Holy Crap! I never knew...

[misstwinklytoes]

that the focus is SO much sharper when you manually focus. Yes, I'm a noob, but holy cow. I just played with it today and my eyes in pics looked lots better.

 

[misstwinklytoes]

>.< I would but it was my naked kiddo. Lemme see if I can find a close up crop so I don't get told how dangerous it is to post pics of my half naked 2 yr old.

EDIT FOR CLARIFICATION:

I said:

I just played with it today and my eyes in pics looked lots better.

Meaning it may not be as good as yours, but it's much better than mine have been.

Now I just need to work on speed.

 

[Josh66]

You should still be able to get sharp focus with AF most of the time...

Read this and see if it applies to the cases AF isn't working for you:
Why Focus-Recompose Sucks

 

[Robin Usagani]

Miss. If you want really sharp use the live view and use the arrow keys to set where you want to focus then press * key until it is focused (green box).

 

[misstwinklytoes]

 

[misstwinklytoes]

I did brighten his eyes some. There's no way I could use live view on my son because it's way too slow.

 

[misstwinklytoes]

You should still be able to get sharp focus with AF most of the time...

Read this and see if it applies to the cases AF isn't working for you:
Why Focus-Recompose Sucks

This does happen to me fairly often.... I wonder if that means I should always use a side AF point? :er:

 

[Josh66]

If you're stopped down (f/5.6 or more), that's probably not the problem. But if you're shooting wide open, you should use the focus point closest to where you want to focus - minimizing the amount of recomposing you have to do.

 

[Taylor510ce]

It probably isn't that you are getting sharper focus, you are probably just having an easier time actually focusing on what you intend to. For example, focusing on the eyes but having AF lock onto the bridge of the nose instead, or having to AF and then recompose which sometimes throws off the original intended focus.

 

[SageMark]

Read this and see if it applies to the cases AF isn't working for you:
Why Focus-Recompose Sucks

Thanks for the link, a good read for substance.

 

[Ron Evers]

Miss. If you want really sharp use the live view and use the arrow keys to set where you want to focus then press * key until it is focused (green box).

Sure glad I don't have to jump through all those hoops with my manual focus lenses. Twist the focusing ring untill what you want is in focus & click.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Ron, your old eyes can still do manual focus? Just messing with you.

 

[LCARSx32]

Ron, does your viewfinder have a split diopter? My Rebel doesn't (pffft!), so manually focusing on anything is, at least for me, very difficult. Back when I was in high school journalism, we used an old metal body Nikon that had a split diopter, so all you had to do was line up the two halves and presto! you had spot on focus.

I just bought some old glass (read: manual only) and I'm nervous about how it will work out. I can only hope that I'll get better with practice.

 

[kundalini]

that the focus is SO much sharper when you manually focus.

You musta been missing focus previously. Manual focus is not sharper than AF. It all depends on your focal point.

 

[Josh66]

that the focus is SO much sharper when you manually focus.

You musta been missing focus previously. Manual focus is not sharper than AF. It all depends on your focal point.

Yeah - if it's right, it's right. The only difference is how you get there.

Personally, I find AF easier, and only manually focus when I can't auto focus - for whatever reason...