Hello, fairly new member here. I have built my photography skills from the basics.. developing and shooting BW film myself in High school. Honed manual focus, learned exposure properties and now look for composition. I moved to digital and have been shooting with the rebel line since the XT. Dropped it, and a 17-40L in a river. Replaced it with a T2i and began taking on entry level shoots.. (mostly dinner parties, 40th bdays, Dance videos) spread by word of mouth and pretty unofficial, but it helps fund my hobby.
I am interested in buying a used 40d for stills. For the right price. Then using T2i only for video. One advantage (of many) is that 40d has all cross type focus points... however I dont know how often they would be used. Would they significantly help me with image composition? Is it common to change the AF point setting?
I have been reading these forums for a while now and hear the importance of Cross type focus at all points in the VF. How often do you change the focus points? I usually focus and recompose using AI servo because only my center point is cross type.
Except either in low light or when using servo mode, I will choose whatever AF point is best for the composition. I don't like to focus and recompose especially with very fast glass where DoF is an issue when recomposing.
Pixel Perfect wrote:
Except either in low light or when using servo mode, I will choose whatever AF point is best for the composition. I don't like to focus and recompose especially with very fast glass where DoF is an issue which recomposing.
I am switching all the time.
Your 40D has 9 cross type points of equal performance. Switch as is best for your composition. Especially in AI servo, you need to place your focus point constantly on the most important part of your moving subject.
When I used 40D class cameras, almost never. Not only did the outside points seem less reliable, but I found them hard to pick. Using the joystick in the diagonal direction was close to impossible.
Now that I'm using a 1D class, I switch points all the time. All the points work, they are easy to pick. I can now compose the way I want, and pick the focus location where I want it.
It depends on the composition of the photo. Usually I just use the center point AF, however, if I need to compose for a subject that is off to the left or right, I will switch to the AF point which is most appropiate. I also manually focus on occassion, so I don't know if that makes a difference. But all in all, I usually just have use the center point AF.
I've always found the 40D outer focus points to work great - always used them. When I went to a 5DC I had to learn center focus point recompose, which I hated. Now that I have a 5D3 I finally got to go back to using the outer points. (I still own two 40Ds and love them.)
Most of the time when shooting static-ish subjects, I use the center point and one-shot on both my 7D and 5D2. Sometimes I switch to another point if focusing and recomposing is impractical.
When shooting fast-moving subjects with the 7D, I use all points and ai-servo.
Some situations are different.... above is what I do "most" of the time.
All the time. Probably every 5th shot or so. Also I use a different focus point for landscape versus portrait orientation. Thankfully the 5DMK3 remembers settings in each orientation.
I change focus points all the time and IIRC the outer points on my 40D were pretty decent. As perviously pointed out, using the the proper focus point based for the composition you are trying to achieve is a requisite when using AI Servo or wide apertures with low DoFs.
Pixel Perfect wrote:
Except either in low light or when using servo mode, I will choose whatever AF point is best for the composition. I don't like to focus and recompose especially with very fast glass where DoF is an issue when recomposing.
With the 7D, quite a lot and mostly the outer points. I hardly ever use centre AF point to focus and recompose, only in low light handheld shots where I need the extra sensitivity of the centre AF point, which is very rare.
I have a 40D and the 5DM3, and on both of them, I keep switching the focus points based on my compositional requirements, DoF and available light. My 40D is pretty good and the 5DM3 is a class by itself when it comes to AF.
If I have time to pre-visualize my shot - and of course - if the need arises, I'll use my outer points. Otherwise, I just stick with the centre af point. I'm still not used to using the joystick intuitively on my 1DIII.
On both my 40d and 7d I switch points about 95% of the time. The only time I would use the center point on a 40d would be for ai-servo with an f/2.8 or faster lens. I'm not a fan of focus/recompose since I've never had to.
