NikonGear'23
Gear Talk => Camera Talk => Topic started by: Arild on May 26, 2018, 10:28:19
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On my d750
I always use AF S
Single af, I haver never had any use for afc
So there are three choices;
S ---- single
Grp
Auto - which is 51 points around center
The first one, s single is pretty obvious when I am taking flower portraits.
But them GrP and AUTO I really cant see big diff in
So landscapes and most of other stuff I shoot in Auto'
Maybe thats wrong please explain these in real life situations pls
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On Erik's (Erik Lund) advice, I set AF-C (continuous) and S (single AF point) on my D750. The contiuous AF can react immediately to and compensate for the slight movement of my shaky upper body to keep the target in focus. This makes a big difference from AF-S (single) mode.
I never really use GRP mode, as I'd rather like to keep the position of the single AF point under control.
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Always AF-C. I even desactivated AF-S. And AF-C under various modes, depending on the subject.
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For landscape, apart from convenience (if you're too lazy/find it too bothersome to take the trouble) why use AF at all
Subject isn't moving, won't run away, so plenty of time to select and focus on the area in the picture you absolutely want in focus (maybe even making some adjustments for a as big as possible 'in focus' area by calculating the best setting based on the hyperfocal distance)
And if you do want to use AF, yes, AF-S definitely is the best choice, witH AF-C focus will jump/change whenever the selected AF point/the camera is moved
For general photography though, I prefer AF-C with a single manually (by myself) selected AF point using Dynamic AF with 51 AF fields, no 3D, auto area or group AF, with priority on Release rather then 'In focus' (I don't have a D750, but as I eg recently found out helping a D750 shooter, fortunately Nikon is quite consistent with the AF options for the several bodies it offers, like in my case D3, D800, DF, D7100 allowing a high degree of compatibility)
I choose this relative simple setting (ant to ignore the supposedly more advanced ones) since I prefer to be the one who decides what the camera focuses, at least initially, on
I shoot a fair bit of catwalk and (non static) on location fashion, and in the past have also shot quite a bit of sports/surf
and admit that with a moving subject it isn't always possible to follow the subject with the selected AF point
But being a Nikon AF user since the F801, I over the years have learned to trust the steady improvements they made in AF tracking and dynamic AF (not that that was perfect from the beginning, I eg found out the hard way the multi point - just 5 :) - Dynamic AF on the F100 at that time was a disaster)
Another consideration is that, as I shoot non static/moving subjects (most of the time)t, with AF settings like 3D and auto area, the camera after I push the release button based on it in camera logarithms makes an analysis of the image and independently decides what to focus on
Apart from basically putting me on the sideline during that process, it also creates a small delay between me pushing the release button and the camera having decided what to focus on.
When shooting sports, catwalk or a moving model, that lag may just be the difference between a nice and an (perhaps) exceptional picture, and that's a risk I'm not willing to take
Of course using a single AF point in AF-C means that if the AF point is moved only just a little bit from the area selected to be in focus, the focus changes, and not always for the better (although I have learned that Dynamic AF and focus tracking can do much positive in that regard with a moving subject
But IMO that's a risk/consequence of the setting chosen
It in the end IMO boils down to which you consider important/is important for the picture to be taken : absolutely sharpness even if that means perhaps missing the 'moment' (not a biggie shooting landscapes or close up portraits), or catching the moment, at the risk of perhaps not getting a perfect 'in focus' shot (a for me major consideration when shooting catwalk or sports)
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I never ever shoot manual focus.Back in the 80 ies I always did mf....
Because of my recently acquired eye cataract.
I am 100 % depent of the af system of my camera and especially that this af works in lowlight outdoors when I have no flash or other art. lights.
Thats why I have a Nikon d750 now and not a canon 30d as I owned back in the 2000 decade
I really dont see that the camera focueses <I have to take a lot of shots then judge with my reading glasses ....
And would af light ON be of any help?
The photo below illustrates my problem. Even with my glasses I was unable to see what flower d750 focused on
As it turns out in photoshop the right one, which I put the single focus point on. So d750 is a major help and advantage for me in these situations.
