Leica Q2 Focus Issue

[kstol23]

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Hello everyone, I'm having some weird issues with my Q2, which is just a couple of months old. At first all was good, now I'm having the weirdest problems with auto focus lately.

It started when I shot an engagement couple about a month ago, I came home to find nearly all the images were out of really out focus and unusable. It was weird because a few of the images were in focus, but most weren't. I thought maybe I had my Q2 in manual mode by accident (how could that happen I do not know).

I've been shooting mostly with the SL2 lately and took the Q2 out again today. Today was landscapes. 

It's weird because the first 20 images I shot are not in focus. Some of them aren't terribly out of focus from a distance, but any amount of zoom, none of the image is in focus that I can see. Then, the rest of the images (about 200 in total) appear to be in focus. It makes no sense at all, I didn't change anything!

I was shooting landscapes etc. It was set to AFs + Field. 

Here are examples:

#1 & 2  Out of focus (settings ISO 100, F/7. 1/500)  (is anything in focus at all, I can't see anything that is) STREET SCENE AND FOUNTAIN

#2 - Better (about 25 images in) (same settings as 1&2) THE YACHT

This makes zero sense to me, thanks for any thoughts.

P.S. Files were run through JPG Mini in order to upload here.

 

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Edited May 28, 2022 by kstol23

[clasami]

The image of the yacht seems to be in focus. If you could upload the full size JPEG at a compression setting that makes is small enough for this site? In the third image, the foreground is clearly out of focus, but the background seems okay.

Have you tried MF to put focus on a specific subject?  Or AF Spot metering just to see if returns accurate focus?

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[kstol23]

2 hours ago, clasami said:

The image of the yacht seems to be in focus. If you could upload the full size JPEG at a compression setting that makes is small enough for this site? In the third image, the foreground is clearly out of focus, but the background seems okay.

Have you tried MF to put focus on a specific subject?  Or AF Spot metering just to see if returns accurate focus?

Yes, the yacht is in focus. I can try to upload a different size for the other two, but there's nothing I can see in either of them that is in focus. The problem is, I can't tell when I'm shooting that it's doing this, it looks completely fine and the autofocus point is green, indicating it found a point of focus. I only realize what happened when I review the images on my computer. 

[clasami]

In the image of the fountain, the fountain itself is not in focus (it must be less than two meters aways from you as it looks). But the buidlings and the people appear in focus. The buildings seem like 10-15m away from you location. If the camera has focussed on the buildings, than the near limit would be around 3m from a DoF @f7.1 That explains why the fountain is not in focus.

In the second image, where did you put the foucs? In the center? That would be on the signs or the trees behind them. Distance to signs seems again 10m, trees a bit more. Would give a DoF from 3-infintiy @f7.1.

[kstol23]

9 hours ago, clasami said:

In the image of the fountain, the fountain itself is not in focus (it must be less than two meters aways from you as it looks). But the buidlings and the people appear in focus. The buildings seem like 10-15m away from you location. If the camera has focussed on the buildings, than the near limit would be around 3m from a DoF @f7.1 That explains why the fountain is not in focus.

In the second image, where did you put the foucs? In the center? That would be on the signs or the trees behind them. Distance to signs seems again 10m, trees a bit more. Would give a DoF from 3-infintiy @f7.1.

Thank you @clasami, on my computer none of it is in focus that I can see except the boat is in focus. It's so weird because it's just the first 25 shots on the card and the rest of the day the camera did fine. I'm going away tomorrow again and will test it. What focus points are you using for landscapes? I have mine on field. I tried spot once, but it's too precise for landscape unless I'm photographing a flower or something. Many thanks!

[clasami]

vor 11 Minuten schrieb kstol23:

Thank you @clasami, on my computer none of it is in focus that I can see except the boat is in focus. It's so weird because it's just the first 25 shots on the card and the rest of the day the camera did fine. I'm going away tomorrow again and will test it. What focus points are you using for landscapes? I have mine on field. I tried spot once, but it's too precise for landscape unless I'm photographing a flower or something. Many thanks!

Do a crop of the second and third image and upload. Would be good to take a look at.

For landscape, I am using MF and DoF mainly. The f-stop is f8, but I set the distance on the lens to match the f5.6 markers for safety. In AF mode, I also use Field most of the time and aim at the subject or object that must be in focus, or I aim at something roughly 5 meters away and use f8 for DoF. But without fast action that needs to be captured, MF is more enjoyable and also very precise.

[hdmesa]

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Try a few things:

• Rule out OIS or lack of OIS as the issue. Instead of the default Auto setting, try it with the always-on setting and the off setting to see if one or the other is better. I personally found setting OIS to be always on gave me much sharper photos.
• Try Spot AF instead of Field AF.
• If you stick with Field AF, change the focus box to the smallest setting – the default box size is often unreliable, IMO.
• If above doesn't help, reset the camera.

[kstol23]

4 minutes ago, hdmesa said:

Try a few things:

• Rule out OIS or lack of OIS as the issue. Instead of the default Auto setting, try it with the always-on setting and the off setting to see if one or the other is better. I personally found setting OIS to be always on gave me much sharper photos.
• Try Spot AF instead of Field AF.
• If you stick with Field AF, change the focus box to the smallest setting – the default box size is often unreliable, IMO.
• If above doesn't help, reset the camera.

Awesome, thank you so much! I'll give these things a try! Appreciate it!

[Earlybird2908]

I have been using the Q2 since it came out - in fact I had one of he first cameras out there. However this weekend it refused to focus! I will be sending it back to Leica to investigate.

[jaapv]

Before you send it back check whether it is not set to manual focus. If not, do a reset. 

[Phil1066]

Also check that the touch AF isnt being knocked on the back screen, think my nose hit the lower screen on my Q2 quite a bit and made it front focus alot. Just a sanity check 🙂

Edited August 31, 2022 by Phil1066