Suggestions?

[Verre Vrai]

If your digicam got no AF assist lamp, what can you do to have good AF in low light environment? I try to used a maglight, not very useful as I think the measurement taken by the meter after built-in AF assist lamp lit the subject, is part of the AF firmware's calculation, so using an external maglight wouldn't help at all. Got suggestions? :gbounce:

 

[Ian]

This is experimental, but it *might* help you out.
If it doesn't then there's probably little more to be done.

Most AF assist units operate in the Infrared (IR) or near IR wavelengths. Rather than a maglight, build an IR led block of about 10-60 IR led's.

Reasoning. Maglights and other torches tend to run in visible light with little or no IR component.