11 points AF on D3100

[NightShooter]

Hi -

I am wondering if there's a way to have all 11 Auto Focus points operating when shooting on a D3100 all at once? So far only a few of them light up when I press the shutter half way, and I have to keep pressing the shutter half way multiple times until the the red dots AF points are where I want them to be.

So in summary my questions:
1. Can you have all 11 AF points activated to a shoot a picture with 11 points of focus all at once?

2. Is there a way to navigate the AF points to where you want the point of focus to be without having to keep pressing the shutter half way multiple times until you get the desired AF points?

Thanks.

 

[Destin]

Hi -

I am wondering if there's a way to have all 11 Auto Focus points operating when shooting on a D3100 all at once? So far only a few of them light up when I press the shutter half way, and I have to keep pressing the shutter half way multiple times until the the red dots AF points are where I want them to be.

So in summary my questions:
1. Can you have all 11 AF points activated to a shoot a picture with 11 points of focus all at once?

2. Is there a way to navigate the AF points to where you want the point of focus to be without having to keep pressing the shutter half way multiple times until you get the desired AF points?

Thanks.

To my knowledge, you cannot have all 11 at once. But you wouldn't want to in my opinion, most times anyway.

As for selecting the points yourself, absolutely. You have to change your AF-area mode from auto-area to either single area, or dynamic area. I'm going off of my D80, but they use the same 11 point AF system.

 

[Ken Rockwell Fan]

You can only select one focus point at a time. You can however set the autofocus from dynamic area to closest subject mode which will select the focus point for you automatically.

 

[orb9220]

Yep less hassle for me to select single point and use pad to select one of the 11. Or select center point AF and half press with subject under AF point and while maintaining the half press recompose the frame the way you want it and take the pic.

A lot quicker then worrying about how many,which ones etc..
.

 

[KmH]

Carefully read pages 55 through 63 of your D3100 users manual. Pay particular close attention to the section that covers AF-Area Mode on page 58. Re-read those pages as necessary, until you achieve a good understanding of all your auto focus options.

In most scenes, whatever is in each of the 11 focus points will be at different distances from the camera, so all 11 cannot be used at the same time.

The ones you see lit up in the viewfinder are very close to the same distance from the camera and the camera is simply indicating to you where the focal point is in the scene.

Note: Only the center focus point of the 11 focus points in the D3100 is a cross-type focus point, so it is the most accurate of the 11 points.