May I present...

[Civchic]

The case against autofocus?

Exhibit A:

june 20 dangers of autofocus 2 by civgirlca, on Flickr

A beautiful thistle, no? Oh, were there a couple of swallows doing some aerial acrobatics there?

Exhibit B:

june 20 dangers of autofocus by civgirlca, on Flickr

LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL WEED. So crisp and clear.

Exhibit C:
june 20 tern by civgirlca, on Flickr

Ok, it works once in awhile. But man, did that AF tick me off today. I had to take a bunch of flower pictures to feel better afterwards.

 

[pgriz]

What you meant to say, is that you're getting tired of birds photobombing your flower pictures, right?

 

[Civchic]

What you meant to say, is that you're getting tired of birds photobombing your flower pictures, right?

Haha sure! We'll go with that!

 

[D7K]

What are your AF Settings? Are you tracking AF-C , using multi-point? seems to me to be way off regularly if you're getting this ticked off with it, maybe it's how you're using the AF that's the issue, I'm sure there's some much more skilled Bird Photographers in the forum that could probably help out here...

 

[DarkShadow]

Looking at the first two images, it looks like your AF took the closet subject priority. I don't use the multi focus points but center point only and in continues focus,That way the multi focus points don't go off on something else that may be closer then the subject.

 

[robbins.photo]

I think they are all fantastic.. or at least could be if you'd photoshop out those pesky birds. Lol.

I generally use AF-C with single point autofocus and leave the single point in the center - I've found for birds in particular if they are flying near or in front of most anything that isn't clear blue sky if I use any more than one focus point the camera will almost always choose anything other than the bird to focus on. I think somehow they managed to digitize all of the various bird shapes and program them into the camera so that it knows that is absolutely not what it should focus on - lol.

So I'll use single point and keep it in the center so it's at least a little easier to try and track the critter, then I shoot a little wide so I can crop it to my liking later in post. It's by no means perfect, it takes practice to try and track the bird and even then I still get quite a few misses - but it does seem to work better than trying to let the camera choose it's own focus point.

 

[Civchic]

I'm using centre-point focus, I was just missing everything yesterday! LOL. Somedays you've got it, other days, not as much. Although I think my focus point may be a bit off, it was so consistently missing today. I just find the AF really slow to react when im chasing these speedies.

Also, with such little birds I find that my centre point covers the swallow and a little bit around it when I'm zoomed to 250, resulting in this. I was just really sad about missing these two, since they looked like they would be nice if I hadnt.

 

[robbins.photo]

I'm using centre-point focus, I was just missing everything yesterday! LOL. Somedays you've got it, other days, not as much. Although I think my focus point may be a bit off, it was so consistently missing today. I just find the AF really slow to react when im chasing these speedies.

Also, with such little birds I find that my centre point covers the swallow and a little bit around it when I'm zoomed to 250, resulting in this. I was just really sad about missing these two, since they looked like they would be nice if I hadnt.

Lol.. I hear you. I really wish there was a magic formula for hitting these shots, but if there is I haven't found it.

 

[Raj_55555]

LOOK AT THAT BEAUTIFUL WEED. So crisp and clear.

:lmao: This is hilarious. I also use AFC with single point AF on my sx50..not that it helped much..
Why didn't you post the flower pictures, the story would have been one with a happy ending

 

[Pejacre]

I almost always use AF-S and just focus/lock/recompose but as I shoot a lot of fast moving show jumping, every now and again I follow the prevailing Interweb advice and switch to AF-C for a few jumps. Hit rate is always much worse for me than with AF-S - I present exhibit A, a lovely shot of the St John's Ambulance blocked by some fuzzy horse.

(Sorry, I know this is nature/wildlife but I'm a noob and this seemed on topic)

 

[Braineack]

I almost always use AF-S and just focus/lock/recompose but as I shoot a lot of fast moving show jumping, every now and again I follow the prevailing Interweb advice and switch to AF-C for a few jumps. Hit rate is always much worse for me than with AF-S - I present exhibit A, a lovely shot of the St John's Ambulance blocked by some fuzzy horse.
View attachment 77496
(Sorry, I know this is nature/wildlife but I'm a noob and this seemed on topic)

I cant imagine ever using AF-S and " just focus/lock/recompose" in this situation...i'd expect results like you posted.

 

[Pejacre]

This wasn't using AF-S, this was AF-C! My AF-S shots are almost always spot on.

My point was, AF-C allows the camera to take control, not you. If you're quick at focus/recompose or if you pre-focus on a point the subject is approaching (I usually use the jump poles), I find I get way better results.

Again, apologies for posting this in nature/wildlife - I'll learn my way around here soon hopefully!

 

[Braineack]

I assuming you're not actually tracking the horse/rider, but just holding the camera steady and snapping once the jump happens?

 

[DarkShadow]

No offense on that Horse jump but the people and the cars in the background are far more in focus then horse and rider. Should be the other way around.

 

[Pejacre]

Sometimes I'll be pre focusing on the jump and waiting for them to reach it but more often I'm tracking the horse as you say but constantly refocusing several time really REALLY quickly as it moves around the field - basically acting as a manual AF-C. I've tried letting the camera track focus for me with AF-C using both single point and with a wider number of points but it doesn't seem to keep up as well. I guess if I was using a 70-200 VR2 it might track faster - that day I used an old 80-200 2.8 and I think my 70-300 VR is slightly quicker. I admire you guys who get sharp images of birds in flight and maybe AF-C works best with nothing in the background but a clear sky so the autofocus doesn't get confused.