Manual or Automatic Focus

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Koolpc

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Which do you prefer? M or A Focus? I know some situations will call for either but which do you go with in the majority of shots? Is it ok to depend on Auto Focus or should one choose Manual Focus more to get better pics?
 
Auto Focus. Although I use lenses that have full-time manual focus so I can manually "tweak" the focus after AF has done its job. (For example an animal is behind grass, the AF always focuses on the grass because it's closer). The 7D "spot af" has made life easier with this though.

MF for macro, landscape and star pics.. that's pretty much it.
 
Ok, thanks as i want to do Landscape shots too so best to manually focus for those then.
 
It's not just a case of switching from auto to manual for a landscape, you need to consider the depth of field and where you want to focus.
There may be detail very close to the camera which may be rendered OOF if you focus on the horizon, this is not made easy as many modern lenses dont have a depth of field scale so use of the preview button can be helpful, allowing you to capture details from say only feet away all the way out to the horizon.

To answer your question, my preference is auto, although it does catch me out, and switching to manual can be useful although it won't necessarily get you "better" pics...that's your job :D

Paul
 
Definately switch between the two depending on what I am shooting. Macro is definately on manual focus, as is a landscape with live view enabled as well. Then I can ensure that the focus is where I think it needs to be (Usually wrong, but hey!!)

I do have Lensbaby, which is only manual focus, but it's a quirky thing, so no problems with that.

All else, is auto focus for me -
 
I'll use MF when autofocus fails to deliver the goods. When you have a lens equipped with ring-type ultrasonic focussing bolted to a 1 series body, that doesn't happen very often at all.
 
MF lenses are teaching me an awful lot at the moment, in particular that I can achieve results without AF, but I'm not yet at the point of routinely switching AF off on my AF-enabled lenses, other than perhaps macro. Bit of a soppy, comfort blanket thing going on I fear!!
 
There was a thread with a poll on it not too long ago a couple of weeks I think.

I think the overal verdict was dependant on what you are photographing.
Common ones for manual was Macro photography
Common ones for auto was Sports
Common ones for a mix of both tended to be Portraits to fine tune for focussing
 
Definately like I said it depends on what you are photographing.

If you are photographing say a wedding and you are using a tripod at the back of the church and the couple dont move much and focussing can be difficult in a dark room. You could possibly autofocus onto the bride, then once you have a lock to avoid future focussign problems that switch to manual focus and keep photographing (especially if you dont want to have hunting problems during the first kiss)
 
I shoot entirly manual. This is not because I want too, but because of my kit and budget.

I use (on a Canon 450D) all FD lenses - for anyone that doesn't know canons history, they were pretty much pre-digital. My bog standard (came with the camera jobby) lens' auto focus went Kapoot! Therefore giving me nothing but manual. I then invested in my FD lenses and a EOS to FD adapter. I got the lens for free (5 of them) and the adapter of fleabay for £35, however its does have the magnets in it so once focussing point is hit then in the viewfinder the focus light flickers - however this can be very hit and miss.

So in answer to your question... in my case, its not so much preference, but circumstance. I'm also finding that my photography quality dropped briefly when I first started using the kit, however now I've been using it daily for about 2 months its absolutely fine...
 
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It would be interesting to know what FD lenses you use. Did Canon do L series lenses back then?
 
I use mostly manual on the 350D, using FD lenses as I also have a T90.

For me it is mostly budget that dictates this, the only 2 lenses I use in autofocus are the 18-55 kit lens and the 55-250, (the only new lens I have ever bought.)

All my FD lenses have come from E-Bay, 26 of them over 3 years, 17mm to 600mm mirror.

Manual focussing was no problem for me, been using manual focus cameras for 30 years.

John:)
 
I used manual focus up until my eyesight started to deteriorate, even when I had an EOS 650, I still used manual focus lenses, I have tried but I would need a prism screen or Fresnel screen to do so now, matte screen's I cant cope with.
 
trencheel303 said:
It would be interesting to know what FD lenses you use. Did Canon do L series lenses back then?
Click to expand...

Don't think they did anything equivalent to the modern day L series, but they did do some pretty nifty glass.
Like j37r all my FD lenses originated from a package with a T90 - great bit of kit!
 
trencheel303 said:
Did Canon do L series lenses back then?
Click to expand...

Courtesy of Wikipedia:

A separate (and expensive) range of FD lenses was available for photographers who required the highest optical and mechanical performance. These used a variety of special technologies, including aspherical surfaces, fluorite optics, and low-dispersion glass. The earlier versions of these lenses are designated "AL", "Aspherical", or "Fluorite" on the front of the lens mount. The post-1979 'New FD' versions are designated "L" (said to indicate 'luxury' or 'asphericaL'). The "L" designation, and the famous red ring around the lens front, have continued in the current EOS autofocus lenses.
 
Always auto first. A vast amount of the time it'll be right and you've saved a few seconds. Obviously I still end up using manual a fair bit, but very rarely as the first choice.
 
Here is a list of the Canon FD L series lenses that I obtained from the Mir website.
20-35 F3.5 L
24-35 F3.5 L
50-300 F4.5 L
80-200 F4.0 L
100-300 F5.6 L


24 F1.4 L
50 F1.2 L
85 F1.2 L
200 F2.8 L
300 F2.8 L
300 F4.0 L
400 F2.8 L
500 F4.5 L
600 F4.0 L

Quite a list and most of these are still fetching mega money today.

I myself have in my own collection the 50mm F1.4, the 35-105 F3.5(should have been an L) and the 80-200 F4.0 (Non L) and these are real stellar lenses.


John:)
 
Wow... I didn't know that there were L series FD lens! But blow me away, thats alot! How can you identify them? For example the modern day L series have the red ring?
 
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