Focus points for Landscapes

Graham00

Graham00

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Graham Mc
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I recently bought a Nikon D300 as a camera to "grow into" before this very popular camera is discontinued (no i don't want video ('300s')) and wondered how many focus points would be best to use on a landscape that's virtually needing infinity as the point of focus as foreground needs at least f16 for sharpness, would you use 9,21 or the full 51 AF points ?
 
treeman said:
None, I'd use manual for landscapes.
Click to expand...

How do you manualy focus?

Live view, Adjusting the lens to a pre-calculated distance, or through the view finder to what looks good. Just asking as theres no focus screen like older film cams, so I now resort to live view or use AF.
 
Central focus point then recompose. Or if there's a decent focus scale on the lens, set the focus to the hyperfocal distance in MF (then check through the VF using the DoF preview or after a test shot and some pixel peeping on the screen to check for sharpness).
 
Do a google for "Hyperfocal distance" there's a link here

You don't often get the DOF scales on zoom lenses and even on the primes they're not as good as they used to be. But it's worth reading up on if you're into landscapes.

cheers
 
Thanks, i forgot to say which lens i'm using it's the top glass 18-70mm DX G 3.5-4.5 !
but i've been having unsharp issues that need attention.
 
I always used to have matte screens in my 35mm cameras, so I find them fine for focusing. But I also use the hyperfocal. And now, because I can, I also just double check the screen image with the mag right up too.
 
Graham00 said:
I recently bought a Nikon D300 as a camera to "grow into" before this very popular camera is discontinued (no i don't want video ('300s')) and wondered how many focus points would be best to use on a landscape that's virtually needing infinity as the point of focus as foreground needs at least f16 for sharpness, would you use 9,21 or the full 51 AF points ?
Click to expand...

you cant focus on infinity...and shouldnt
focus where you want your sharpest image and then decide on depth of field
the sharper the foreground the more apparent the sharpness of the background
i would focus generally about 30m
or on the little daisy which you want to zap people with instead of the anapurnas with you ultra wide angle lens...no e
 
As already mentioned use single point/centre focus. If you have a shot that has very large DOF it can be very difficult/impossibale to get everything in the shot "pin sharp".
Difraction tends to start around F8 on crop sensor DSLRs so a smaller aperture won't necessarily help, I sometimes choose to settle on a slightly softer distant object and a pin sharp foreground. It's also possible to take 2 shots, one focused for foreground & one for distant and them mix them in PP

Simon
 
9, 21 and 51 focus points are for moving subjects. Use the single point focal point and use "S" single-servo mode to "lock" the focus point - whatever that might be - the nearest daisy as someone mentioned with the aperture set to f/8 to f/16 and see what results.
 
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