Do you change your auto focus settings often?

[peanut170]

If so maybe some examples of when you use each one, and when you would switch to a different setting. Like do you use single point for portraits and auto area for landscapes? Or which setting is best for getting the eyes sharply in focus. i set mine on single point, normal zone, and it seems to be working fine, just curious if id see better results in different areas by changing them. I have read the manual, but examples always seem to help me understand a little better.

 

[Dillard]

I am by no means a professional, just an enthused hobbiest, but I use single point for most portrait style shoots. This allows you to pick the point of focus, whether it be the ring on a finger, or the eyes. I used continuous when shooting sports. As often the subject will move enough to miss the focus. This helps cover the unpredictability of athletes...

Im sure someone else will chime in with a better, more detailed explanation!

 

[rokvi]

Hobbyist here as well. For portraits I use the point in the middle, lock it and recompose. For moving subjects, AI servo mode still using the middle. For landscape I use the middle again focusing a third of the way from the bottom of the screen using live view.

 

[KmH]

I never used the auto area option.

I generally used single focus for non-moving subjects, and continuous focus for moving subjects.

 

[davisphotos]

With my 5D and 5D2, I almost always use single shot focus mode, and manually select the focus point with the quick select dial on the back of the camera. With the 5d MarkIII and it's considerably improved AF, I am using AI servo more, and still selecting my focus point with the quick select dial and locking focus with the AF lock button. It takes some practice to select the right focus point, but I find it much more accurate than letting the camera pick the focus point. In a really fast paced shooting situation, I will use the matrix auto focus mode of the 5D MarkIII, it is really pretty good.

 

[xjoewhitex]

Single point, I always shoot at wide apertures so I can't miss or it ruins the shot.

 

[Overread17 5]

I use a series of controls and methods for auto focus to get it to do what I wan when I need it to.

1) (applies to canon and nikon and most other brands of dslr - consult manual for details) I use backbutton auto focus control. This is where the engaging of autofocus is taking off the halfpress of the shutter button and instead moved to the back of the camera. Lower end cameras tend to use a combo button for this (eg on the canon low levels it replaced the preflash * button function) whilst on higher tier bodies there is often an AF dedicated button for this.
This means that you can press the shutter all you want and it wont start the AF. Instead you have to press the button on the back of the camera to engage it. This is greatly empowering as it means you can choose when the AF starts and stops without having to look for the on/off button on the lens itself. When you combine this with lenses that have fulltime manual focusing you can effortlessly shift from manual to auto-focus - great for focus and recompose situations (where after recomposition shifts in focus are often needed).

2) Single point AF - this lets me clearly dictate to the camera what in a scene I want in focus by pointing the designated AF point at the subject. With most cameras the best AF point is the middle point, however higher level cameras expand on this with more high performance AF points in surrounding locations. This gives the photographer freedom to compose the photo as they want, with less chance of the AF locking onto the wrong part of the scene (remember af looks for and locks onto the closest point it can find under the active af point(s) - though some are now using face detect and other modes, the basic operation is still the same).

3) Because of the combination of the above two clauses my AF mode is generally set to continuous AF. If I want the oneshot AF feature I just hold down the backbutton to get a lock and then release my finger from the button and the AF won't continue. As such I'm always ready for an action scene or a static scene as well as being able to shift into manual without a pause (when combined with fulltime manual focusing lenses - with regular lenses one still has to flick the af on/off switch on the lens).


The 7D camera I have also has a few expanded AF controls possible, but these are not common in lower level cameras and I'm also unsure how they would translate to other brands so I won't specifically list them here unless asked.

 

[480sparky41 41]

I change it every time the situation demands I do. Sometimes I'll change it several times a day.... other times I'll go weeks without ever changing it.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Spot focus is good for people and portraits. Area focus is good for wide things like landscape.

 

[jaomul]

No not often

 

[orb9220]

I use a series of controls and methods for auto focus to get it to do what I wan when I need it to.

1) (applies to canon and nikon and most other brands of dslr - consult manual for details) I use backbutton auto focus control. This is where the engaging of autofocus is taking off the halfpress of the shutter button and instead moved to the back of the camera. Lower end cameras tend to use a combo button for this (eg on the canon low levels it replaced the preflash * button function) whilst on higher tier bodies there is often an AF dedicated button for this.
This means that you can press the shutter all you want and it wont start the AF. Instead you have to press the button on the back of the camera to engage it. This is greatly empowering as it means you can choose when the AF starts and stops without having to look for the on/off button on the lens itself. When you combine this with lenses that have fulltime manual focusing you can effortlessly shift from manual to auto-focus - great for focus and recompose situations (where after recomposition shifts in focus are often needed).

Interesting and just change to this and give it a whirl. Do you have AE/AF button On then turn off when recomposing frame?

Never tried before but will give it a whirl and see if it is for me. Also since I use center AF point locked. Decided to change area to wide to see if that gives me more accurate metering? As subject of interest generally goes a bit beyond the singe AF brackets.
.

 

[Overread17 5]

orb9220 - the beauty of the backbutton AF control is that you shouldn't need to turn the AF switch on/off at all during the process. When you recompose you simply don't press the button on the back to engage the AF and the halfpress and full press of the shutter also won't engage it. The only time you need to hit the af on/off switch is when you want to manually adjust the focus and the lens does not sport the "all the time manual focusing" feature.


Metering wise I'm unsure how it links up directly with Nikon, but whilst I'm aware that the metering will follow the AF point, how wide a sample area it reads won't be affected by the AF sensor spread, but instead by the metering mode you select.

 

[orb9220]

Hmmm thanks Overread as must have the AE/AF assigned to lock and hold as it's toggle on or off at present. And is what I want to use center AF to lock on interest then move camera to recompose. And yep change it to AF/AE as want lock in Exposure and Focus then recompose frame and shoot.

But will check out the other settings. As seems to be many ways to assign. Just so use to full manual Center weighted and Center AF that will need to try out what is best for me.

Yep makes sense increasing the AF area doesn't equate to incresed metering spread and would be surprised once I thought about it that it would.
.

 

[peanut170]

Appreciate all the responses, not really understanding the backbutton af lock thing, seems to be no difference than pressing the shutter halfway to focus, keeping it held down to recompose the shot like af-s. Or am i just doing something wrong. Either you hold the shutter button half way down, or you hold the ae-l af-l button, and it wont refocus, seems the same.

 

[Overread17 5]

Ahh but that is only in one-shot AF - if your AF is set to constant (ie its constantly resampling the focus) then the shifting of the frame will end up with the focus shifting - unless you combine it with the backbutton AF.