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AF Pros?

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BAK said:
Depends on the subject and circumstances.
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For food shooting which I do a lot of, always manual focus. There's no compromise here. For someone's birthday party, as many automatic functions as the camera will allow me to set. In fact if the camera just got up off the table and just pointed itself, I'd be very happy.
 
7DVancouverite said:
PenguinPhotoCo said:
. Having your flash on the body (not a bracket) for the AF assist light helps too.
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Right on!

I was gonna suggest either turning the flash around (180) using a 430ex or 580ex and use the Af assist light or using a Cf to turn the flash output right off.

Covers all 45 points of the 1 series AF module.
--
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An ST-E2 also works, and it weighs a lot less. I owned one for years before I bought a flash it could actually talk to :-)
 
Only when darkness confounds the AF, or when I'm shooting my manual Leica 19 and Contax 35. But the 19 is 100% scale focus, not finder focus.
 
Hi Ron,

Not so long time ago (couple of years..about 10) there were some wonderful enteraining discussions about people (not true pro photographers) who said that digital cameras' are nothing for pro's

Real pro's do not worry what others are doing or how they are doing it, they want to get there work as quickly/good done as possible and adapt their way of working to the type of photography they do or the need their is to use a special technique or technology, if that is AF/non AF, film or digital or a Holga Black or a Nikon D3S, flash or natural light..they care .....(fill in yourself) what others are saying, at least I do :-)

Michel
Ron Kruger said:
I've seen posts in this forum about pros who shoot in JPEG, but on another forum, I saw a post where the shooter was bragging about being able to get the "money shot" in low light conditions using auto focus, while the rest couldn't. The implication is that everyone there was limited to AF.

That, to me, seemed a stranger comment than shooting JPEG only, and it got me to wondering how many people shooting professionally never use manual focus, or are intimidated to even try?

For that matter, I'd like to know in a general way what percentage of the time you all use AF?
--

In the end, the only things that matter are the people we help and the people we hurt. http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/ronkruger
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--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Light is Everything
http://www.fotopropaganda.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9240992@N05/ (my pixel mess on flikr)
http://www.pbase.com/photopropaganda
 
I never really understood the advantage of AF. To me its a matter of anticipating the sitation, and be prepared. The wedding photographer NEEDS AF? In all respect, I think a LOT of photographers managed to get excellent results even before AF.

But, I might be old fashioned; I also miss the aperture ring.....

I do of course see situations where AF is handy - like special eye considerations. I recently got damaged in my right eye, leaving it impossible to use to look through the viewfinder. Its hard to swap eye, so I now sometimes find my self using AF.

Lenses are also a problem, with short focus travel. I often use a macro lens for portraits, for the somewhat longer focus travel and accuracy.
Ron Kruger said:
I've seen posts in this forum about pros who shoot in JPEG, but on another forum, I saw a post where the shooter was bragging about being able to get the "money shot" in low light conditions using auto focus, while the rest couldn't. The implication is that everyone there was limited to AF.

That, to me, seemed a stranger comment than shooting JPEG only, and it got me to wondering how many people shooting professionally never use manual focus, or are intimidated to even try?

For that matter, I'd like to know in a general way what percentage of the time you all use AF?
--

In the end, the only things that matter are the people we help and the people we hurt. http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/ronkruger
Click to expand...
--
Kind regards
Øyvind
My best images:
http://foto.nordjylland.biz/porta/Portfolio/Best/album/index.html
http://www.pbase.com/norwegianviking/sd14
SD14 Compendium:
http://www.foto.nordjylland.biz/SD14/sd-usertips.htm
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. I was just curious.

I use MF almost all the time, primarily because it can't read my mind, and I like to control the exact focal point. All of my shooting is outdoors, often in the woods, and AF doesn't know the difference between a branch, leaf or even a blade of grass and the eye of a creature. The narrower the DOF, the more critical the focal point becomes. Despite the advances in AF, I'm still more reliable, accurate and most of the time faster than AF (if it hunts even once). But I've been shooting so long, my MF technique is almost mindless second nature.

Even when stopping down for a wide DOF for scenic and other shots, I still prefer MF to control the hyperfocal distance, and for these type of shots I have plenty of time to fiddle with the focus.

Personally, I don't find the viewfinders in digital cameras any harder to use than the old film SLRs, but I do find modern AF lens a little harder to focus manually (short throw and sloppy ring). Cheaper and kit lenses are almost impossible to focus manually, but the better lenses still have fairly smooth focus rings (especially Zeiss). I do see, however, less attention to smooth focus rings in the future, because the vast majority of the market could care less.

