Why are whole rolls from my Olympus Stylus Epic consistently blurry or oddly smeared?
Asked 9/28/2021
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My Olympus Infinity Stylus Epic exposes film correctly, and the lens extends and appears to autofocus, but every frame on multiple rolls is soft, misfocused, or has unusual smear/ghost-like blur. Some images look like simple front/back focus, while others show only part of the frame sharp or a strange doubled look near the edges. The camera body and lens look clean and undamaged.
Could this be caused by a failed autofocus/focus mechanism, or is film flatness/pressure plate alignment a more likely cause? I’m trying to figure out whether this is a repairable focus issue or something else inside the camera.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
1
My guess is the focus mechanism to n the lens is broken.
A few years ago I bought an old Pentax F 17-28mm fisheye zoom from KEH that arrived unable to focus. From the outside, it made the right motion and sounds when auto focusing. But all the pictures were out of focus.
Autofocus didn’t work. Manual focus didn’t work either.
KEH took it back under warranty and I bought another from Japan. It arrived fully working.
Last year, the focus mechanism on the second one failed on the short end of the zoom. The lens is fragile. In fairness it was an early attempt at something hard…an autofocus fisheye zoom to cover full frame.
It could be a film pane issue. But that’s usually a bit subtle…as in the pictures are not quite as sharp as is reasonable to expect. The pictures will usually have clear differences between areas in focus and out…unless the problem is parts-hanging-off bad.
Originally by user95237. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user95237
4y ago
0
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The most likely cause is a failed or misaligned internal focusing mechanism, not normal autofocus “misses.” If the camera’s focus group is no longer moving to the correct position, it can still make the usual sounds and motions while producing consistently blurry frames.
A film-flatness or pressure-plate problem is possible, but that usually causes a more subtle loss of sharpness across the frame rather than the severe, inconsistent blur and odd partial-sharp areas you’re seeing.
Because the Stylus Epic is a compact autofocus film camera with integrated electronics and lens mechanics, repair is often difficult and may not be economical unless you find a specialist willing to work on it. Practically speaking, if multiple rolls show the same behavior, assume the camera is faulty and compare against another tested body rather than keep feeding it film.
So yes: this points much more toward an internal focus/lens mechanism fault than user error or ordinary AF limitations.
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