raid
Dad Photographer
AF may have focused on the subway train and not the woman.

As I said I'm a manual man, but AF when I need it. It would have been impossible for me to make this image with my manual cameras:
Pentax K1 by John Carter, on Flickr
AF may have focused on the subway train and not the woman.
![]()
AF may have focused on the subway train and not the woman.
![]()
Not if you told the AF where to focus... you literally point it at what you want to focus, wait until it locks, and then compose. AND that's in its most basic form too. It is very easy to do and get right 99.9% of the time.
Wait, do some people think AF is random and that you don't control it?
I find these coloured focus patterns really distracting - regardless of which I colour select - so I use viewfinder magnification instead. Also, electronic viewfinders (Sony's EVFs anyway) have what is strictly a flaw: sharply focused edges "shimmer" - some kind of artefact. If the JPG option is set to high sharpness, this shimmer is even more distinct; that's not a problem as I don't keep JPGs, just the raw files. I find this flaw makes manual focusing quick and easy, sometimes doing away with the need to magnify the view. Hopefully, this flaw will remain unsolvable for many years!
You are right; I may just not like to use AF. 😀
Really? Skateboarding photography on ramps and bowls has been done since the 70s... you just focus where you know they will be going.
I can't I'm not good enough.
John, it's mostly a matter of practice. Nothing more.
[/img][/url][/CENTER]
onwards,
G
John, it's mostly a matter of practice. Nothing more.
—
For me, personally, I get far more usable exposures when I don't rely on autofocus (or autoexposure for that matter), for whatever reason. I know what I want my camera to do, and I don't like fighting automation systems to make it do what I want. Setting things up the way I want the camera to work, for whatever scene I'm trying to capture, is for me the best way to get what I want.
G