My camera's lens won't focus, or the focus drifts. What do I check?
Sharp at some distances but not others: tighten the four silver screws on the back of the 8-48mm lens. Sharp at no distance: the CS-C mount adapter is wrong (exactly one 5 mm ring, or none for the 2.8-10mm lens).
Where to start depends on whether you can get a sharp image at any distance.
Sharp at some distances, but not others, or the focus drifts: on the 8-48mm lens this is usually the four small silver screws on the back of the lens, which loosen over time and change the distance to the sensor. Remove the lens, tighten all four (don't overtighten; they strip easily), and reattach it, stopping as soon as it reaches the stopper. Tightening past the stopper damages the lens beyond repair. Fix Out-of-Focus Lens shows it. An image that is sharp by day but goes soft as it gets darker is the same screws.
Nothing is sharp at any distance: check the CS-C mount adapter, the 5 mm ring between the lens and the camera. The 2.8-10mm lens (Vision or Vision PRO) must have no adapter; the 8-48mm (Vision) and 12.5-75mm (Vision PRO) lenses must have exactly one. Two rings stacked, or none, leaves the image blurry at every setting. An adapter can stay on a lens when it moves to another camera, so one camera ends up with none and another with two.
Once the lens can focus, focus in 2-D EasyAlign mode until the Focus Helper number is as high as you can get it, or use Auto-Focus (FinishLynx 13.10 or later), with the iris wide open so the image stays sharp as the light fades. A lens that still won't focus with the right adapter may have been knocked out of position and needs a repair.
Send it in for repair
Start an RMA. The portal walks you through what to include and where to ship it.
Goes deeper
- Image is blurry and can't focus — Troubleshoot · Camera · EtherLynx Camera · Image & Focus
Related questions
- How do I know if I have the remote lens? — A remote lens always has a cable coming out of the housing: a black cable with a 9-pin connector that goes to the camera's Remote port or to the Remote Positioner.
- What factors affect the quality of my FinishLynx images? — Five things: the light source and where it comes from, the lens type, the frame rate for the speed of the athletes, depth of field (raise the camera), and lens speed (open the iris at higher frame rates).
- Where should my camera be located in relation to the finish line? — In the plane of the finish line: for athletics, 7 to 15 feet high, about the same distance back from the track, pointing down at about 45 degrees. The Lens Calculator picks the lens for your spot.