There have been conflicting reports on focusing the E-3. Some owners reported problems while others couldn’t find any. A certain amount of bitterness ensued over this. Tony and I who use entirely different lens setups independently stumbled on the solution to the elusive problems.

I photograph birds, mostly in flight, with the ZD 300 mm and the ZD 90-250 mm, most often with the EC 20 Extender. I should mention that I was using two E-3s without the HLD-4 holder because I do not like the ergonomics of the HLD-4 grip – a bump where there should be none and an awkwardly angled trigger – made me give up the grip, which I loved with my E-1s because it had a better ergonomic fit.

Tracking a bird in flight with the narrow angle of view of a 600 mm rig (equivalent to 1200 mm in 35 mm format) is difficult and demands near instantaneous spot-on focus. I usually got it, but not always. Some days I went for a long time and then couldn’t seem to hold my focus. Just getting tired I thought, losing my edge, maybe needing a cup of coffee.
Then one morning I was out on the levee photographing Sandhill Cranes; the sun was bright and the air near the ground was filled with a bright haze and I just couldn’t lock on birds that were standing still, let alone flying. I had shot over two hundred images (raw) but that shouldn’t have been a problem, I often go to 400 shots with my 8 gig card. I changed shutter speed and ISO setups to no avail; I still had a hard time focusing. Yes, I could manually focus but that doesn’t work for birds in flight.

Tony, coming from another direction, had the same problem. (After a long period of shooting when he didn’t have a problem.) Tony shoots lots of weddings using an E-3 with the 14-35 mm and always used the HLD-4 for the power needed for the fill-flash. Here is what happened to him:

As the wedding season ended, I took off the HLD-4 to have a lighter camera. The "problem" started when I went to shoot my boys one morning with the14-35mm on my E-3. I have had no issues with either the E-3 or the 14-35mm in the past in even questionably light (like 1/20th second exposure at ISO 3200) The light was low (1/60th at ISO 2000, really not that bad), but the focusing was quite slow, and took a while to lock on. Throughout the next couple days I started trying everything I could to find out what the solution was.

In the past, I have seen my E-3 lock onto or seem to jump when I pushed the shutter button. In reality it usually only happens when the batteries begin to lose their charge, or when I have an old battery in my camera, and it very rarely happened.

Basically after a couple weeks of experimenting I can confidently say that without the HLD-4 on my camera the focusing of the E-3 is at times weaker than with the HLD-4. It is also more noticeable with a lens such as the 14-35mm for a couple reasons; the first is that the focusing mechanism is moving around a lot of glass. Second the focusing mechanism of the 14-35mm moves a lot further than that of most other lenses. You can see if you spin the 12-60mm that from its closest focusing point to infinity it is about 1/3 revolution around the barrel, however, the 14-35mm is 3/4 of a spin when going from its closest focusing point to infinity.

At this point, Tony and I connected and discussed the focusing issue. Because of his experience I decided to try focusing with the HLD-4 on my E-3’s. I took both cameras out to an area I knew well on a cloudy day to test them. I focused and shot at extreme distances, into shadows, into glare. No problems with the HLD-4 attached but the problems came back as soon as I took the grips off. Then I checked the time it took the lenses to focus under the best lighting conditions; there was no question that the focusing was faster with extra battery. Even with full, freshly charged batteries. So what’s going on here?

Battery Power in Digital Cameras.

Battery power is measured in Watts and that is determined by the Voltage of the battery and the amount of current (Amperes) the battery can deliver. Just because the battery appears to be charged does not mean that it is. You may have noticed that when a battery is running down if you turn it off and back on, it comes up green and then, one or two shots later you get a red battery, warning you that it is about to go dead.
Remember back in the days when cars had battery indicators that you could sometimes turn the key on and the battery indicator would indicate full, or nearly full, but when you pressed the starter button there was a sickly grunt from the starter and then – nothing – and the indicator suddenly showed almost no voltage. Where did the power go? Well, it wasn’t there to begin with.
That is one part of what you need to know to understand the problems of camera batteries. Voltage alone does not equal power. To have power (wattage) you must have both voltage and amperage (current). In addition, it takes current to produce a magnetic field. Low amperage means a less powerful field around the focusing coil.

But focusing is not all we need voltage for, the camera relies on voltage to power the circuit and sensing mechanism that detects the distance of the object we are focusing on. If the voltage is a bit down sensor reaction time will be slightly longer, too. The relatively low capacity batteries in a camera must furnish power to record and process the image, operate the shutter and aperture as well as power the focusing mechanism which is the major consumer of power.

The bottom line is this; it takes current to run the coils in the focusing mechanism of lenses and it takes voltage to push the current through the coils. There is not much voltage (push) in small Lithium-ion batteries. Adding a second battery provides more push. Helping it with an extra battery is just good sense.

While we are on the subject of focusing, there are several points you might keep in mind

1. Focusing in Olympus systems is done by detecting the contrast of the target. Low light equals low focus detection. (That’s why focusing in the evening will take longer that in bright sunlight.)
2. The hardest subject to focus on is a dark subject against a dark background.
3. The easiest subject to focus on is a bright but detailed white against a blue sky.
4. Over bright spots in an area being focused on will confuse the focusing mechanism.
5. Focusing a telephoto lens will take longer than a wide angle or normal lens. Why? Because the focus coil has to travel further. (But you knew that, didn’t you?)

In the Revolutionary War our soldiers were reminded to “Keep your powder dry.”
To you I would say, “Keep your batteries charged.” (And a fresh pair in your pocket.)

Richard

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