Still photography

[Angus]

Here's a question about digital cameras. What is a digital SLR? The best I can figure out is that it's an SLR camera with a chip where the film would be, complete with a focal plane shutter and a mirror that flips up. If so then I'm wondering why? ]

You've clearly never used a D-SLR.

As others say, the difference between composing a shot and espeically attempting manual focus and assessing DOF using a low res LCD display (and they are ALL low res compared to the image recorded) and a SLR glass viewfinder is like night and day.

[Angus]

As for Autofocus....invention of evil, I say. Can't ever see any reason to use it with an SLR.

really? autofocus is absolutely mandatory on an slr in my opinion.

really. I have never in my life wished I posessed an autofocus lens.

Sure I've used them on other people's cameras...my dad has a really good D-SLR setup now and I've played with it....but I would always revert to manual focus.

or do you only shoot stationary objects on a wide lens? news and action sports photographers (i.e. me) literally make money every day because of autofocus.

OK here's a sample taken with my BX20s which is not even capable of autofocus. From memory film is Ektachrome pro 100, lens was either Sigma 35-200 or Tamron 80-210 set at max....f5.6.....car is travelling around 170mph....




Now having said that I do not make my living taking such shots...it is a hobby....I just happen to be reasonably good at it...

[wado1942]

It's fast and accurate with any modern slr or dslr.

Really!? I have a friend that doesn't use manual focus at all but takes A LOT of pictures and about half them are out of focus. Of course his camera averages the entire frame and doesn't have a matrix for choosing what part of the picture serves as the reference for focus. Either that or he doesn't know how to use it. The same thing with my mother and her D50. But you have to remember that the subject isn't always in the middle of the picture and using the focus matrix often takes more time than just manually focusing. I studied some pictures taken by a photographer who specializes in aircraft. He commented that autofocus is too slow for what he does and that a lot of people that are getting into photography have total messes for pictures because they don't know how to do simple things like focusing manually. Now I'm not anti-autofocus. Sometimes I wish my camera had autofocus but most of the time, I don't need it. Even when taking action shots, it's not hard to guess distance and dial it into the iris, set a medium F-stop and shoot away. I rarely have focus problems and I'm no where near a pro photographer myself.

[Angus]

What Wado said.

Saturday night I was using my dad's D70 just for snapshots, thought I'd got a nice pic of my oldest buddy but when I transferred to the computer I realised the bloody camera had focussed on the wall behind and not the bloke himself.....it was set to expect the subject to be in the centre, and he was.

Nothing is infallible....but I could just as easily have used manual focus.....oh....try and use autofocus in very low light conditions! You can't! Or it shines a bloody annoying ray out of the front of the camera disturbing people and making sure your subject knows they're being photographed....no chance of a candid shot there...

[david]

What Wado said.

It seems we're looking for the holy grail of focusing systems...I'm trying to say that both autofocus and manual focus have their pros and cons.

saying that autofocus doesn't work well in low light doesn't mean it's completely useless, it simply means it doesn't work well in low light.no more than that. You could say that if I point my camera towards the sky or a wall it won't focus properly (well, it won't focus at all). Fine, I agree with that. Or you might also say that it's easier to manual focus with a 1000mm lens at a football match. Ehmm...maybe, but I wouldn't try it myself.

David

[david]

It's fast and accurate with any modern slr or dslr.

Really!?

Well, I have a low end dslr so I assumed all worked this way. I thought matrix focusing was the standard on new cameras, wasn't it?

However, the fact that the subject is not always in the center is not a problem at all. Aren't you focusing with the center split image on almost any slr? So what's the difference in doing it by half pressing a button or rotating the focusing ring? The only difference to me is if you're not used to manual focus you're not going to get perfect pictures even with a high end autofocus, just like you're not going to get perfect exposure with autometering if you don't know how a light meter works. Well, sometimes you will, but other times you won't.

[wado1942]

Well split focusing isn't very good either. I prefer the method of pulling tape which will be accurate every time both in still photography and in motion picture film. Of course in the case of shooting high action shots like a football game or a formula 1 race, you need to set the focus before you even hold the camera up to your face because neither auto focus nor using the viewfinder will be fast enough to get the shot. I think matrix focus is standard now but again, you have to navigate a menue to chose where the focal point is and it takes less time to do it manually. Now if you have time to set up the shots before hand, even if you have a ground glass viewfinder for focusing, it's usually better to just pull tape and match the measurement on the lens. This is how it's done in the studio probably 98% of the time particularly in low light because a 1/2 meter error in either direction can mean completely unusable shots.