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I have a D750 and my settings are AF-C and the Single Focus Point. However, I also have AF-ON enabled and use the Pv button to acquire focus. You can choose a different button for AF-ON depending on what is most comfortable for your usage. I also have the AE-L enabled for a half-press of the shutter button. In any case, this is a best of both worlds configuration: while the AF-ON button is pressed the camera is in AF-C mode and continuously acquiring focus. When you take your finger off of the AF-ON button then the camera stops acquiring focus, which is the same as AF-S and you can then re-compose and take the photo. As to the AE-L feature, if I am using matrix metering then I don't press the shutter button half-way to lock exposure when re-composing. However, if I am using center-weighted or spot metering then I will lock exposure by pressing the shutter button half-way and then recompose. Hope this helps, I find I have a lot more keepers now using the AF-ON feature combined with AF-C and single point.
Group Focus points are similar to Single Focus point except now the camera has activated 5 focus points instead of one. It can be useful for moving subjects, but note the camera will acquire focus on based on whatever subject is closest in the region of the 5 group focus points, which usually is good with moving subjects.
Auto Area is also useful for shooting candids of people. Auto Area will use face detection to acquire focus.
90% of the time I use single focus point, moving subjects I sometimes switch to group, and Auto Area infrequently, although Auto Area is a nice feature for when you're just snapping shots of people at a party or something, it's relaxing in that regard to not worry so much about nailing focus with the face detection feature.
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Interesting book is Steve Perry’s e-book « Secrets To The Nikon Autofocus System »
https://backcountrygallery.com/secrets-nikon-autofocus-system/
https://youtu.be/gLmrut6MVUs
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Well if you are in not time critical working conditions the AF-settings are not too important. Single point AF and you wont miss a shot with AF-S
Its different for moving subjects, especially birds in flight.
I have deactivated AF-S completely so i cannot accidentially activate it
Just using AF-ON button
For my speed individual menu I have set AF to be triggered by AF- button only and keeping the shutter out. It needs training first but you can better control what AF does. Either keep it pressed or stop it immediately and prevent it from hunting again and compose or manually override
Single point or Group AF
Most of the time i am using single point. In some cases Group AF has proven to be very useful (birds in flight against the sky)
Auto does not make sense
I also did not find dynamic AF (21..51) of any use for me even more so with 3D (might be different for sports but not for birds)
Recently i dried dynamic AF wit 9 fields - this might be indeed useful but is not implemented on all cameras
What can be great is combining AF with spot-metering which Nikon couples to the active AF-field - a great feature
As Group-AF is also unreliable in certain situations i use single point as a standard setting and having the PV button programmed to quickly switch to Group-AF
The Fn Button is quickly switching from Standard (Matrix- Metering) to Spot-Metering.
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For D5 users, but a lot should be applicable to other bodies:
http://nps.nikonimaging.com/technical_solutions/d5_tips/af/
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I really dont see that the camera focueses <I have to take a lot of shots then judge with my reading glasses ....
.......
As it turns out in photoshop the right one, which I put the single focus point on. So d750 is a major help and advantage for me in these situations.
Stupid question ( from my side as it's asking for the obvious), but do you have your AF point illumination on (see menu Custom Autofocus setting A4 and A5)?
As I unfortunately also have eye sight problems too (reason why I basically had to put photography on hold for almost ten years from the late 90's untill early 2000's, fortunately for me AF has improved much since then) I have to have the AF point illumination switched on all the time
Works fine in the AF modes I work with, eg when shooting catwalk, I concentrate on getting the more or less 'best composition' (as far as that is possible with a moving/constantly changing position and distance subject) and as far as the AF is concerned just keep the illuminated AF point aimed as good and consistent as possible on the face of the moving model (which I can't see sharp/in focus in detail due to the mentioned eye problems)
No first hand experience how/if it works/shows the AF point in 3D AF, Group AF nor Auto Area AF, but does the job in both AF-S with single AF point, and AF-C with single AF point and 51 point Dynamic AF