Auto Focus

[Silverz]

It has its place and I use it a lot, but I would never say always use it. Especially not when working with a really shallow dof and you need to be precise.

[gh0st300]

Autofocus is great but not the be all end all solution. say you want to take a picture of a puppy. your camera will most likely focus in on the puppy's nose...when you want to focus in on the eyes. use manual...on a tripod. On the flip side, if you want to take a picture of eagles flying, having your camera set to center focused-auto will help greatly with getting that action shot...pending you have a fast motor on your camera...along with the appropriate settings.

i find that my manual shots end up being what i want...while autofocus might not get me the shot i want.

[tampaphotos]

I am the owner of an action sports photography company based out of Tampa FL. 99% of the time as an action sports photographer, the auto focus is your friend. There is absolutely no way that a human can accurately use manual focus to capture anything high speed. UNLESS, you pre-focus on a certain area of the field, court, etc. For example, when I shoot indoor volleyball I will focus on the net or a area and wait for the play to devlop where I want it to. This is very trick/difficult but it yields some great shots when you get it right. Another time that I use manual focus is for candid dugout shots. A lot of kids lean against the fence in the dugout. If you use AF, the shots will get the fence in focus and not their faces. I usually switch to MF, and adjust.

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[beatles2]

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

Run far and fast from almost anyone who speaks in absolutes such as always, never, every, etc.

The best answer for just about any photography question is: "It depends." Of course, that answer should usually be followed up by a discussion of "upon what does it depend?"

Very well said...

[kurtwall]

I never use absolutes like "every," "always," and "never." Oh, wait...

In all seriousness, I use autofocus most of the time. It helps my increasingly myopic vision and, candidly, I'm lazy. For close work and when autofocus focusing on the wrong target, I use manual focus.

[djotaku]

Two examples with the same type of subject. Most of the time, autofocus is the only way to capture a fidgety rodent, like a squirrel.

They just move too quickly to capture with manual focus unless you're a pro at manual focus. Right after the above shot the squirrel bolted.

On the other hand, I had to use manual focus here because the camera kept wanting to focus on the branches and I was looking too much time with the technique of putting the autofocus spot over what you want, half-press shutter, and recompose.

So it depends. On a landscape or adult portrait you can probably do manual. On firewords displays you almost certainly need to do manual. But for kids running around, a party, unpredictable situations, you need auto-focus.

Oh, and don't forget to switch back to auto afterwards unless you want a bunch of ruined pictures because you forgot to check your settings before a new shoot!

[hnikesch]

Only my kit lens is AF so I am stuck with manual focus, I changed the focusing screen to a split image and get along ok, Sooner or later I will have to invest in additional auto focus lenses.
Late shots at the fire pit nothing but setting the distance works

[Mr Guy]

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

Run far and fast from almost anyone who speaks in absolutes such as always, never, every, etc.

The best answer for just about any photography question is: "It depends." Of course, that answer should usually be followed up by a discussion of "upon what does it depend?"

While we're having this discussion, it's probably worth throwing out there that your personal satisfaction with autofocus also depends heavily on your depth of field desired for a particular shot. If you're going razor sharp and narrow, you aren't likely to get the results you want from autofocus without really crawling up the subjects nose. Those autofocus indicators in your viewfinder aren't precise; the actual spot where the sensors are varies slightly, so no matter how carefully you put the dot on a model's eye, from ten feet away it won't be perfect. Sufficient depth of field helps that variance become less noticeable.

However, if you really DO care about that difference, manual focus is pretty closer to the only way of getting the lock you want.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by djotaku

Oh, and don't forget to switch back to auto afterwards unless you want a bunch of ruined pictures because you forgot to check your settings before a new shoot!

Good advise, but it applies both ways - The same could be said in reverse - "Don't forget to switch back to manual" - if you use manual the majority of time and only occasionally use auto.

[snyquist]

i had an instructor tell me the same thing in a class last week, and at first I was really confused because I had always been under the impression that the photo is only mine if i set everything myself. Still, I tried using autofocus for a while and found that its really helpful for me especially when I'm using a very shallow depth of field and need to focus on a very small point. Since I started using autofocus I've become very reliant on it, which in my opinion is not a good thing, and when i do switch it to manual and forget to change it back to auto I have messed up several photos by forgetting to focus.