Focus points

[Janice]

Why would you use all autofocus points?

I only ever use the centre one. Surely if you used all of them.. then bits and pieces at the sides of your frame will steal the focus??

[Hacker]

I often thought that but I have started to use it recently on subjects that stand out from their surroundings (in my case a horse in a field) and it does work quite well, particularly with moving subjects.

[Venomator]

Logically the single point is best for, say specific subjects especially where you need to assure focus on the eye ... :thinking: ... but, for instance on landscapes where there is no specific (single) subject it might be better to use maximum focal points - this will generally give you nearest point of focus and you can then use this with your chosen aperture to try and make the most of the hyperfocal (http://www.zenadsl5251.zen.co.uk/photos/doftut.html) distance and produce the "in focus near and far" type image (there are other ways of achieving this of course !) ... :shrug: ... it would also be logical to use all focus points if you have many subjects such as a flock of birds that are constantly moving to ensure your subjects are in focus - combined with appropriate use of DoF of course ... :suspect:


Just my take on it ... I am sure there are more technical reasons for using it that I probably couldn't explain as well as others ... :D




:p

[Joe T]

Surely if you want to place a subject on a third, and thus focus on that, a diffferent focus point might be useful? If you only use the centre focus point all your subjects are likely to be centred in the frame?

I use the bottom one for motorsport and quitoe often some of the others for other sports I shoot. For wildlife I want the focus to be on the eye, which is often not in the centre of the frame.

Or have I misunderstood your question?