Scott Kimball
Screenwriter
- Joined
- May 8, 2000
- Messages
- 1,500
I'm a little late to the party, here... but I have a comment or two on auto-focus.
While auto focus is an invaluable aid, unless I'm in a quick-shooting situation, I almost always tweak focus after the camera has done its thing. I have a Canon 10D, and I buy lenses that have a full-time manual focus override - you don't have to switch to manual mode to override the camera, just twist the focus ring and refocus.
As a landscape photographer, autofocus will only truly be valuable to me when it can figure and focus on the hyperfocal distance of the scene, even if there is no object at that location. To get the greatest depth of field, you need to override the camera's tendency to focus at or near infinity. When the lens is stopped down and you're looking for as deep a field of focus as possible, you need to manually focus at the hyperfocal distance to keep foreground objects in focus inside an infinite landscape.
Now... for shooting people (especially kids), pets, wildlife, sports, etc... I usually go to single-shot AF or servo AF, depending on circumstances - and I don't fiddle. In these cases, the camera can focus better and faster than I can.
For the uninitiated, here's a pretty good (though simplified) article on hyperfocal distance.
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/3513.htm
-Scott
While auto focus is an invaluable aid, unless I'm in a quick-shooting situation, I almost always tweak focus after the camera has done its thing. I have a Canon 10D, and I buy lenses that have a full-time manual focus override - you don't have to switch to manual mode to override the camera, just twist the focus ring and refocus.
As a landscape photographer, autofocus will only truly be valuable to me when it can figure and focus on the hyperfocal distance of the scene, even if there is no object at that location. To get the greatest depth of field, you need to override the camera's tendency to focus at or near infinity. When the lens is stopped down and you're looking for as deep a field of focus as possible, you need to manually focus at the hyperfocal distance to keep foreground objects in focus inside an infinite landscape.
Now... for shooting people (especially kids), pets, wildlife, sports, etc... I usually go to single-shot AF or servo AF, depending on circumstances - and I don't fiddle. In these cases, the camera can focus better and faster than I can.
For the uninitiated, here's a pretty good (though simplified) article on hyperfocal distance.
http://www.vividlight.com/articles/3513.htm
-Scott
