37

I have been trying to take some pictures of my fish using a digital camera but it keeps focusing on the front glass. There is no manual focus on my camera. Also the pictures show up lots of scratches on the glass that are not visible to the naked eye.

Any ideas?

Andy G

Post by **Silurus** » 03 Nov 2003, 14:32

The main reason why your camera is doing that is because the light outside the tank is much stronger than the light inside the tank. This makes the camera think that you are trying to take a picture of outside of the tank instead of the inside.
My experience has shown that you need a fairly high internal:external contrast in lighting (i.e. either use strong lights for the tank, a flash, or darken the room) for decent photos to be taken.

Oh, and put your location in your profile, please.

andy g · Post by **andy g** » 03 Nov 2003, 16:21

Thanks for the reply Silurus,

I have tried blacking out the room completely and my tank is quite brightly lit. I have tried with macro setting aswell as normal setting, with/without flash on tripod etc(flash photography shows up the scratches that I mentioned more).

Maybe I have a very sensitive focusing camera!

Andy

Post by **Shane** » 03 Nov 2003, 16:32

HH is correct that you want the room to be darker than the tank. Some other tips:
1) Use the Macro setting
2) Do not use the flash
3) Keep the camera six inches or more from the glass
4) Try to focus with the zoom on the fish. When it is almost perfect move the camera in and out until you have the exact focus you are looking for.
5) Keep the glass very clean. This will alleviate some of the glass focusing problems
-Shane