Back Button

[Bill Pierce]

Most cameras autofocus and then lock focus when you depress the shutter button. Press further and you take a picture. If, after you locked focus, you reframed the image, you will probably have to focus again to take a second picture. When you want to quickly shoot several frames of an active subject this need to refocus every frame can lead to just keeping the main subject in the center of the frame or shooting not because the moment is right but because the subject is in focus.

But this problem is easily solved with most autofocus cameras with “back button focus.” Somewhere on most cameras there is a way to move the focus to a “back button” and make it a function independent of the shutter button. Focus, then frame effectively and trigger the shutter when the moment is right. Most pictures benefit from intelligent framing and selecting the right moment to push the button even when you are shooting several frames looking for that moment.

I suppose my question is why isn’t back button focus the standard way of focusing? Combining focusing and tripping the shutter if it eliminates the option of reframing and shooting multiple frames without refocusing doesn’t make sense to me in the majority of shooting situations. And yet that's how I see many cameras set up. Any thoughts?

 

[dmr]

My first autofocus camera was a P&S, and I'm assuming that the designers of the higher end cameras simply adopted the same {word here, workflow maybe?} of the cheaper P&S and the auto-exposure higher-end cameras and combined all of it into one button push.

 

[retinax]

One can use half-press-the-shutter-button focus in the same way as back button focus, it's just a matter of getting into the habit of not fully releasing the shutter button after taking a shot. If you need to keep the same focus for a longer time, back button is still better of course. But it's two separate steps, too many error sources to be the standard configuration. And what about AE lock? another button with the same thumb? On the shutter button instead?

 

[dmr]

Isn't it true that sometimes, manual focus is the correct technique? 🙂

 

[Oren Grad]

I suppose my question is why isn’t back button focus the standard way of focusing?

Why do even very expensive digital cameras come out of the box set for auto-everything and for jpg rather than raw?

If someone takes the camera out of the box, points it and presses the shutter button without re-setting anything, odds are they’ll get a usable picture. This is self-defense on the manufacturers' part; even a relatively small proportion of uninformed camera buyers could generate a hefty burden of customer support calls and/or "my camera is defective!" flak on the web if default settings required the user to know what he or she is doing.

 

[Archlich]

Why do even very expensive digital cameras come out of the box set for auto-everything and for jpg rather than raw?

If someone takes the camera out of the box, points it and presses the shutter button without re-setting anything, odds are they’ll get a usable picture. This is self-defense on the manufacturers' part; even a relatively small proportion of uninformed camera buyers could generate a hefty burden of customer support calls and/or "my camera is defective!" flak on the web if default settings required the user to know what he or she is doing.

I found my GA645 Professional (yes it's in the name) defaults its shutter button to activate both AF and exposure locks, which is annoying (luckily it would still lock the distance by pressing the MF button). Not many unknowing customers would buy into such a machine, which cost 155,000 yen back in 1995, in the first place. Most earlier Professional AF cameras like that came before the internet age. So why?

I assume it's just intuition: when both exposure and focusing are automated, pressing the shutter button is the only manual chore that lies between the user and making a picture. Vast R&D had been put into algorithms, patterns and other techno-logical stuff for decades to perfect the process, so why bother cutting it short in the final leg?

It's the general direction of the whole camera thing had been heading for for more than a century: smaller, faster, easier. For those who prefer to do it themselves it's not a bad thing. The progress had left versatility: you can have control, which in this case comes in the form of the back button, and sometimes you can just point & shoot.

People would say I don't need this and that in a camera, but it's not always the same for everyone and every scenario. It can be handy...when you're tired of being serious all the time.

 

[Timmyjoe]

About five years ago I read something from Peter Read Miller, talking about using the back button for focusing, particularly when shooting sports. I tried it and found it really awkward on my Nikon DSLRs. Probably because I was used to using the shutter button for autofocus since my first autofocus camera in 1996. But I stuck with it, and now it feels like the only way to work. All my autofocus cameras are now set up for rear button focus and the shutter button is only for AE and tripping the shutter.

Best,
-Tim

 

[Oren Grad]

On the specific issue, though, for me it depends critically on the exact layout and feel of the back buttons, and which one(s) can be mapped to the AF function. Afraid I've not been comfortable with back button AF on those Canon and Nikon bodies on which I've tried it. I'm happy to have it as a user-settable custom function rather than a default.

 

[Tim Murphy]

Same here

Same here

About five years ago I read something from Peter Read Miller, talking about using the back button for focusing, particularly when shooting sports. I tried it and found it really awkward on my Nikon DSLRs. Probably because I was used to using the shutter button for autofocus since my first autofocus camera in 1996. But I stuck with it, and now it feels like the only way to work. All my autofocus cameras are now set up for rear button focus and the shutter button is only for AE and tripping the shutter.

Best,
-Tim

Dear Tim,

I generally only shoot birds and animals so back button focusing works better and yields more keepers when the camera is set to the proper range of AF points and set on AF-C.

I've never had any success in shooting a burst with the shutter button doing both the exposure and focus. But I suck at photography so don't follow me!

