Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

After experiencing responsiveness issues with my rx10 and which disappeared when I used a new and much faster card I have encountered a more alarming issue yesterday which has not happened before, I was shooting a ceremony, I let the camera autofocus first and then switch to manual focus and let it roll unmanned, when I came back after 10 minutes to check up on the camera the image was totally out of focus while it was still locked in manual focus, a problem which appeared 2 more time and I just switch to auto focus after that for the remainder of the ceremony.
When viewing the footage today I see the it doens't go out of focus immediately but gradually shifts focus over a period of 10 minutes before the image gets all blurry, and all that while the little icon on my screen says "mf" so it's in manual focus, when I switch to autofocus each time the camera did recover immediately. During those 10 minutes there is no focus hunting, it just very slowly goes out of focus. Anyone else has seen this problem?

This means I can't trust the camera for longer unmanned shots while the focus is locked, I"m going to try to replicate the problem this week and if I can it's going back to teh store since it still is under warranty.

I have to say this rx10 of mine has displayed some weird behavior since I have got it, I wonder if it was made on a monday.

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

Hi Noa,

Any vibration from the (e.g. wooden) floor on which the cam's tripod was on - such as from church music or lots of people walking nearby during this drift in focus?

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

The camera was standing on a solid tile floor and nobody was passing the camera during the ceremony, it was positioned on the backside of the church. They had live musicians playing behind the alter but I see that the camera got out of focus during speeches as well. This really has me puzzled.

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

Hey Noa

That is weird!! Surely it has to be a camera fault? Was any lens stabilization on by mistake? I was shooting with the Panny on Saturday and the Church floor had crazy bounce yet my focus stayed perfect but I did get some bounce in the footage as people walked around!! Surely manual is manual .. it might be an idea to put a small chalk mark on the focus ring and then leave it running and see if the ring mark physically moves ... the ring itself might be moving just from internals in the camera ??? That would be worth doing as physically the only thing that should change manual focus would be moving the ring

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

Sounds like you may have a defective camera here mate, can you return this?

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

I just tested twice and it stays in focus now, will do some more testing this week. I have absolutely no idea what was going on but I"m 100% sure I set the camera on manual and when I checked back it was still on manual but completely out of focus. 2 weeks ago I used the camera in the same way during a ceremony with no issue. Below a frame grab when I started to record and then 10 minutes later, there is nothing that could have trown it out of focus because when I switched to autofocus it immediately snapped in to focus again.

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

The bottom right is nearly in focus i would say maybe you had it in auto focus and it was focusing on something else, are you sure it was in manual, as i have thought this in the past Noa and i was mistaken. Steve

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

Yes, absolutely sure I was in manual focus, checked 3 times while it was recording in church and it went out of focus 3 times. It was also preset to focus in the center of the frame so anything from the sides should not have affected it.

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

What mode was the camera in? Could auto aperture changes have knocked it out of focus? Even that would be weird but it is a fixed lens camera?

Steve

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

It was in moviemode, like always and focus, iso, shutter and f-stop was set manually.

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

I'm wondering if a guest has touched or knocked the camera causing the focus to move.

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

The way it went out of focus is not normal, it gradually shifted focus over a period of 10 minutes, I tried a few new tests today and all seems fine again, I guess it's one of those Sony mysteries.

Below is one of those 10 minutes in a few seconds, I blocked the top part of the image with faces because I don't have approval to show this online, one thing I noticed is if you look at the right side at the end you see the camera is focusing to a very nearby distance.

password: test

I also reported a weird behavior longer time ago that did not reappear

password: test

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

The problem is that if I send the camera in they won't be seeing any problems and I most likely will get it returned with the message that no problem was found, there is definitely something going on with this camera, the slow response issues I experienced a while back disappeared with using a faster card, the problem however started after I updated the firmware, maybe it has something to do with that, not sure.

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

I feel your pain Noa and know what you mean, my CX730 went crazy on me. I sold it on ebay for what I could.

My PJ780VE now has several buttons that do not work. Call me crazy for using a faulty camera. Other than the projector / night vision and video light buttons not working it functions as normal so I take the gamble every time. It has NEVER been knocked, exposed to water or dropped so I don't know what is going on ...

Re: Sony rx10 goes out of focus
 

My nex ea50 had a menu button that stopped working a month after I had the camera, there was a second menubutton on theh side so I could still use it, when I sold the camera after a year and I tell the new buyer the menu button doesn't work, when I show it to him the button suddenly works again...