Re: OT: autofocus?

I'm of the belief that there are only three good uses of autofocus:

1.) Photojournalism

2.) Photographing small children and pets.

3.) Sports action, some wildlife action, etc.

Doug, Mark, and David certainly make tack sharp wildlife images w/o autofocus!

In these cases, the autofocus system must be able to focus in "real time". This is not the case on most moderately priced P&S cameras.

For most other photography, I feel that the photographer should focus the camera. The programmer, sitting in a cubicle, in a camera factory somewhere, writing the focus algorithms, has no bloody idea what I want in focus and what I want out of focus.

In most any kind of non-action photography, the focus plane is very important. As is the f/stop to either limit the focus or extend the focus from that plane. Autofocus takes none of this into consideration. When I am forced to use autofocus cameras, I immediately switch them to manual focus. Of course, except for my P&S cameras (no manual controls) that are basically used only for happy snaps.

JMHO,

:-)

Jim


At 04:11 PM 7/26/2006 -0700, Oliver Bryk wrote:

During his recent visit I attempted to photograph my grandson, age 18
months, in nearby Sutro Park. I discovered to my consternation that I could
not follow focus quickly enough with my M6/0.85 to keep up with the little
fellow; this will, of course, become more difficult with time (he'll get
faster and I'll get slower...)

I'm wondering whether anyone has experience with using a moderately priced
autofocus camera for this type of application.
Oliver Bryk



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