I don't miss the apature ring, because I can do the same thing with one of the wheels quicker, easier and with less movement.
--

In the end, the only things that matter are the people we help and the people we hurt. http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/ronkruger
 
Roger Krueger said:
7DVancouverite said:
PenguinPhotoCo said:
. Having your flash on the body (not a bracket) for the AF assist light helps too.
Click to expand...
Right on!

I was gonna suggest either turning the flash around (180) using a 430ex or 580ex and use the Af assist light or using a Cf to turn the flash output right off.

Covers all 45 points of the 1 series AF module.
--
Click to expand...
An ST-E2 also works, and it weighs a lot less. I owned one for years before I bought a flash it could actually talk to :-)
Click to expand...
I own one and for some reason have never conceived of using it as an Af assist in low light...

Thanks!!!
--

Vancouver Based Entertainment, Environmental Portrait and Product Photographer...
 
Ron Kruger said:
Thanks everyone for your replies. I was just curious.

I use MF almost all the time, primarily because it can't read my mind, and I like to control the exact focal point. All of my shooting is outdoors, often in the woods, and AF doesn't know the difference between a branch, leaf or even a blade of grass and the eye of a creature. The narrower the DOF, the more critical the focal point becomes. Despite the advances in AF, I'm still more reliable, accurate and most of the time faster than AF (if it hunts even once). But I've been shooting so long, my MF technique is almost mindless second nature.

Even when stopping down for a wide DOF for scenic and other shots, I still prefer MF to control the hyperfocal distance, and for these type of shots I have plenty of time to fiddle with the focus.

Personally, I don't find the viewfinders in digital cameras any harder to use than the old film SLRs, but I do find modern AF lens a little harder to focus manually (short throw and sloppy ring). Cheaper and kit lenses are almost impossible to focus manually, but the better lenses still have fairly smooth focus rings (especially Zeiss). I do see, however, less attention to smooth focus rings in the future, because the vast majority of the market could care less.

I don't miss the apature ring, because I can do the same thing with one of the wheels quicker, easier and with less movement.
--

In the end, the only things that matter are the people we help and the people we hurt. http://pa.photoshelter.com/user/ronkruger
Click to expand...
Having taken many more photographs before AF, I can't but agree. For me manual focus is second nature, I'm focusing before even I look into the viewfinder. Not that I'm against AF at all, I even use it at times, but only if centered, the multi-focus mode seems to have trouble reading my mind; so "focusing-recomposing" is not necessarily faster. Also in difficult focusing situations I'm better I think. But still I can understand that AF is and can be very useful as well.
 
yvind Strm said:
I never really understood the advantage of AF. To me its a matter of anticipating the sitation, and be prepared. The wedding photographer NEEDS AF? In all respect, I think a LOT of photographers managed to get excellent results even before AF.
Click to expand...
As a wedding photographer I don't see any reason not to use AF. I too was brought up on MF, but using 1.4 lenses, there's no way that I can manual focus as effectively when both subjects and the camera is moving.
 
Whether I'm shooting dance photography with a lot of movement and often low-light conditions, or weddings, I use AF a lot. To say that we're (photogs who use AF) are less than those who focus manually is just plain silly. I'd love to go against a guy panning to stay with a dancer and adjusting his focus manually at the same time, while getting ready to switch to another dancer. There's a reason they put so much money into the AF tracking systems, why not use them?

Even with weddings, AF can get you where you want to be. You don't like the focus still, then grab the ring and change it!
--
Ron
http://www.ronmckinneyphotography.com
 
With age and modern viewfinders affecting MF ability, I am finding AF is quicker and more accurate for a lot of my use.
 
BAK said:
Ron, Penguin makes a good point about apertures and focusing screens.

I shot a flower lately using manual, and it was great, but it was an f1.8 lens and everything snapped in and out of focus.

But if it wasan f5.6 lens, knowing when it was sharp would be a problem.

BAK
Click to expand...
I have an old Contax sitting in a cupboard and the viewfinder is absolutely huge and bright when compared to D3s, D700s etc. It really is night and day and much easier to MF than the new cameras.

i know you can buy different screens, but they're nowhere near as good as the old film cameras.

They make up for it with superb AF systems.
 
lbuclk= said:
calson said:
At a wedding there is not time for manual focus and in dim light there is even more time needed to try to focus. A pro uses the best tools for the job and AF has been around for more than 20 years so it makes no sense to not use it. The resulting print is going to be the same regardless of how the focusing was done and if it is OOF it has zero value regardless of how the focus was attempted.

As a pro you leave as little as possible to chance and with weddings this is doubly true as you cannot do a retake and no amount of excuses or apologies will make up for a screw up .
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
+1
 
separate from shutter release, so focus is locked until I tell it to change.
--
Never forget that you're unique, Just like everyone else.
 
mostly AF for action. Will occasionally switch to manual to keep my hand in.
For portraits either, for macro always manual.

tony
 
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