Back button and other stuff

[Overread]

SNIP>> BBF and photo quality do not relate. Either your focal points work, or they don't. But the fact of how you get your camera to auto focus has no influence.

Your statement is in direct contradiction to the opinions expressed in soooo many articles and videos touting BBF as the 'best thing since autofocus.' Lol, half-joking...

I think some of that is how people word it because it can easily come across that the button results in better AF performance rather than coming across that it allows better engagement of the AF by the user which results in improved use of AF.
I also think that some AF systems do confuse people with the various options they've got, esp when you factor in that tricky situations and moving targets are often going to result in misses or slight misses even on a perfectly calibrated system with perfect shooting and that sometimes its going to be hard to work out "what failed". Ergo drawing the line between user error; machine error and just too hard for the machine to achieve.

 

[Photo Lady]

wow this thread has been awesome.. so much info...thanks ... i will try some of this later too..

 

[Richard Hutchings]

I use a User Setting on my function wheel to go to between BBF and half-click, but mostly use BBF. Not sure if your D5600 has something like user settings...

I need to figure out how to do that. I'm currently using the BBF again but it would be great if it was easy to switch back and forth. Especially if I hand my camera to someone else.

 

[Derrel]

SNIP>>Especially if I hand my camera to someone else.

BBF and thumb-focusing is not the best setup for handing a camera over to an un-trained person,and expecting an in-focus shot.

 

[Richard Hutchings]

I use a User Setting on my function wheel to go to between BBF and half-click, but mostly use BBF. Not sure if your D5600 has something like user settings...

I don't have a function wheel and there's no way to avoid the menus to make the change. Little things like that are how the makers suck you in to the more expensive models. My next camera will be a 10 year old pro model for 1/10th the cost. I'm in no hurry.

 

[Braineack]

SNIP>>Especially if I hand my camera to someone else.

BBF and thumb-focusing is not the best setup for handing a camera over to an un-trained person,and expecting an in-focus shot.

neither is a DSLR in general -- i switch it over to live preview mode now.

 

[Scott Whaley]

It just takes a little practice as

SNIP>>Especially if I hand my camera to someone else.

BBF and thumb-focusing is not the best setup for handing a camera over to an un-trained person,and expecting an in-focus shot.

as does everything. I love using the BBF feature.

 

[pez]

I use a User Setting on my function wheel to go to between BBF and half-click, but mostly use BBF. Not sure if your D5600 has something like user settings...

I don't have a function wheel and there's no way to avoid the menus to make the change. Little things like that are how the makers suck you in to the more expensive models. My next camera will be a 10 year old pro model for 1/10th the cost. I'm in no hurry.

Sorry, should have checked. All my Pentax bodies have multiple user function setups- even the K-70 and K-S2. When I (rarely!) pass my camera to a friend, I just switch it a conventional mode.

 

[greybeard]

Umm, I don't get this BBF ... am I missing nothing/something?

Back Button Focus, why is it so good? Set up your camera to back button focus and then set your focus mode to Continuous. When your camera is setup this way you can focus on a certain point, take your thumb off the button and recompose your picture and shoot just like in AF-S mode with the shutter release. However, if you leave your thumb down you will be in AF-C mode for shooting moving subjects like birds in flight etc. Back button lets you switch instantly between the 2 modes without having to change any settings. You can't do this with the shutter release button.

 

[ac12]

First thing, WRITE DOWN "YOUR" configuration.
Then "reset" the camera, to clear the configuration to default.
Then enter YOUR configuration.

When you get into a situation where the camera is not behaving as you think it should, it could be that you configured it for something, and forgot to reconfigure back to your standard. Do this enough times and the camera can behave badly.
Then "reset" to get back to default, and apply YOUR configuration, and you are back to YOUR standard.

USE the camera for a while with different settings.
Sometimes you can figure out if you like or don't like a configuration in a few hours, other times you need days or weeks of experience with a configuration before you can make a decision to keep it or not.
Whenever you make a change (any kind of change), at first it will be confusing. This is normal human behavior to change. You have to get past this stage before you can make a decision on that change.

Try different things.
Example, I reconfigured the "record" button to be ISO change. So I press the record button and turn the rear dial to change my ISO. That reconfiguration works FOR ME, because I sometimes change the ISO often.