Manual Focus - Olympus XZ-1 Tips And Tricks Manual

XZ-1 Tips page 11 of 29
at the subject, and press the Down arrow. It will beep and say 'AF Lock' under the green
rectangle. Now, you can move the camera around and point it at something else, and the
exposure will change with the new subject while the focus lock stays at the distance to
the first subject. Interesting!
In practice, on vacation, forget this one. Too tricky. Just keep it on Program and you'll
come back with wonderful pictures!

Manual focus

Question -- is a way to have the XZ-1 pre-set at a given distance, like 100' away, and then
just take pictures without having to focus again?
Try auto-focusing 15ft in front of the lens -- then switch over to manual focus, and the
camera stays in focus while zooming the full range. Sort of a 'hyperfocal distance' setting.
I went around and around with this, hoping that there would be a way to set the XZ-1 at a
usable hyperfocal distance, so that each time it powered up, it would be set to that.
Couldn't do it. Closest -- in M Manual mode, press the OK button and change the focus
mode to MF. It shows a magnifier. Use the dial (up or down) to focus on whatever point
you want. Now, it will hold that focus point until you use MF to change it... or go back to
AF... or turn the XZ-1 off... which unfortunately cancels your MF setting. When the
camera turns back on, you have to do it over again.
In practice, say photographing sports, you could use MF to set a sort-of-hyperfocal
distance, then just leave the camera turned on as you take your shots.
I'm not sure if there is a real-world advantage to this. The XZ-1's auto-focus is fast and
accurate. Exception -- sometimes picking up an airplane against the sky... if at an
airshow, I'd do the MF to focus on a far-off hangar or treeline, and then blast away as the
planes come by... and try to remember NOT to turn off the camera until the show is over.
Manual focus ...post from Dpreview
In M mode, pressing the Info button enlarges the center of the image for accurate
focusing, which is performed with the rear control wheel or the Up/Down buttons.