AF vs Manual - When do YOU use it?

[Msteelio91]

With the emphasis on YOU... What times do you find yourself using autofocus compared to manual?

Personally, I try to focus on my own because there is nothing more painful to me than missing a shot due to AF grabbing the "wrong" thing. However I sometimes find myself unable to keep up with the ring. Maybe it's just my crappy eyes, dunno, but I'm curious to see what people think of as a good time to rely on autofocus.

 

[480sparky]

I use AF when there's plenty of light.

 

[Desi]

Do you mean using single point autofocus versus full automatic?

I almost always use single point focus. Sometimes I miss a shot since I don't get my focus point where I want it on time, but when I have time to compose, I get what I want.

For sports or shooting birds or running children, where there is just one subject for the camera to track and it moves fast, I'll sometimes use autofocus, or I'll just use a single focus point centrally and shoot wide and compose via cropping.

I rarely focus manually (sometimes in the dark it is the only choice, or with macro).....but I will often choose a focus point, focus, and then switch the lens to manual so that the focus point doesn't change.

 

[sm4him]

Just about the ONLY time I focus manually is when I'm doing macro photography. I have extremely poor vision and would not get one keeper out of 1,000 if I had to rely on my eyesight to decide if I've locked focus.
Now, sometimes I'll AF on something THEN switch to manual focus--like when I do water drops or smoke photography--in order to keep the AF from deciding to try to refocus with every drop.

 

[gsgary]

I have to manual focus

 

[LucasKazuaki]

As I am a drag race photographer i usually don't have time to use manual focus i just use AF and that's it.
Sometimes i use manual focus for still and calm nigth photos.

 

[bribrius]

when auto don't work

 

[vimwiz]

I use single point AF for fast action, MF the rest of the time - then again I came from a MF film background - my experience is that the MF rings on EOS lenses suck big time, and they are difficult to focus (split pentaprism all the way!)

 

[SCraig]

Very, very seldom use manual focus. Autofocus works well so there is no need to.

 

[KmH]

I only use manual focus when auto focus doesn't work very well:
• low light
• little or no contrast between the subject and background
• the focus point contains objects at different distances from the camera.
• the subject is dominated by regular geometric patterns.
• the subject contains many fine details
• the focus point contains areas of high contrast

 

[ecphoto]

Like KMH said. Autofocus is pretty spot on and more often than not it focuses much better than the human eye. In most situations its also way faster at focusing. I learned this the hard way when I was a new photographer. I ruined a lot of shots that way.

 

[astroNikon]

Manual Focus ...
any time my dslr is on the telescope
pictures of moon
close up shoots / macro
shooting through something like glass/window
where there's not enough light for AF
high flying airplanes


AF - normally Single Point
about most of everything else

forgot to add.I use d9 (dynamic 9 point) AF for sports

 

[Derrel]

I use AF most of the time with most lenses. One AF lens that I find myself using manual focus with pretty often is my 80-400 VR AF-D, which is easily confused in many types of situations. I will often MANUALLY focus it to the right distance, then turn the non-locking M/A ring to the un-locked, just-engaged A position, then allow AF to fine-tune the job I started.

With most AF-S lenses, manual focus is not needed except in the kind of situations KmH and astroNikon mentioned above. As was mentioned, close-up and macro are almost always manually focused for me.

With the good, 51-point Nikon AF systems, autofocus works VERY well under a LOT of conditions.

 

[ruifo]

When AF is not practical or doesn't work, MF is the way to go...
I bought a 50mm 1.8D lens (a manual lens in my D5200) to be able to practice MF myself.

 

[D-B-J]

I only use manual focus when auto focus doesn't work very well:
• low light
• little or no contrast between the subject and background
• the focus point contains objects at different distances from the camera.
• the subject is dominated by regular geometric patterns.
• the subject contains many fine details
• the focus point contains areas of high contrast

This. Or when I'm doing flash photography on a static subject (fine art, product, smoke).

Jake


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