Mick Sway said:
You appear to know Olympus super's inside out
Well, actually I'm not all that sharp. In fact, I made a mistake. What I should have said is to change the AUTOFOCUS mode to SPOT, instead of the default "iESP". It is this default mode that causes the focus pointer to jump all over the place. In the PDF manual, the modes are described as follows:
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"In the top menu, select MODE >>MENU >> CAMERA >> AF MODE >> iESP or SPOT"
...
"AF MODE - Changing the focus range
This function allows you to select the focus range of your subject.
->iESP Focus selection is based on the entire picture on the screen. Even
when the subject is not in the center of the screen, focusing is
possible.
->SPOT Focus selection is based on the subject within the AF target mark."
-------------------
It seems to me that this default iESP mode searches throughout the image for a vertical line to focus on, jumps the focus mark ( ) to that line and focuses. So, for example, if you want to take a picture of a person standing in front of the edge of a building, if you point the center focus mark at the person and half-depress the shutter, the focus mark is liable to jump to the vertical edge of the building and focus on it.
In SPOT mode, the camera will try to focus on what you are pointing at - (i.e. the person). The focus mark is in the center and will not move. If it cannot focus on what you are pointing at, you will get a warning and/or you'll notice the camera "hunting." At this point, you can try pointing to the edge of their face (which is a vertical line) and try again.
In other words, you have CONTROL over focusing with the SPOT option. This is what you want. I wonder if folks are having trouble focusing because of this pesky default iESP mode.
This info is from the C-730 and C-750 models, and the terminology might have changed. But based on the posting above (complaining about the jumping pointer), it does seem that Olympus is still using this weird default.
