E-LP1, E-P2 & 20mm F1.7 lens issues

[arthur]

1. I shoot 500+ pictures with 20mm lens. I shoot mostly in P or A modes.
Even in the daylight focusing on person's face is an issue. In 2-5 pictures, faces come out blurry. It seems that kit lens recognices faces from the longer distance. For 20mm lens face recognition max. distance is 10 feet.
Pictures w/o people come out incredibly sharp and detailed.

2. In any mode if the lens can't autofocus it will freeze the camera, the only way to reboot it is to take the battery out. It happened 4 times in the daylight.

I like the lens and I can live with issue #2 and slow non-dslr autofocusing speed, but taking picutres of people is what I need this lens for. I believe there is no better prime lens on the market now.

 

[Iconindustries]

Does your camera freeze with any other lenses?

I don't use face recognition at all because I think it really is hit and miss. Generally I like to take the shot as quickly as possible to capture the moment. I use centre focus for more single people and if there is a group I put it on multipoint to focus on a larger area.

When you point out that pictures without people come out clear and sharp it makes me wonder if it's the face detection screwing things up.

Could you try putting it on AFS on 1 area and the metering mode on centre weighted. This may help.

I have a GF1 but I am assuming the EPL1 will have the same options for AF and metering.

Here is a picture I just took now with those settings. This is RAW. 20mm f1.7 1/15 iso 400.
My brothers face came out fairly clear.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50527022@N02/4770543744/" title="P1050463 by iconindustries, on Flickr">View attachment 147345"500" height="281" alt="P1050463"></a>

I forgot to welcome you to the forum! Thanks for joining and I hope to see some of you'r images in the near future.
Regards,
icon

 

[BBW]

arthur, hello - I have an E-PL1 and haven't noticed any problems like this at all, however there may be something different about our shooting styles - that said there the camera should not be freezing up if the lens can't autofocus.

I wonder if you might post a few photos with the EXIF data available - either in a gallery here or via Flickr?

Meanwhile, let's see if some of our Olympus users have some more specific insights.

 

[Brian Mosley]

Hello and welcome Arthur I hope you will stick around...

We had a tip recently on an issue to do with misbehaving auto focus....

For anyones' memory bank; Mike the tech from Olympus suggested a remedy (just the one I found on my own) for the problem. Put the camera in P and run the custom reset.

He found that when the battery is removed when the camera is on it causes a firmware glitch that affects autofocus.

Give that a go?

Cheers

Brian

 

[arthur]

Test picture

P6280110 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This shot is just to test the lens. The woman sitting in front is not in focus. Coincidently, the focus was set to the center.

 

[ChristopheG]

I think the shot is in the right angle and good focusing direction,

 

[Iconindustries]

Hey Arthur in my humble opinion the woman looks like she's in focus. The whole image is actually!

 

[Christilou]

20mm 1.7 focus problem

I'm not sure that my problem with the above lens is the same but although the lens has been returned to panasonic under warranty and "repaired", I cannot get it to work properly on my EP2 I got the lens back yesterday after about 6 or 7 weeks but it still freezes focus. I tried resetting the camera as suggested above but to no avail. Mather's, where I bought the lens, said that they tested it again when they received the lens back from Panasonic and it works fine for them... Don't know what to do next?

 

[arthur]

E-LP1 & 20mm F1.7 lens issues

It seem that there is a problem with this lens on Oly bodyes and no solution. Pan. tech support didn't know what to do with me, so, they said I need to speak to Oly support

 

[BBW]

arthur, the photo looks pretty good to me. Of course if one were to see it in all its pixel glory, there probably would be some imperfections.

I can see your frustrated. As an aside, Christilou, I used to have an E-P2 and don't recall any problems with this lens, now I use it on my E-PL1 and don't have any issues.

I wonder if it's possible that the excessive heat we're experiencing plus the heat of the camera might be effecting things for you?

 

[dcisive]

You most certainly can NOT say that the PL1 and Panny 20mm f1.7 have issues together. I've used mine a fair amount, and certainly enough to say it works flawlessly at this point.

 

[capodave]

Just received mine 2 days ago...hasn't come off yet.
It takes great pics in all sorts of conditions.

 

[Christilou]

Still having trouble with mine

 

[Brian Mosley]

Christilou, I'm wondering if it's a problem with the pins in your E-P2... do you have any problems with any other of your lenses?

Cheers

Brian

 

[Christilou]

Hello Brian, I've wiped both sets of contacts yet again but no joy. I've also noticed that sometimes the green focus flashes as even though the picture IS in focus! Something's not right with the way it's talking to my camera. I can't think of any settings that I may be using that would make it so off

 

[BBW]

Sounds as though you might need to take a trip to the camera store, if you bought it locally? Or call Olympus?

I used to use mine with my E-P2 without any issues whatsoever. I feel badly for you.

 

[arthur]

For the last 3 days I tried to drive my camera to the ground so to speak, it didn't freeze at all. I shot in all possible modes IAuto/P/A/S, in S-AF/C-AF, MF,S-AF, & C-AF. I shot wide open in the bright sunny day, I shot moving people and portraits...... it worked fine.
The only change I made, I set both RLS Priority S & C to on. Did it fix freezing? I don't know, I didn't set RLS Priority C back to off.

 

[Christilou]

Tried mine out yet again this morning. Checked the above. Mine were ON anyway so I turned them OFF just to see. Checked all settings yet again. Still freezing. I notice that pressing the shutter release to free it does not work but if I do nothing for about 7 seconds, it will reset itself. Does anyone in the Uk have an ep2 that they would be willing to try it on? I've already had the lens sent back to Panasonic for repair, the shop I bought it from have tested it themselves and it works fine. The shop don't sell Olympus though so I assume that they only tried it on a Panasonic camera.

 

[Brian Mosley]

If you can't find anyone nearby Christilou, I'll be happy to help.

Cheers

Brian

 

[SFA]

arthur, the photo looks pretty good to me. Of course if one were to see it in all its pixel glory, there probably would be some imperfections.

Looks pretty good to me too.