[MovieStuff]

Personally I prefer to use manual focus but there have been times where I switched to autofocus because I was shooting pretty rapidly and there was a lot happening around me. On some DSLR cameras without ground glass, autofocus is almost a necessity because the stupid aeriel image viewing system is just as bad as some super 8 cameras; you can't trust what you see because you eye compensates. Autofocus is just another tool, like auto exposure. Use when you need and turn it off when you don't. Autofocus won't hit the mark every time but it can be useful in many situations. But manual focus is not infalible, either, especially without ground glass.

Roger

[ccortez]

Some people like my wife will never see well enough to consistenly focus manually w/o working in a very controlled environment. She struggles with autofocus missing the target too, but gets much better results than she would if she always had to trust her poor eyes...

I prefer to use manual focus whenever possible, but I have excellent eyes. YMMV...

[david]

Well split focusing isn't very good either

Don't know, I always found it quite easy and fast to get proper focus with it, but it really depends on lens quality, and if you're in low light it gets a bit harder.

I think matrix focus is standard now but again, you have to navigate a menue to chose where the focal point is and it takes less time to do it manually

on my camera I don't need to enter the menu to change the focal point, just need to press a button while rotating the rear wheel on camera body.I agree, it's slower than manual focusing anyway, but since I'm used to split focusing I'm always leaving it to the center point.

it's usually better to just pull tape and match the measurement on the lens.

agreed, but unfortunately it's rarely possible to do so.

This is how it's done in the studio probably 98% of the time

I've been working for a few months as an industrial photographer in a studio. Only monorail large format cameras there, so I'm out of that 98% (well, to be honest we were also using 6x7 medium format cameras for close ups sometimes, and were using tape measuring then)

however, if this was an autofocus vs manual focus poll, I'd vote for no-focusing at all. Give me sunny weather and I promise I won't touch the focus ring all day. Unless I decide to do so.

david

[wado1942]

ah not me. I fight very hard to get selective focus so I rarely use an F-stop greater than 5.6 or so. I'm usually around 2 to 2.8. It helps that 3 of my 5 in-use cameras have 58mm threads so I have a wealth of filters including circular polarizers and ND filters to aid in that aspect. Plus my super-8 cams have variable shutter angles so it's really easy for me to get the selective focus thing happening. I can't rely on the diopter being calibrated correctly so I usually just guess and check or pull tape. In my video camera of course I have to use manual focus through the view finder. Autofocus is terrible at least on my canons because they're always shifting back & forth, back & forth, back & forth even when there's plenty of light and good hard lines for it to reference. Really distracting. So I only use autofocus with my video cam in moving crowd shots.

[david]

ah not me. I fight very hard to get selective focus so I rarely use an F-stop greater than 5.6 or so.

was joking I'd love to do it as well. The thing is I'm doing street photography mostly so my lens is always set to hyperfocal, otherwise I'd probably miss many good shots. Also, considering I'm always using 400asa and no filters at all, if I'm in the sun it's really hard to get lower than f/8-f11 because faster shutter speed on my camera is 1/1000.

this is how it works for me, I know I'm missing some things this way, but I'm also gaining some others.

david

[wado1942]

Ah, see I usually use 100 ASA outdoors and 160-400ASA indoors. I'm probably the only guy in Idaho who had Moles Juniors at his own wedding (2,000 watt Fresnel lights) so the photographer could use a 160 ASA portrait film without a flash. The pics were great BTW.

[Actor]

Here's a question about digital cameras. What is a digital SLR? The best I can figure out is that it's an SLR camera with a chip where the film would be, complete with a focal plane shutter and a mirror that flips up. If so then I'm wondering why? ]

You've clearly never used a D-SLR.

Quite true. At least it was on the day I posted the question. I've since purchased a D-SLR and remedied that situation.

[wado1942]

I feel like a D-SLR is a lot like puting a lawnmower engine on a bus. If I'm going to spend over $500 on a camera, it'd be a medium format. In the mean time, I spent probably $180 on my Pentax and get far better images out of it than the typical low end D-SLR can give.