SL2-S v2.1 FW Bug? Shutter locks up in AF mode if it cannot auto-focus

[beewee]

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I had an interesting experience while doing some astrophotography last night when I noticed that I could shoot in in single shot mode but my intervelometer was still working. Normally, for astro images, I shoot with manual exposure and manual focus. In fact, I always keep the camera in MF mode for back button focus.

I wasn’t able to resolve the issue until I got home and started testing the camera inside. I noticed that when the lens cap was on, the camera couldn’t fire the shutter, just as I had experienced outside. However, when I took the lens cap off, it was able to shoot. That’s when I realized the AF/MF switch on my Sigma lens got dislodged and put into the AF mode and there was no way for me to override this in the camera menus settings.

Summary:

When the camera is forced into an AF mode and it is too dark, it seems the camera’s shutter locks up and does not provide any feedback to the user as to what’s wrong. Basically, it looks like the camera is malfunctioning. I think the camera should do one of two things in this case, either (a) fire the shutter anyway if its too dark autofocus, or (b) give a warning or message to the user saying AF is unable to focus.

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[michali]

I'm not sure that it's a FW bug. It's more a case of the shutter won't fire unless the camera can achieve focus. It's something that drives me nuts as well.

I've had this happen when tracking smaller birds in flight, the camera won't fire unless the birds are in focus. The only way around this is to use BBF. 

[Slender]

6 hours ago, michali said:

I'm not sure that it's a FW bug. It's more a case of the shutter won't fire unless the camera can achieve focus. It's something that drives me nuts as well.

I've had this happen when tracking smaller birds in flight, the camera won't fire unless the birds are in focus. The only way around this is to use BBF. 

Ok I need to check I think you can set this somewhere....

[hoppyman]

I would think that this is normal in AFs mode. The shutter can't be released until focus is achieved.
Tracking mode may help you in this particular scenario and that will work even if you are using AFs
and MF mode of course will always allow shutter release