Olympus E-420 Help Please Options

[Ratskelter]

I recently tried using the night lights default setting option on the Scene select menu of my Olypus E-420. The battery was fully charged. The camera was on a tripod. The scene was a bridge into town at 12:30 PM with no traffic. Street lights over the bridge and into the town and some shop lights.i selected the option, pressed OK and double checked that the image was clear. I pressed the button to shoot but the camera simply whirred into action and put itself hopelessly out of focus. After 5 attempts I gave up in disgust. Help please, anyone!
ratskelter, Australia.

[donmac]

I dont know much about your particular camera, but auto focus works in a couple of ways.
"Passive mode" measures contrast to adjust the focus and therefor relies on good light to be any good.
"Active mode" uses infrared light to measure the distance. You can usually adjust how your camera determines the point of focus. It is also affected by black surfaces which can absorb the infrared and give false readings.
Normally an SLR camera will use the active mode but I believe some revert to passive mode if you are using "Live View" which is available in the latest cameras.
My understanding is that active mode should work perfectly well in the dark, but having said that, I have had problems too. The answer is to switch to manual focus. There should be a switch on the lens which lets you do this. Unfortunately it can often be difficult to see if your subject is in focus so you may have to rely on the distance values on the lens. Take a few at different settings to be sure.
Hope this helps
Don