trouble manually focusing a Canon 350d

[Joy]

HI,

I was trying to do some star trails tonight and I first set up using a Canon 350D with 300mm lens (Id just taken some shots of the moon and didnt change lens) I got a good selection but then thought I would get more sky if I swapped to the kit len which is 18-55 mm.

I swapped them over but no matter what I do, I cant get it to manual focus, it just hunts and hunts and wont take the shot.

I have the camera set to manual, 30 sec exposure, f5.6 ISO 200.

and set the lens to Manual focus as well of course.

Anyone else had any experiences like this?

Regards

Joy

[Rob L]

I swapped them over but no matter what I do, I cant get it to manual focus, it just hunts and hunts and wont take the shot.

Joy

This doesn't make sense to me, if it was set to AF the camera might struggle to focus and cause you problems, but set to manual it should take the shot no matter how the focus is.

[badboybubby]

always set to manual focus and turn off the stabilisation ...

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

[Tinker1947]

When you get the problem sorted, use a couple os F-Stops on your chosen lens, they work better, and give you a extra bit of DoF, can't help you with your problem don't own a Canon...

[Rob L]

Stupid question: you've set the focus switch on the lens to manual?

[Joy]

thanks for the quick replies.

I agree its odd, I tried taking the len off again and just now tried it in the house instead of outside. Set to 'MF' on the lens it hunts and changes the focus even in good light. The whiring is slightly different sounding but its behaving the same whether I set it as 'AF' or 'MF'

Sorry I dont know what stabilistation is? how do I turn that off?

Thanks for the help

Joy

[Rob L]

Are both the 300 and the kit lens doing this?

[Joy]

no 300 seemed to work fine, only having the issue on the kit lens.

Maybe its broken

[Rob L]

You could try cleaning the contacts.

[Rob L]

If the lens has image stabilisation, there will be a switch for it on the lens itself.

[Joy]

Thanks Rob L.

No there are no other switches on the lens for stabilisation. I gave the contacts a wipe/rub with no change. I think I will take it into the camera shop and get them to take a look. I'm sure I got it to work a few weeks ago so I'm probably doing something silly.

Thanks everyone, what a helpful bunch you all are

[Rob L]

No worries Joy, hope you get it sorted.

[SeedyF]

It does sound like its faulty, as Rob said first it should just take the photo if it is set to MF, it shouldn't do any "hunting".

[Joy]

yes your right, just took it to a camera shop and confirmed the lens is broken and basically 'stuck' on autofocus. £25 for them just to find out whats wrong and then whatever the cost is of fixing it, not sure if I should just try and get a new lens.

awww

thanks to everyone to tried to help though.