Autofocus On The E71 - Where Is It?

Posted by Mike Macias


One of the selling points of the Nokia E71 is the 3.2 megapixel camera with Autofocus. This can come in handy for taking picture of text or documents when you don't have a scanner or copy machine around.

For the life of me I could not figure out why my E71 wouldn't autofocus. I started to think maybe I have a defective device. Then just this morning I was reading the comments in the Help section of this site and someone showed me the light. What's the trick?

Solution

Push "T" on your E71 when about to take a picture. Simple as that.

You will then notice the camera focus and see a green border. This means the camera is in focus and you can now hit the center button like normal to capture your image. Thanks to Massi for the tip.

But Massi has a good question...
Do you have to use the T button to autofocus or does it autofocus when the pad is pressed. And if so, why is the T button used for focusing?

Really I have no idea why the E71 does autofocus by itself without having to press anything. And I don't know why they chose the T button either. If anyone knows share your thoughts.

Am I the only knucklehead that didn't figure this out and didn't read the E71 user manual?
Topics: ,

10 comments:

  1. Nope, Missed that one too man.
    ReplyDelete
  2. One typical of the feature of autofocus is to be able to lock it to something that isn't in the centre of the viewfinder - for example when your main object isn't in the middle of your picture. In these cases you'd use T or the "middle step" in the button of other cameras and phones to lock the focus, re-frame the picture and then take it. If the d-pad refocused each time you pressed it it would ruin these shots.

    That said, there's no reason why the E71 couldn't have been clever enough to realise when you had done this and focus itself if it hadn't already been done manually. My only thought is that the shooter may not want autofocus to kick in for speed reasons, and the T button gives them this choice.
    ReplyDelete
  3. I think the T is used to compensate the lack of dedicated camera button like on the N85 where you can half press to focus and the fully depress the button to capture.

    Cheers!
    RayanMX
    ReplyDelete
  4. I also find it highly annoying that this focus does not work automatically. It is hardly "auto"-focus. :-)
    ReplyDelete
  5. Reply to Mike, "Really I have no idea why the E71 does autofocus by itself without having to press anything. And I don't know why they chose the T button either. If anyone knows share your thoughts."

    Comment: "Not only 71 uses the 'T/2' key for autofocus, my previous 61i use this kinda method too. Which I think is due to the slim design fact that the hardware for halfpress autof is not able to fit in. If you ever tried breaking a phone apart (those with halfpress autof key) you will find it close to impossible for the parts to fit in to 61i, not mentioning 71."
    PS hope this can be a answer to ya ",)
    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello


    Thanks for your helo with the 't' button...

    I thought as well that my cellphone was broken..

    thank you
    ReplyDelete
  7. Was bitten by this today, found the 't' from online help in the camera itself. I think 't' comes from 'tarkenna', which means 'focus' in finncrypt(). What a superb user interface win, I bet there are tons of people who think e71 macro is just unsuably poor quality.
    ReplyDelete
  8. ardian

    I think they chose the T buton just because it is close to the scroll keys. so that the user finds it easy to shoot after the focusing
    ReplyDelete
  9. honestly I dont see any difference between using AF or not, the picture was still blur, especially when I captured a page in a text book.
    ReplyDelete
  10. hi,
    my nokia E71 is working with good autofocus feature.but before few days after pressing "T" it is not working. I have hard reset and soft reset phone but not working please help me.....
    ReplyDelete

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