[Cailean]

My wife does a lot of painting - mostly of clouds. As a result we take alot of photos of cloud formations, often without any horizon. Problem is my AF yells at me everytime (silly little beeps!) The pictures, though, seem to turn out alright. Is it just impossible for the AF to get a lock on something so far away?

[peter]

woldnt it just lock to infinity in that case ?
i think the bigger problem is that there are usually no definite edges ..which makes the camera complain a bit when it tries to focus ~_~

if you were using a DSLR id tell you to just go to manual focus ..
but im guessing you cam has no such mode -_-"

[Cailean]

As a matter of fact, I do have manual focus - but I have as much trouble as the AF does...

The excessive beeping may just be warning me that it's locked to infinity...

[shuttertalk]

My camera beeps and flashes icons at you when it can't focus. Because most digicams use contrast detection, if it can't find any "edges" it won't be able to focus.

Hm... my suggestion like peter, would be to manually lock focus at infinity. It still beeps in MF mode?

[Cailean]

Nope, doesn't beep in MF...

[peter]

thats cool then ..
sometimes you find that you shouldnt absolutely lock it at infinity ..
just before infinity usually gives good results ..

[adam]

photoshop -> clouds
lol! hehe, joking

As Peter and Shuttertalk said, its due to the lack of constrast; usually when shooting skies and the autofocus searches and searches and searches, I'd switch to manual focus, but sometimes, it's able to focus, I dont know why there's a difference. Maybe the type of clouds? hehe
Have seen some beautiful cloud formations, big white fluffy ones, grey, pink, small ones, and even ones that look like animals hehahahabahabahaabahajhahahaha

Maybe I'll start a new thread

[peter]

sometimes when there is good light..
and the cloaud has a defined edge..
it can probably focus where the cloud becomes sky..