Regards,

Tim Murphy

Harrisburg, PA 🙂

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I asked our daughter why she doesn't use it. She told me it works better for her with single button. I understand, she doesn't use any strap and she needs more fingers to hold full sized DSLR and pro lens secure.

Also, I don't know how it is on Fuji, but on tiny Canon SL2 here is not so much space to place this button. I have tried it and it is no go camera for me due to this.

 

[Darthfeeble]

After reading all the good things about back button focusing I gave it a try, it just doesn't work for me. Perhaps the lack of dexterity in my hands causes it or I'm just set on shutter focus function but I gave it up.

 

[Doug]

I find it faster and easier to half-press and recompose than to go the extra step to back-button focus, though the latter idea is attractive. Partly a dexterity problem... I've lost pics because of that.

 

[Godfrey]

Back button focus is yet another one of the complications added to cameras when autofocus became the norm. It's only really useful to people who tend to want to make multiple images at the same subject distance in rapid sequence ... for everyone else (most folks just make one photo), it's just more to do to get the focus correct. It means you have to manage multiple controls when shooting, which means more decisions and more likelihood of making an error.

I prefer to have my AF cameras set to Manual focus with a button set for "AF on demand." This means I'm normally using the camera the way I always have, stretching back fifty-some years, focusing manually most of the time as my subject stays put or moves about. But when I want I can get focus roughed in by pressing a button after targeting the subject.

Essentially the same thing, but the thought process is different. 🙂

Of course, most of the time I use cameras that have only manual focus (either a body limitation or a lens limitation) with no AF options at all. That works best for me most of the time.

 

[Contarama]

I dont have any AF lenses but my digital block is set up BBF and being an above consumer grade rig it has a dedicated button (in the right place). I am a manual guy for now but all you old timers going on about your eyes and manual focus all the time sort of worries me.

 

[ruby.monkey]

The vast majority of camera-users just want a single button press to get an adequate photo. BBF is one more complication getting in their way.

 

[Dogman]

It's not always convenient to use and hardly ever consistent between cameras or models of the same brand.

Of the cameras I've used, Canons were easy and simple with a button placed where the thumb could reach it naturally. Canon may be considered dead boring these days but they have some of the most natural handling cameras I've ever used. My Olympus OMD EM1 lets you pick between two buttons for BBF and neither of them are in the right spot for my fingers. Awkward. On the other hand, Fuji doesn't have real BBF on the XP1. You have to focus and then lock it with the AFL button. That's okay when you get used to it but, on the XP2, it has a kind of BBF by using the AFL button to focus but the button is flat against the camera body and placed in a position that's not easy to reach consistently. The XP2 does allow follow up shots without refocusing when you keep a slight pressure on the shutter release button after the first shot. I can't remember how the XT1 works but I don't recall it being the same the XP1 or XP2.

Slight differences in operation between models generally means I just use the standard old shutter button for focusing each shot. Either that or go with burst mode and waste a few shots.

 

[sepiareverb]

Isn't it true that sometimes, manual focus is the correct technique? 🙂

Agreed.

The X1d allows the back button AF to work with the camera set to manual focus. I love this feature. I can drive the lens to focus, then tweak focus manually as needed.

 

[Doug]

...The X1d allows the back button AF to work with the camera set to manual focus. I love this feature. I can drive the lens to focus, then tweak focus manually as needed.

Same convenient way as the Leica S2, but it's different on the Q which unfortunately has just AE-L or AF-L or both with the button... so on it the focusing is either fully AF or fully Manual.

 

[shimokita]

With my dSLR I use the back focus button technique together with the center focus point... it's fast and I select the focus point. The only time I don't use this approach is with my x100t, which is my social media camera. Here I use face recognition but more importantly I can hand the camera to a complete stranger to snap my photo without having to go into a lengthy explanation.

Together with manual focus (film SLR) that's three different techniques... what ever works best ; )

 

[Ronald M]

Most cameras autofocus and then lock focus when you depress the shutter button. Press further and you take a picture. If, after you locked focus, you reframed the image, you will probably have to focus again to take a second picture. When you want to quickly shoot several frames of an active subject this need to refocus every frame can lead to just keeping the main subject in the center of the frame or shooting not because the moment is right but because the subject is in focus.

But this problem is easily solved with most autofocus cameras with “back button focus.” Somewhere on most cameras there is a way to move the focus to a “back button” and make it a function independent of the shutter button. Focus, then frame effectively and trigger the shutter when the moment is right. Most pictures benefit from intelligent framing and selecting the right moment to push the button even when you are

shooting several frames looking for that moment.

I suppose my question is why isn’t back button focus the standard way of focusing? Combining focusing and tripping the shutter if it eliminates the option of reframing and shooting multiple frames without refocusing doesn’t make sense to me in the majority of shooting situations. And yet that's how I see many cameras set up. Any thoughts?

Simple. A great number of people don't get it. So Nikon keeps it simple stupid. People think the camera is supposed to do all the work.

Some consumer cameras do not even have an easily accessible button like my ancient D40.

Only 15% of people can drive manual transmission too.