Focusing Manually

itsjustbrandy · Mar 23, 2009

I had lunch the other day with a friend of mine (a professional that mainly shoots models.. some landscape) that told me when I asked- ''When you want to focus manually, should you turn the dial from AF to M (A to M) on BOTH the lens and the body along with switching it to Manual mode?'' He said no, he justs leaves it in manual mode, never switches the dials.
But I find that when I do that, it still wants to auto focus. I end up switching both dials, lens & body, to M.
Could someone explain this for me? :lol:

Point out the purposes..?

Thanks!:hugs:

dxqcanada · Mar 23, 2009

I am going to make a guess as a non-Nikon user ...

The A/M switch on the body turns off the AF motor.
The A/M switch may be present on lenses with internal motors.

So ... you may only need to turn off the lens.

davebmck · Mar 23, 2009

If you want to focus manually, you just flip the switch on the lens. The settings on the camera don't have anything to do with auto/manual focus. At least with Canon that is. I should ask what camera you have.

OK, I see above you have a Nikon D90. I don't know if they have a switch on the camera as well.

dxqcanada · Mar 23, 2009

Canon EOS camera's never had the AF motor in the body ... only the lens.

Most Nikon's have the AF motor in the body ... so they have some lenses with an AF motor also.

AlexColeman · Mar 23, 2009

I had a D90, on all of my lenses, you can just flip the small switch on the bottom left side.

itsjustbrandy · Mar 23, 2009

I do switch both of them.
But should I be switching both, on the body AND the lens? If not, what serves the purpose for each dial? Do some lenses not have the A & M switch option?

boogschd · Mar 24, 2009

switch M on the lens for manual focusing

switching m on the body lets you set your aperture and shutter manually

A - set your own aperture , camera does the shutter speed

S - set your own shutter speed , camera does the aperture size

P - ... i forgot... i hardly ever use it now