Canon Autofocus

[Jessie Ray]

I was testing out the Lens AF plugin, which works great by the way, but I did have one snag. After that plugin finishes and you take an exposure with NINA, the camera tries to do an autofocus. Since the camera firmware is unable to focus on stars, it fails and never takes an image. This means that after the focus routine, I have to flip the switch back to manual focus. Since this happens after the plugin is finished with it’s work, I believe it to be an issue with the way NINA interacts with the Canon SDK by default. Since the plugin takes exposures between steps without issues, it should be possible to have the camera take an exposure without triggering the built in autofocus.

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Steps to reproduce:

Connect camera in NINA

Runs Lens AF plugin from Imaging tab

Take a test exposure after it finishes

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Expected behavior:

It should just take an exposure without starting the camera’s built in AF

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Actual behavior:

Built in AF is kicked off and the camera hangs because it is unable to focus

[Chris]

Have you tried running the Autofocus with the switch on manual focus? Depending on the lens, it might work. Unfortunately a lot of thrid-party lenses do not work properly when using the plugin, but with native canon lenses it should be possible to run the autofocus with the switch on manual focus (at least it works with my 100-400mm)

[Jessie Ray]

I have not, but I will try it soon. It is a canon branded 75-300mm kit lens so it might work.Though, I still believe it should be possible to make it work since the plugin seems to disable the cameras autofocus routine when it takes an exposure for focusing purposes, so it still feels like a bit of a workaround. I’ll report back after I try it.

[Jessie Ray]

Apologies as it took me a while to have time to look at this. I plugged it up and tested it, but it doesn’t seem to work with this particular kit lens. With the 75-300mm lens when you flip the switch to MF it seems to completely disengage the focus motor.

[Stefan B]

If the problem is still there, please recreate it at the plugin repository