af systems.

Mine I'd say 8 on the D3 - but really that's just me being cack-handed and not bothering to set it up properly to begin with...
Since I read a certain person's D700 thread I've changed the parameters of several of my custom settings and wondering why I'd been too idle to sort it out earlier...
My excuse that I was too busy using it to play with the settings would sound pretty convincing to some, but it'd still be a lie...lol
 
Arkady said:
Mine I'd say 8 on the D3 - but really that's just me being cack-handed and not bothering to set it up properly to begin with...
Since I read a certain person's D700 thread I've changed the parameters of several of my custom settings and wondering why I'd been too idle to sort it out earlier...
My excuse that I was too busy using it to play with the settings would sound pretty convincing to some, but it'd still be a lie...lol
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What settings did you change? Presumably the same would hold true on a D300s?
 
scottthehat said:
hi all, just wondered what people thought about the performance of there dslr af system strong point and weak points, and how the rate it out of ten.
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its one aspect of my DSLR that i haven't really grasped yet . I haven't even sat down and RTFM. emabarrasing, but in my defence i have been too busy concentrating on other aspects of photography.

It is set to single point focus and i sometimes move it around to suit the subject. thats about it. :nuts:

i think the camera would probably rate about 7 , but with me at the helm, probably 2 !

Al
 
40D - useless AI Servo, and hit and miss One shot AF with centre point.
30D/400D - similar, just worse
1Ds2 - this one is great. Focusing is accurate and fast, and tracking works well. If it has to be Canon, it seems it has to have 1 in the name.
 
I have a 450D and quite frankly the quick-AF on 'one shot' mode is about as accurate as a dog weeing in the snow. Almost all of my shots on one shot AF need sharpening to be acceptable. It's not as if they're wildly out of focus, but they are 'soft', and it's more noticeable when the aperture is wide open. AI servo sometimes gets it in one, but more often than not, to get a tack sharp shot, I have to use live view's 'contrast detect' AF mode. Even then that an fail if the light is not so good, and that's where full time manual focussing comes in to its own.

I don't have any problem with it, considering how quick 'quick AF' actually is compared to a compact, I will let the fact that it's not always spot on slide. it's not a professional product and so there are going to be some pitfalls, I paid 400 quid for it. Had I paid for a 1d and still got the same results, I wouldn't have been as easy going about it. I have had shots on my camera that would have been missed on compacts, due to the amount of time they take to focus, so I'm happy enough.

Because of how poorly the 450D focuses, I am considering teaching myself to properly manual focus, and doing away with AF altogether.
 
I'd rate the D300 easily 9/10.

Bloody impressive and unlikely to improve until we get hybrid phase detect/contrast detect in the next generation of camera.

I still have my 30D, so am qualified to comment there too... I'd put that at about 7/10 for the centre focus point and tailing off once you try to use one of the others.
 
Perhaps I should have gone Nikon. I love my Canon (and the range of lenses is great) but my god the AF is often worse than a compact! :thinking:
 
Canon and Nikon both offer "as good as it gets" AF in their ranges, you just need to look towards the top end of the ranges...

A Nikon equivalent of the 450D won't be significantly different...
 
daugirdas said:
40D - useless AI Servo, and hit and miss One shot AF with centre point.
30D/400D - similar, just worse
Click to expand...

I have a 40D and I feel the AF is quite good but then I did come from a 350D. I have used an eos 3 and found it to be quite similar in speed and accuracy, I used a 1ds and the af is soooo sloooowwwww.

You must not know how to af properly....

But to rate it, I would need to know what 10/10 is like....
 
desantnik said:
Canon and Nikon both offer "as good as it gets" AF in their ranges, you just need to look towards the top end of the ranges...

A Nikon equivalent of the 450D won't be significantly different...
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perhaps, but I hear of focus problems on the Canon 450D far more than any Nikon equiv. It's pretty much a known issue that they have shoddy focussing in quick-AF.
 
trencheel303 said:
perhaps, but I hear of focus problems on the Canon 450D far more than any Nikon equiv. It's pretty much a known issue that they have shoddy focussing in quick-AF.
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Hmm.....maybe that's why I'm having such a hard time trying to get some crisp shots with my 450D + Sigma 150-500.....

Time for an upgrade? :naughty:
 
trencheel303 said:
Almost all of my shots on one shot AF need sharpening to be acceptable. It's not as if they're wildly out of focus, but they are 'soft', and it's more noticeable when the aperture is wide open.
Click to expand...

I cannot understand the link you make between focus and sharpness. If you can fix the problem PP by sharpening, then surely the image was in focus but either the lens is soft by design or the camera settings did not apply any sharpening. With a 2-d image, there is nothing that can be done to make an out-of-focus image suddenly become in-focus.
 
grahamsewelluk said:
I cannot understand the link you make between focus and sharpness. If you can fix the problem PP by sharpening, then surely the image was in focus but either the lens is soft by design or the camera settings did not apply any sharpening. With a 2-d image, there is nothing that can be done to make an out-of-focus image suddenly become in-focus.
Click to expand...

And I mentioned earlier in the thread that using contrast-detect AF in live view gives better results than using quick-AF. I didnt mention that this is regardless of the lens but I'd have expected this to be obvious. I do get really sharp pictures at times in quick-AF when I am using the flash, such as this photo, which is also a very harsh crop:

Gramophonelogo.jpg


(The above has not been sharpened at all IIRC)

A lot of my photos that are done in quick-AF are sharpened by means of need - any that I sharpen from live view contrast-detect AF is usually just to bring it back to perfect sharpness after a resize - something I often fail to achieve with quick-AF; but I live with it knowing I am not using a pro piece of kit.

I don't know whether I am making myself quite clear here but let me put it this way; with two different lenses, both done side by side on quick-AF, and then on live view contrast detect, the difference in sharpness is noticeable.
 
Mad Badger said:
Hmm.....maybe that's why I'm having such a hard time trying to get some crisp shots with my 450D + Sigma 150-500.....

Time for an upgrade? :naughty:
Click to expand...

Use live view and you'll be amazed at how much better it focuses. The 450D is decent, but focussing is really where it is let down. It's **** poor - honestly.
 
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