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I own a Canon G1X compact camera which is quite good in my expectations, except that I cannot really be confident in its autofocus accuracy especially in non-optimal light conditions.

Manual focus is quite unusable due to ergonomics.

I think this can generally be applied to most compact cameras.

How can I configure it to have a better focus accuracy?

inkista
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lrkwz
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  • Possibly related: http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/50006/why-are-my-photos-not-crisp (i.e., how are you sure it's a focus accuracy issue?) – inkista Apr 28 '16 at 20:05
  • Your reply there is really good and accurate: I can obviously do better in handling camera etc etc (and I will try harder next time) but still I think that something is missing: I've tried a central small focus point and leafs behind my subject are in focus :-( – lrkwz Apr 28 '16 at 20:43
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    Were these macro/close-up shots? (posting an example image with EXIF can help us diagnose what might be wrong). – inkista Apr 28 '16 at 22:42

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It is unlikely that you can do anything in the camera settings to improve the situation. Some cameras have a "boost mode" which improves performance at the expense of battery life, but most — including yours — don't, and it's not like you can just add such a feature.

If you're not using the camera's AF assist light, you could turn that on. Presumably, you are either already doing that and still unhappy — or want to avoid blinding your subjects.

That leaves you with three choices:

  1. Improve the situation. Add light or contrast. This could be as simple as turning on the room light or introducing something with hard edges into the scene.
  2. Try a hotshoe flash with AF assist beam. I believe your camera just uses a regular LED, whereas many external flashes offer a much less intrusive IR beam — which you can use even when not using the flash itself.
  3. Upgrade your camera... autofocus speed is still an area where new models offer constant improvement.
mattdm
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