Rock climbing focus problems

Could anybody please help me as to why this picture is not in focus. I generally use auto focus and Auto Area AF

I cannot see that anything is in focus. Has this image been cropped?

Looks like camera shake. You're at 1/60 th shutter speed. Steady your hands or use a tripod or bump up your shutter speed.

Eyelight said:

I cannot see that anything is in focus. Has this image been cropped?

Click to expand...

35mm, I would think that.

I am using a polarising filter - would that have any effect?

MarkyHeth said:

I am using a polarising filter - would that have any effect?

Click to expand...

I use a polarizing filter practically all the time when shooting outdoors and have never had an issue. DSLR's require a CPL (or circular polarizing filter, but the word circular does not refer to the shape). If by some chance you have a "Linear" polarizer on your lens, then yes; that could be confusing your AF system.

Looking at your shot I see you were shooting at f/4.5 and 1/60 second. With good technique that should be enough depth of field for that shot, but a lot depends on the scene. The fact nothing appears to be in-focus makes me suspect "pilot-error" is at fault here and that what we're seeing is simply a lot of camera shake. That being said I *am* dubious about the Auto-Area Focus Mode, personally. If you're getting a lot of shots like the one you posted above try using AF-A as your Focus Mode, with either Dynamic Area or Single Point AF-Area Modes. Single Point would be the safer the two, but it can be slower than Dynamic.

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Wondering it it's overcropped or if the lens was accidentally on auto-focus.