Please share your thoughts on the following issue I have when using the 990: Taking point-and-shoot portraits of two people using A-REC mode with flash, I have been getting pictures where the two people's faces are slightly blurred. This is because I do not purposely focus-lock on one of the faces, but instead, simply composed the picture in the LCD viewfinder and the camera focused between and past the two people's faces. Also, in A-REC mode with flash, the camera is automatically uses 1/60 second and f3.1, so the depth of field is quite small.

The solution I came up with is to use M-REC mode, aperture priority mode, and set the f-stop to something like f5.6. Depth of field is thus increased and even though I do not focus-lock on the faces, they still remain in focus.

My question: In A-REC mode, taking simple point-and-shoot pictures (especially in the hands of a novice), can you avoid the focusing problem I descibe?

Thanks in advance

-- Andrew Chan (andrew_chan@intuit.com), June 21, 2000

Answers

Their is a multi-area focus option in the camera that will automatically look for the closest subject and lock focus on that. You should set this function to auto. In manual mode with the lcd on, you can select the focus area using the rocker switch.

-- Dennis Pereira (dpereira@ultranet.com), June 21, 2000.

In A-REC mode, you can still use the "focus lock" function simply by pressing the shutter release halfway to lock on the subject then adjust the composition before pressing the shutter release all the way to take picture.

-- Tanasit Siriluck (tanasit@flashcom.net), June 21, 2000.