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Snopchenko wrote:
Thank you! Well... for what it's worth I really had problems with focusing and I don't think I would've had nearly enough success with MF since the creatures were moving along every axis. Besides, the DOF was already criminally shallow in many cases (it's shot at f/5.6 and 300mm after all), and I have problems trying to find the point of best focus when using MF - just takes me forever for some reason.
Regarding the focus, my experience is that AF often is too slow to keep up with such subjects. For sure most lenses are too slow focusing at close distance, maybe a fast focusing lens with a 1DX type camera would work but I have never tried that. AF can work when a butterfly or dragonfly is hovering or gliding, but not when they are flying at full speed, hunting etc. because the speed is too high and the flight path too erratic. It is almost impossible to keep the subject in focus with AF, better prefocus and wait for the best moment (or if you have a fast camera, fire a series of shots when focus is about right and hopefully one will be spot-on). With some of my subjects like the bigger flying dragonflies, even keeping the subject in the frame for more than a second is already very tough ;-)
Yes, DOF is close to nothing in these situations and I know what you mean regarding finding the point of best focus, it all happens too fast so you have to work on 'intuition' and accept that you will have very few real keepers. With moving bugs you have no time to adjust the focus back and forth to find the best setting. However, one of the big problems of using AF when shooting bugs is that you do not know what the AF is going to focus on (if you cannot put the focus point in the right place, because the subject is constantly moving). If you let the AF decide it will probably focus on a high-contrast leg or a wing, instead of on the eye/head that you would normally prefer to put the focus on. And sometimes the AF simply keeps trying to focus without allowing the camera to take the shot ... that's why I almost always use MF nowadays for such shots.
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