AF+MF or How do you use Manual Focus

Hi,

I can explain briefly why and how I use AF+MF mode.

Why. There are a few cases when MF helps: 1) focus on an eye partly hidden behind thin hairs, or 2) the subject is not flat or not large and AF might settle for the background, 3) set quickly the focus on infinity (set focus ring mode to non-linear in the menus) etc. There are usually many ways to handle special cases with X cameras. MF is one among others.

Two manual focus modes.

1. The AF-M mode. It is useful for static situations. The iris opens around f/4 when using that mode. After half-pressing the shutter release the focus ring is disabled.
2. The AF+MF mode. AF+MF works only in AF-S mode AND with single point mode. AF+MF needs to be activated in the menus before it can be used. The way to use it is to turn the focus ring with the shutter release half pressed. Then the focus ring gains the control over the lens. The iris stops down to the shooting aperture. Focusing with the iris stopped down is sometimes useful if the lens has curvature of field. Otherwise AF+MF provides a quick way to switch between MF and AF. Another use case is shooting with the smallest shutter lag whether the EVF is zoomed or not while doing manual focusing.
   There is a small nuisance. One needs to get in AF-M mode to switch peaking between on and off.

Peaking or not peaking. Peaking if the background is far enough behind the subject. No peaking if the surrounding may peak as well and become confusing. And no peaking for some flat subjects with much visible texture; the texture all becoming sharp at once is sometimes better than peaking. So it depends. I feel sharp lenses need less peaking.

You might need to have stabilization on with the 100-400.

Back-button focusing works fine in combination with AF+MF.