Another Focus question...

[Nikon_Nick]

After seeing a couple of other threads in here about focusing, I have another question

For equine sports, ive been playing around with different focusing techniques for a little while, but havent yet decided which one I find the best. I havent tried 'Back button focusing' yet, but i will at the next show I go to.

At the moment, I generally use AF-C with all 51 points for 3d focus tracking as a default (and I didnt think it would particularly be beneficial to change it). Would it help, do you think if I only used 9 or 11 for example? Some of my shots have been a little soft, and ive eliminated aperture and shutter speed as culprits through some experimentation.

Thanks

Nick

 

[Ozei]

If you're using 3D tracking in Dynamic AF Area, 51 points is the only option (menu a3 - manual pages 285/6).

If you're not using 3D tracking in Dynamic AF Area, you can choose between 9, 21 or 51 points. The 11 point setting is only for manual focus-point selection (menu a8 on p289).

 

[scottthehat]

any chance of some pics, i would use center point focus only as the 51pt can pick up on other things, i only use it for fast moving birds in the clear sky. maybe try 9 or 21 pt.
and get using rear button af.

 

[Ozei]

Or maybe Auto-area AF is worth a try. A horse will (presumably) take up quite a large part of the frame so there's less likelihood of the AF
latching onto something else.