Auto or Manual Focus?

[Battou]

I Manual focus....for everything

 

[Rem]

I'm used to manual focus and I favor my manual focus lenses..so often the AF glass is left at home. I DO use aperture priority a lot,but I use manual often and program modes seldom. I trust my 70's vintage camera more than any of the newer stuff I have. It does not have a lot to say so it never lies.

I hate electric windows on cars.

I do prefer power saws to hand saws however.

 

[usayit]

Never say never..... there is a use or a time for everything.

I much prefer the manual focus of my rangefinders BUT for kids and sports I'll make an exception and defer to an AF Canon.

 

[manaheim]

I always use autofocus except when it doesn't work.

Most commonly...

1. Night photography.
2. Low-light or low-contrast situations.
3. When using my Sigma 10-20 in certain situations.

 

[lockwood81]

OM-1 completely manual focus.
e-510 mostly auto focus, but manual for macro, night, low light.

 

[Overread19 7]

auto focus is generally far quicker than manual focusing can be - for sports, kids, pets and wildlife - action photography - auto focus is almost always used since it can lock onto the subject quicker than you can.
Further more the modern DSLRs do not have manual focus aids in the viewfinders as the older SLRs did - that makes manual focusing very tricky, especilly if the light is not perfect. Manual foucs does have advatanges, you know what you want in a shot to get sharp, the camera does not and if your shooting into (for example) bushes or through wire at a zoo there is a good chance that the camera will pickup on the closest thing to it - which might very well not be what you want in focus.

As a point I (and many others) find it easiest to set the af so that only hte middle af point is used - that way you can define the subject easily. It does mean that shots can come out looking very centred a lot of the time - creative cropping can get round this limitation

 

[ksmattfish]

I use both. Like many techniques each has strengths and weaknesses. I assess the situation, and choose whichever will get the job done best. One thing I will point out is that while focusing seems simple enough it does require practice. I find that if I've been using one technique (manual focus or AF) most of the time I get rusty with the other.

A co-worker of mine said I should never be using Auto Focus and to always manual focus?

I find that folks who come up with these sorts of silly rules are often attempting to apply restraints to others in order to justify their own limitations.

 

[Katier]

I'm in the depends on camera/situation camp. My DSLR often is in auto focus but do us manual for specific situations. All my other cameras are Manual focus.

 

[DexGtr]

i'm on auto focus most of the time...manual focus for certain situations....

 

[ksmattfish]

It has a lot to do with gear. The film cameras I used all had huge, bright viewfinders, and no AF even if I'd wanted it. The DSLRs I'm using have tiny dim viewfinders (even the 35mm 5D). If I'm using a long focal length really getting close to my subject I don't have much problem manually focusing, but with wide angle forget it. I've installed split ring focusing screens in several of my DSLRs, and it's still tough to manually focus through the viewfinder.

With my compact digital I've installed CHDK, and my LCD displays distance to subject, near DOF limit, and far DOF limit. I turn off the AF and zone focus. I wish my DSLRs would offer such a feature.

CHDK - CHDK Wiki

zone focusing - Google Search

 

[Overread19 7]

out of interest how do you find the splitscreens in the DSLRs? I have read that using them can mess up your AF and in camera metering

 

[manaheim]

out of interest how do you find the splitscreens in the DSLRs? I have read that using them can mess up your AF and in camera metering

Are you referring to the splif focus prism things you can add to the DSLRs? I've been curious about those as well. I'd really like one, but have been a bit leery of doing a customization job on the ol' D300.

 

[Breanna]

Pfft, no way you should always be in manual. Only 1 in 5 of your photos will be in focus at all (from my personal experiance). Trust me, I've tried it. The human eye isn't good enough to be a true and accurate judge through the lens. Shots that I thought were in focus while shooting ended up being totally OUT of focus once I was viewing them on the computer. I only use manual focus for certain macro stuff where my auto focus isn't doing what I want it to do.

 

[Snapsh0t]

this is good to know, I always left my camera on auto-focus I guess If I am taking pictures of cars etc, I should leave it on Manual Focus.