Back Button Focus.

Indrajeet · Feb 26, 2020

Hello All! I am new here, I primarily photograph birds and wildlife.

On my newer bodies like the D500 and D850 I have selected three focus options, the AF-ON (back button) is set for Group, which I use most of the time for bird in flight, which is my favourite subject. I have the toggle button set to single point for bird portraits or picking birds in difficult habitat or selecting a specific bird in a group. For shooting birds in flight against a sky background I will use 21 points set to my Pv button on the front. Works brilliantly and I miss fewer images using this set up.

zulu42 · Feb 26, 2020

Indrajeet said:
Hello All! I am new here, I primarily photograph birds and wildlife.

On my newer bodies like the D500 and D850 I have selected three focus options, the AF-ON (back button) is set for Group, which I use most of the time for bird in flight, which is my favourite subject. I have the toggle button set to single point for bird portraits or picking birds in difficult habitat or selecting a specific bird in a group. For shooting birds in flight against a sky background I will use 21 points set to my Pv button on the front. Works brilliantly and I miss fewer images using this set up.

This is very interesting. I'm not sure what the "toggle button" is, or if I have that on my D800. But I like your concept!

freixas · Feb 26, 2020

Derrel said:
A driver that never consciously thinks of the brake or the accelerator...driving on innate instincts...interesting...try that driving in mud or snow or tight confines... I used to be a Precision driver at a large Nursery,where it was required to drive all day long for 8 hours with no more than three inches of a variance...piloting a 10 implement cultivator over three--row beds of ornamental plants or trees required lots of actual thinking about the steering and gear choice and braking... it was mentally quite stressful, driving like this. There was plenty of thought given to all parts of the driving process. I would like to be able to say that a person can drive without thinking , but there is actually quite a bit of subconscious or even conscious thought applied to even something as common as driving.

LOL

Hopefully, I never said "without thinking" and I did mean "subconscious" not "unconscious"!

But let me give a different analogy, one that you might find more difficult to discount. Let's say it's like playing the piano. I play the piano and I find I can often play better when my conscious mind is thinking of something other than the music. This is true even when sight reading (playing a piece for the first time). This is way more complicated than driving and requires converting mounds of visual input into mounds of muscle movements in a very short space of time.

If I can play the piano "subconsciously", then I can certainly operate the back button "subconsciously". And I can drive "subconsciously" as well.

TWX · Feb 26, 2020

I think of it like the differences between driving a car with an automatic transmission, driving a car with a manual transmission, either on the column or on the floor.

It's possible that the latter transmissions give the driver more options, but at the same time, require the driver to perform extra steps. In contrast, a driver using an automatic transmission is free to do little more than press the gas pedal, but the driver still has the option to manually downshift or otherwise limit how high a gear the transmission can go into if one so chooses, but can let the car just do its thing which it does exceedingly well without driver-input the vast majority of the time.

Don't get me started about the time a friend and I went on a road-trip to pick up some auto parts, pulling into a rest-stop I'd been driving for several hours straight at highway speeds and completely forgot his car was a manual; the chuga-chuga-chuga-stall as I pulled up to the stop sign at the inner end of the offramp was not my proudest moment.

Derrel · Feb 26, 2020

Subconscious driving...sounds less less than optimal. Whatever happened to "defensive driving", where you actively analyze situations and anticipate potential mistakes others might make, and prepare youself for possible ways to react?

Muscle memory/ training / re-training/ pausing to evaluate how something ought to be done...etc.

Glad you can drive "Subconsciously".

Joves · Mar 4, 2020

I have been using the back button since I could assign it on my D80. No it is not a two step process. Your thumb is already back there. I also find it gives me a better grip on the body, and I used to trip the shutter, miss more shot with the shutter button. If the shutter button had any real resistance like the film cameras did, then it would be different.
Also I drive MACKs and you do not need a clutch, and you do not on cars either, except for starting out, or holding on a hill. After I am moving I never use the clutch. And when I use the BF I never accidentally trip the shutter.

Derrel · Mar 4, 2020

To those who say the back button focus is not a two-step process: your logic is fatally flawed. If you do not press the back button with your thumb to focus before you use your right index finger to shoot, you have not focused and the chances of taking an out of focus shot is fairly High--- in some situations more than 90% likely that you will be out of focus. I may be getting up in years, but I can count, 1st step, and then 2nd step... back button Focus turns the act of taking a photo that is in focus into a two-step process no matter what bulsh!+ explanation you try to delude yourself with. Step one Focus, step two press another button to fire. If you shoot 1400 shots at a wedding that means 2800 button presses if you shoot 750 shots at a football game that means 1500 button presses. No I'm serious this means that every time you take a photo it is a two-step process at minimum

freixas · Mar 5, 2020

Derrel said:
I may be getting up in years, but I can count, 1st step, and then 2nd step... back button Focus turns the act of taking a photo that is in focus into a two-step process no matter what bulsh!+ explanation you try to delude yourself with. Step one Focus, step two press another button to fire.

Derrel, in almost every thread I've seen, you've been the voice of reason, regardless of how heated a discussion got. And the thing that finally has you worked up is...BBF?

I don't actually care if you or anyone else uses the shutter release button or the back button for focusing. The OP was about whether one would get more "keepers" with one method or the other. The answer IMO is...it depends--it depends on the camera, the photographer and the situation. There are several ways to skin this cat and BBF is just one way. Some people find BBF easier to use; others, like yourself, will prefer alternate methods.

Is the "normal" approach really a 1-step method? If I aim my camera at a target and press the shutter release in one step, I will probably get a blurry photo. Your camera may be different, but for me it would be half-press, wait for focus, and then full press. I still count two steps.

The argument about 1400 vs 2800 button presses is clever but irrelevant. I mentioned I play the piano. It's not three times harder to play three notes than one, as I have more than one finger and the brain is very good at parallel processing.

All BBF shooting does is disconnect the focus from the shutter release and transfer it to the back button. All focus controls still operate as normal (as far as I know--I don't own every camera in the world). If there are advanced focus tracking algorithms available, they should still work. It uses a finger that is otherwise unoccupied. Once trained to use BBF (which is not that hard), you won't miss any shots because of it, nor will it feel like an extra step or more work.