Problem with my new Pentax - its probably me

[PrincessBelle39]

As I have said before I have no idea what I am doing but I am having trouble taking photos. I have a pentax k100d super.

When it is on manual focus its fine. The problem is on autofocus. It just sounds like it is continually trying to focus and cant and wont take a picture. Occasionally it will take one with the flash on but not all the time. I have tried it in all conditions. Day/night, lights on/off inside/outside. It still doesn't work. It is an overcast day but its not that dark.

Have I done something inadvertantly (sp) ? Its probably something simple and I am going to look silly.

 

[steery1]

Have you tried it with a couple of different lenses to eliminate a lens fault?

 

[PrincessBelle39]

No I haven't. I only got the camera on Monday and only have the one lense so far.

 

[steery1]

What kinda scenes will it not focus on? Is there anything that it will focus on?
Dark scenes are difficult for a camera to find a subject to focus on, also scenes with little contrast (like snowy scenes), can be tricky.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

It wont really autofocus on anything specific. As soon as i turn the camera on, I might get one picture and then it wont focus. Even outside in garden. And its 9:05am at the moment and apart from some clouds, pretty light outside.

 

[steery1]

It wont really autofocus on anything specific. As soon as i turn the camera on, I might get one picture and then it wont focus. Even outside in garden. And its 9:05am at the moment and apart from some clouds, pretty light outside.

Try changing the focus area on the camera ie - wide area focus, spot focus or if the options there select an area, see if this improves anything. ...

 

[PrincessBelle39]

I'm not sure how to do this but will have a look.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Have you tried depressing the shutter button halfway to focus?

 

[steery1]

I'm not sure how to do this but will have a look.

I dont own a Pentax but I'm sure there'll be a menu in the camera somewhere that you'll be able to change the autofocus settings. Give those a try and let us know how you get on. I'd be surprised if there was a problem with a brand new camera or lens. But you never know......

 

[TinksDH]

How do you take it in and out of MF? Is there a switch on the side of the camera? And if so, is there also a switch on your lens that allows you to switch between MF and AF? Is the lens on tight and engaging the screw drive? Is there anything stuck in the slot of the screw drive on the lens?

 

[PrincessBelle39]

To change between manual and autofocus, there is a switch on the side of the camera. I can't see anything on the lense that says the same and the man in the camera shop only mentioned the switch on the camera. The lense is definitely on fine...no problems there.

I've tried pressing the button halfway to autofocus and it is not autofocusing at all. It sounds like it is but doesn't and then wont take a picture.

There is a main menu but nothing has been changed on this. The only thing I have played around with is the sensitivity changing between 200 and 3200. It is back on auto at the moment.

 

[steery1]

There is a main menu but nothing has been changed on this. The only thing I have played around with is the sensitivity changing between 200 and 3200. It is back on auto at the moment.

Try changing some of the autofocus settings within the menu, see if you get a result.

 

[steery1]

When you press the shutter button halfway down and you hear the camera trying to focus, is the lens focus ring turning and turning but just not able to find focus?

 

[gokenin]

if you look at the back of the camera and click the menu button on the upper left get access to the setup menu. when you click on the first icon you will get a drop down menu that will allow you to choose various functions one of which is the autofocus menu. sometimes when the camera is using the full focus selection (the icon will have 9 red square i believe) it sometimes has difficulty keeping focus i tend to change it to spot focus (one box) which makes it easier. also the line below that i believe will give you the options of continues or one time focus i find with continous focus selected you may have trouble locking hope this helps

 

[Groucho]

Based on your description, it definitely sounds like a problem with the camera itself. When you hear it focusing, do you see the focus changing in the viewfinder? Or does it stay the same?

If the focusing is not changing, then the screw drive is not turning the focus on the lens. This could be the fault of the camera (if the focus motor is making noise but not actually working) or the lens (maybe the connector is broken, and the camera is trying to focus it but failing.

If the focusing is changing but it never actually locks on to anything, then it's probably an electronic problem in the camera, I would guess. Mechanically, it's doing what it should but it doesn't know when focus is obtained.

Your camera has an 11-point AF system and should usually be able to focus pretty easily, though it may struggle a little more in low-light conditions (this is dependent on the lens, too.) The usual procedure is that it'll jump to the correct focus and beep and light a focus confirmation light in the viewfinder. If it can't focus, it'll try for a few moments then will blink the focus confirmation light. When in manual focus, if you half-press the shutter (or leave it half-pressed), it will beep and light the focus light when you get it in focus - if that isn't working either, I'd again suspect an electronic issue.

BTW, there is no AF/MF switch on the lens itself. Pentax lenses usually don't need that.

 

[TinksDH]

BTW, there is no AF/MF switch on the lens itself. Pentax lenses usually don't need that.

Thanks for the clarification. I was just throwing out any idea I could think of to try and help the OP out. It definitely sounds like it's not just a simple problem, but one that may require service/return.