You got to be kidding? This autofocus!!

Uh ... In Akiva's opening post, he did NOT complain about autofocus! So those who piled on (on either side) sorta missed his point.
 
No, I just concluded that it wasn't working for me. So I either had to get a more expensive DSLR with more advanced AF or a DRF. Since I never owned an autofocus camera that worked for me, but felt fine with MF RF's, I went for the DRF. I have two MF SLR's that work fine for me, but in order to get a comparable viewfinder, I probably would have to get something Canon 5D-like. I prefered spending the money on an M8

Again: that's just my personal decision. I'm aware that AF is working fine for lots of people. And I'm happy with my MF RF.

Willy Elder said:
That's fine but because of your bad experience with one low end DSLR you now condemn all AF technology?
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I find the D200 AF to be incredibly accurate and fast. Stick it in single mode, centre spot, point at the thing to be in focus, recompose, push button, repeat. I've never had an issue.
 
FWIW, I used the autofocus on my ancient Olympus C5050 this weekend, and it worked fine. I've only used centre spot, so don't know how the multi-point works (or doesn't) ... slow of course, but it was OK. I'm an old fart, but don't rage against the machine as long it doesn't really go FUBAR.
 
Al Kaplan said:
I'm not sure what the problem is. They sell tons of the things. It would seem that lots of people are happy enough with the cameras but they probably never print larger than 4x6 and blame their own inexperience for the problem.
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Autofocus is not really that unreliable. The odd few AF cameras I own (Olympus mju V, Fuji GA645Zi, Nikon F4, Ricoh GX100) all focus no worse than I'd do manually. There are tradeoffs, of course - in bright light the delay and noise of AF systems is rather pointless, but they still reliably focus in very marginal light where my success rate is dwindling.

It is a popular misconception that AF, AE and digital are to blame for the decline in product design and quality which happened around the same time. The feature cluttering and economizing towards display-controlled systems with huge menu trees did make cheap AF more feasible, but it was by no means neccessary, as all-knob AF cameras like the F4 and menu-free point-and-shoots demonstrate. If any, we have to blame the personal computer for creating a wide acceptance (or indeed demand) for a paradigm shift from expensive haptic interfaces to dirt cheap hierarchical text menus, as long as the latter add "features" regardless of whether these are of any use or indeed accessible at all.

Sevo
 
M4cr0s said:
I do admit that I find it insulting that the manual focus film diehards more or less take upon themselves an elitist coat. You're sort of not a "real" photographer if you use a modern camera with AF, bells and whistles. To be frank, thats just another approach to the art of being an a-hole.

Photography is not a crime, digital is here to stay and AF is not doping! :D

/Mac
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No one here says AF is bad. No one here is saying MF is better. We are just chatting about what works for each of us. If I may be frank, you are an example of an ever increasing group of posters at RFF, who are in need of anger management. Remember he who smelt it, probably dealt it.
 
Mount the lens, put the lens on Autofocus (A) and the Camera in AF (AF-S) point the center sensor at the subject, half press the shutter, recompose, that's it. I've never read a manual for using autofocus. Way easier then loading a leica with film for example.
 
kshapero said:
No one here says AF is bad. No one here is saying MF is better.
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Ehm...I think you should revisit the thread a bit. There's a number of posters basically saying AF sucks and that the only road to salvation is the holy operation of manual focus ;)

We are just chatting about what works for each of us. If I may be frank, you are an example of an ever increasing group of posters at RFF, who are in need of anger management. Remember he who smelt it, probably dealt it.
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I am the calm in the middle of the storm, I am the very personofication of the word content, I am Zen! Or..maybe not ;) Fact remains that I am a very controlled person, having worked as a "service person" with customers tend to highly evolve your ability to contain and suppress frustration :p In fact, I normally laught and smile when I read and write posts on forums. I feel there are others in much more dire need of an anger management course. Wouldn't mind a light/strobe workshop with Joe McNally though! ;)

/Mac
 
M4cr0s said:
Ehm...I think you should revisit the thread a bit. There's a number of posters basically saying AF sucks and that the only road to salvation is the holy operation of manual focus ;)



I am the calm in the middle of the storm, I am the very personofication of the word content, I am Zen! Or..maybe not ;) Fact remains that I am a very controlled person, having worked as a "service person" with customers tend to highly evolve your ability to contain and suppress frustration :p In fact, I normally laught and smile when I read and write posts on forums. I feel there are others in much more dire need of an anger management course. Wouldn't mind a light/strobe workshop with Joe McNally though! ;)

/Mac
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Well if that's what you are saying, then I hope a sled from Lapland comes down and lays a good old light/strobe workshop with Joe McNally on you, in fact I might just join you. A friend of mine went and said it was great.
 
I used to stick religiously to MF - I have a lot of older MF lenses that I like to use on my D200 and they are of terrific quality so, why not?. But I am over 50 and my eyes are no longer what they once were - focussing is now hit or miss on a digital SLR -unlike my Leica where I actually still have a sporting chance curtesy of the Leica split image focussing patching.

So - AF it is for most of my work, anyway.

Turning to the settings for AF on digital cameras, I have to agree that the D200 AF is confusing - there are so many options for AF and the descriptions of how they work in the manual are so confusing that to avoid any unpleasant surprises I simply opt for the easiest - I use the centre focussing point and thats about it. I am sure this means I am missing something, and if I ever have a school room full of kids to photograph I may wish to use a smarter option that tracks moevement. But I am also sure that when I had other settings applied I often ended up inadvertently focussing on something other than the thing I wanted to focus on. "KISS" it is from now on.
 
kshapero said:
Well if that's what you are saying, then I hope a sled from Lapland comes down and lays a good old light/strobe workshop with Joe McNally on you, in fact I might just join you. A friend of mine went and said it was great.
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Funny thing you should mention lappland, I was actually born there. I fled from the mosquito-clouds when I was 17, got fed up with the constant anaemia and lack of sun. Everyone thought I was a vampire, given my pale and anaemic appearance. In old tales from the battlefields in the age of the longbow, you come across staements such as "and the sky became dark from arrows alone". Well, in lappland you have to fire a shotgun straight up into the air to temporarly check if it's night or day! :D

/Mac
 
I didn't get the sense at all that anyone was condemning AF. It's unavoidable. Have AF cameras, use them. In my post, I simply stated I prefer manual focus, and never really saw the need for AF others seemed to state same but I didn't see anyone's tone on the MF side being disrespectful. AF has been around for decades. Who hasn't used an AF lens?
 
I think what a lot of people are saying is that they don't like the way AF works (as implemented), at least sometimes, in some situations. And given that this is a rangefinder forum, the type of photography most are engaged in doesn't require multi-point follow focus. So people give examples of where AF didn't work for them (or where it did work), but it's all highly situational and personal, not a condemnation of the technology.
 
Dear Moderators: something is wrong with the RFF database. A really old thread from the 80's has reappeared, where everyone's arguing about newfangled autofocus technology. :D
 
Autofocus is BAD, Manual FOCUS is BETTER! I ditched that DX-1 a long time ago.

I think that is the 1980's post being referred to. And it is true, I stick by it.
 
Moderators: There is at least one person in Winnipeg who hasn't been killed by a massive cloud of mosquitoes. :D
 
Trius said:
Moderators: There is at least one person in Winnipeg who hasn't been killed by a massive cloud of mosquitoes. :D
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The swarms I can deal with... it's the big ones that scare me! :eek: :)

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