70-200 2.8 AF-S VR Full/Infiniti-2.5 slider?

ababysean · Oct 12, 2010

What exactly does this do?
I'm looking in my manual and reading and I still do not really understand.

Here is the techie answer from the manual...

If you know you will be shooting primarily at long or short camera-to-subject distances during a particular session, you can use the LIMIT setting on an AF Micro-Nikkor to restrict the focusing range of the lens to save focusing time.

When the LIMIT/FULL selector is on FULL, the lens can be focused continuously from infinity to 1:1 (life-size closeup). We recommend leaving the selector on FULL for most general shooting. To restrict the lens to close focusing, focus the lens at or near its minimum distance and slide the selector to LIMIT. The lens will now focus only to repreduction ratios between 1:1 and approximately 1:2.3. To restrict the focusing range to longer distances such as portraits and scenics, focus at or near infinity before switching to LIMIT. The lens will then focus only between infinity and a reproduction ratio of about 1:3.

Thanks in advance for the translation for dummies...

matt62485 · Oct 12, 2010

im not really sure honestly, but if i had to interpret it as a sort of limit switch which sets the focus range at one extreme or another... instead of trying to focus at full stroke/range, it would limit it to say lower limit and reduce autofocus time by eliminating the upper range the AF would look for and would not find a focus on.

i may be way off but thats my guess

Derrel · Oct 12, 2010

Imagine shooting from behind the backstop at a baseball game, when you do not want the lens to ever come into the close-focusing range.

Imagine a close-range portrait session done entirely indoors, in-studio, when you never want the lens to focus at the longer ranges.

By using the limiter switch, the user can prevent the lens from attempting to "seek focus" in the ranges where the user simoply does not want the lens to be focusing. The most common scenarios are when there are intevening,close objects between you and the desired subject, like the baseball chain link fencing or window blinds or zoo bars,etc OR when you want the lens to always be focusing pretty close, and NEVER accidentally racking the focus back out toward infinity or even 60,70 feet.

ababysean · Oct 12, 2010

so if I was shooting from about ohhh 50 feet away, to as close as 4 and closer, I should switch it to the 2.5, or just leave it at Full?

matt62485 · Oct 12, 2010

Derrel said:
Imagine shooting from behind the backstop at a baseball game, when you do not want the lens to ever come into the close-focusing range.

Imagine a close-range portrait session done entirely indoors, in-studio, when you never want the lens to focus at the longer ranges.

By using the limiter switch, the user can prevent the lens from attempting to "seek focus" in the ranges where the user simoply does not want the lens to be focusing. The most common scenarios are when there are intevening,close objects between you and the desired subject, like the baseball chain link fencing or window blinds or zoo bars,etc OR when you want the lens to always be focusing pretty close, and NEVER accidentally racking the focus back out toward infinity or even 60,70 feet.

yea thats what i meant, in much better terms :lol:

Derrel · Oct 12, 2010

Probably FULL, in that type of scenario...that's actually almost the entire focusing travel right there...50 feet is reasonably close to Infinity...and 4 is very,very close...

The MOST-frequent scenarios are where there are intervening "things" between you and the desired subject, like accidentally-appearing referees or line judges between you and the football play in the middle of the field, or close-in brush in a blind while photographing wildlife at 20-60 meters, or as stated above, close-range wires, cages,window blinds,etc,etc, in between you and a more-distant subject.

On some older lenses, or those that have rather slow AF systems, the use of the Focus Limiter switch can really help speed things up, by limiting the range of searched focusing distances. On some lenses, when focus cannot be found, the Default behavior is to go to Minimum Focus Distance (aka MFD) and then to rack back out!!! That kind of a focus hunting error can be a real deal-breaker!