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When is using back button focusing a bad idea?

Started Sep 6, 2015 | Discussions thread
WilbaW
WilbaW Forum Pro • Posts: 11,643
Re: When is using back button focusing a bad idea?

It's a bad idea when it makes your thumb hurt (which is why I don't use it), or if it compromises the comfort or security of your hold on the camera (which shouldn't affect many).

The main thing it gives you is the ability to emulate One-Shot while in AI Servo, so effectively you have both modes available without having to switch from one to the other. Fancier cameras (with AF-ON buttons), allow you to achieve the same advantage by configuring the buttons (e.g. set one to stop AF), while still using the shutter button to trigger AF.

When you look at all the pros and cons compared to what you can do with proper use of the two-stage shutter button, there's only one unique advantage I can see - you can set a permanent manual focus without having to switch the lens to MF. That's such a rare thing for me to want to do that having to switch the lens to MF to do it is absolutely no burden.

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