So I picked up an Olympus Infinity Stylus Epic point and shoot for cheap. The problem is that none of the photos come out in focus. The guy I bought it from said the same, but I figured I'd give it a go for the price. Everything about the camera seems to work: the lens moves without issue, the shots are properly exposed, the body and lens are pretty clean and free of damage. So my guess was that the autofocus elements were off somehow. If I look closely at the elements while it's focusing, I can sometimes see the infrared lights triggering, so I know it still tries to focus.
The oddest part is that some of the photos don't look like typical "out of focus" shots. Here is one that justseems like the focus was off.
Pretty typical. And this shot looks like it focused too close (though that grass was closer than the supposed minimum focus distance, I believe. Like less than a foot from the camera).
Then there's things like this,
where part of the door is in focus, but everything else, even at the same distance, is out of focus. And this, where there's almost a ghost image of the grass and leaves in focus near the bottom surrounded by blur.
I've been shooting film for a few years and I'm stumped. I've asked around elsewhere and haven't had much luck. Is the autofocus just going bad? It is a 30 year old plastic camera, after all. Maybe the lens starts retracting while the aperture is still open?
My only other thought is that maybe the film isn't laying flat, like the pressure plate isn't aligned properly. I could only find a few examples of photos where that happened, and it looks a bit similar. But what about the grass and the door? Is only one of the three elements working properly? Is that even possible? It happens both with the spot metering/focus and the standard autofocus.
I have no idea. Any help would be appreciated. I'd like to fix it or get it repaired if possible instead of consigning it to parts. Thank you!
