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- Chris
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I've briefly found myself in the world of the modern DSLR with a D7000, which has more settings (particularly related to AF) than I care to think about. I've only used it for two weekends, but my photography improved significantly once I stripped the settings back to the absolute bare essentials (or 'D50 mode', as I lovingly refer to it, having owned a D50 previously!), which pretty much meant AF on and AFC, even Auto ISO hindered more than helped.
Lots of AF points seem lovely in the marketing bumpf, but within minutes I switched most of them off as it took too long to move around them, where they are is far more useful than how many. Focus priority just doesn't work with panning, in my experience. Focus tracking with lock on (which in theory maintains a lock even if you pan past a fence post, for example) sounds clever, but gave me nothing but OOF shots. All the fancy 3D/AF tracking settings? Rubbish, little more than an annoying box moving around seemingly randomly in the viewfinder. Single point AF was far more efficient. I even tried AFS instead of AFC, just for fun, and honestly don't think there is much in it if you adjust your technique slightly.
At that point I wondered what a new body actually gives me, as far as I could tell I may as well be shooting with a Canon 5Dc (which I have before, and could notice no discernible difference between that and this D7000). I only shoot single shots, so FPS/buffer size isn't an issue for me.
With that in mind, are there any settings (on any camera) that anyone has found genuinely useful?
Lots of AF points seem lovely in the marketing bumpf, but within minutes I switched most of them off as it took too long to move around them, where they are is far more useful than how many. Focus priority just doesn't work with panning, in my experience. Focus tracking with lock on (which in theory maintains a lock even if you pan past a fence post, for example) sounds clever, but gave me nothing but OOF shots. All the fancy 3D/AF tracking settings? Rubbish, little more than an annoying box moving around seemingly randomly in the viewfinder. Single point AF was far more efficient. I even tried AFS instead of AFC, just for fun, and honestly don't think there is much in it if you adjust your technique slightly.
At that point I wondered what a new body actually gives me, as far as I could tell I may as well be shooting with a Canon 5Dc (which I have before, and could notice no discernible difference between that and this D7000). I only shoot single shots, so FPS/buffer size isn't an issue for me.
With that in mind, are there any settings (on any camera) that anyone has found genuinely useful?
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