Single point vs auto area focus?

[DaveAndHolly219]

Wondering which AF method you all prefer, single point or auto/area. Or if you find it to be situational, which situations would you use one over the other?


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[snowbear]

I prefer a single point - the center one. I always know which one is active,

 

[DaveAndHolly219]

I prefer a single point - the center one. I always know which one is active,

That's what I've switched to. I'm absolutely getting more consistently sharp results.


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[DarkShadow]

Single point 100 percent of the time.

 

[Derrel]

I LIKE to manually select the initial AF area, with the 4-way controller. The AUTO-area AF I never did like. I like Nikon's 11-points of 51 on the D3x, and I like the D2x's 4-points of 11 Group Dynamic AF for action (it's an APS-C camera). For slow-paced shots, center-point only is very good with the pro-level Nikons I've used (D1,D1h,D2x,D3x).

AUTO-area is one thing; single point is another thing; group AF modes are a third thing. Your question misses a very useful way to do AF, which is manually selecting a GROUP of AF points,of a set number, that you have pre-determined to use!

Situational,and it depends on the camera and the AF module and the lens too. Nikon has 3-D color-aware metering and AF. If you ***know how*** to use the system, you'll find some situations where one of the group AF modes will easily out-perform a single AF point, such as following fast action that moves across the frame (long jump and pole vault, for two specific, real,actual examples) in really QUICK time frames, like 1 to 2 seconds, or birds in flight, etc.. Depends on the power of the AF module, and how many cross-type sensors you have as well. And the class of camera: Nikon's D2x had an amazing group dynamic AF with only 11 AF brackets but 9 which were cross-type,and it had multiple modes and four types of focusing,manually selectable; the D3-series got more-automated; the D4 series the same, the D5 and D500 series now have the world's best AF systems. AS Thom Hogan mentioned, it's not just the AF module: the CPU and bandwidth in the pro Nikon bodies is better,faster, than the consumer cameras have.

If you use some of the older AF or AF-D screw-drive lenses, those cannot do ANY predictive focusing, like AF-S lenses can!! They MUST drive focus and compare, constantly; using a group AF setup can help those older lenses quite a bit with action work. AF-S allows **predictive** focus drive from the first touch of the shutter, screw-drive lenss do not!

Some lenses have weaker AF motors, like the 300 f/4 AF-S: it does NOT do nearly as well with single-point AF on track and field or baseball as it does with a small, tight AF group. Same with the slow-poke 70-300 f/4.5~5.6 AF-S VR-G lens: it is a SLOW max-aperture zoom, with a so-so AF nature; it benefits from a group AF assignment.

The thing is this: AF is a personal decision AND a situational one. There is no,one single AF strategy that will always be the absolute best one. Crop-sensor cameras tend to have their AF squares covering a wider percentage of the total frame area than do FX sensor cameras, where the edges of the frame have less coverage.

Most people have a somewhat limited understanding of what their AF system can do, in its totality

 

[zombiesniper]

I agree with Derrel that it it situation and camera dependent and that AF groups are sometimes the best choice.
I have a few camera's listed in my sig line and only the 7Dmk2 will ever come out of single point. The others are hopeless in group or auto.
If I'm shooting wildlife and am searching for a subject, I'll be in group or all AF.
If my subject is stationary or a relatively easy in flight subject such as swans or hawks then I switch to single point.
If my subject is quick and erratic such as swallows then I remain in group or all AF points.

 

[astroNikon]

It depends.

I'm shooting some baseball now such as taking pics of the batter and I've found where I've used Single Point (I'm located out past the outfield) on the D600/D750 (even when I was using the D7000) the Single Point was perfect for AF capturing those distant shots.

But now with the D500 it just isn't working. using Group (triangular middle area) or D25 is working perfectly on the D500 that has really 153 condensed focus points. I've also increased my focus points on other shooting situations with improved results.

This is using the same lens. And I can swap between the two and I have to use different AF Focus points.

Edit: If I used the D750 D9, which is about the same visual size d500 D25 box, the AF would prefer the contrast of the fence. But the D500 locks on to the batter. Whereas Single Point the D500 has issues, and the D750 has no problem locking on to the batter.

 

[KmH]

I too mostly use single point AF mode and single point AF Area mode.

But like Derrel, when I shot actions sports I used Nikon's Dynamic Area AF and set either the 9 central focus points or the 21 central focus points (of 51 AF points) for the area used so I was using 9 or all 15 of the cross-type focus points.