Picked up a nice Canon G5 a few months ago and have been taking some great pictures. Tried using it for self take shots this weekend but annoyingly the fish is ever so slightly out of focus. The sensor seems to focus on me rather than the fish. Is there a way round this? I am using the auto setting and the pictures were in daylight - no flash.
Thanks
Steve
Sensors do not focus they only record the information sent to them, its the lens and AF system doing the work here. Not to put a finer point on it but self takes should never be done in auto as you are handing control over to the camera.
In good light or daylight use the aperture priority mode and stop it down to about F4 giving you enough depth of field for the shot which means that if the focus point is your face or the fish then the other should be in focus as well. Compacts have longer depth of field due to the small size of the sensors and f4 is recognised on most compacts as the best area for IQ. If you shoot in auto the G5 in poorer light may select F2 its widest setting which is a very narrow depth of field and could add to the problem.
Next as mentioned take control of the AF and choose the focus point. Not sure about G5 as mine is G12 but the ideal setting would be flexizone with the focus point pre set and fired by self take mode.
Forget face detect, you want AF on the fish, with a longish depth of field to bring the whole image into focus which on a compact is fairly easy.
If you shoot in aperture mode keep an eye on the shutter speed as well as aperture mode smaller F stops ( higher numbers ) will bring the shutter speeds down but not really an issue in good daylight. A speed of 1/250 or higher should get you a nice clear image in reasonable light. I assume your using a tripod?
One final tip, the G5 can shoot raw, which means when things go wrong there is much more scope to put things right. It does mean a few minutes at the computer to get a finished jpeg but its worth the effort.
