Paul_K Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Depends on subject, shooting style and shooting technique
I started in photography with a fully manual (stop down TTL metering, manual focus, no winder or mototrdrive) Canon FTQL in the late 60's/early 70's
In those days AF was at best perhaps a distant dream of some technoheads
So any photographer shooting sports, events or catwalk worth his salt had to have/had to develop a fast eye/hand reflex (thus being capable of taking a picture in the split second when, while focusing, the subject was indeed in focus) in order to become at least proficient, and if possible, better then average at constantly focusing (and refocusing) when shooting the above mentioned subjects, eg
http://m3.i.pbase.com/g9/20/670620/2/162117033.YaoTXTMt.jpg
(Modestad Amsterdam 1983, F2AS, Nikkor 4.5/300 ED, Tri-X)
On the other hand, not having a fast eye/hand reflex was, and still is no problem when shooting, hand held or using a tripod, still subjects, like landscape, architecture and product.
Even does not have to be a problem when shooting people/portraits, providing they are/the subject is willing to hold still for a longer period to allow (manual) focusing
Funny thing BTW is that I nowadays see many 'smartphone' shooters needing much time to compose and take a picture, despite that on those phones many functions as eg AF, exposure and 'filmtransport' are automated
Likewise I see many DSLR shooters using Liveview, and holding their DSLR's with zoom (quite unstably) like a smartphone with the LCD screen on front of their eyes, rather then using the OVF
When AF finally became available on (more or less) pro level SLR's , (Nikon had the F3AF in 1983, but that really was a very experimental, with a very limited number of available AF lenses, camera) in the late 80's, I intentionally skipped the first models (Minolta Maxxum 7000, Canon 650, Nikon F501) and made my first steps in AF with a F801 (could have gotten a FE2, but decided for the F801 to be able to play around/experiment with AF, using the TC16A with my manual AI lenses)
For landscape and product AF was (and IMO is) at best convenient (not having to adjust focus yourself, nice if you're 'lazy ) but not mandatory, although in some situations MF IMO still was/is preferable.
I however found that for portraiture, especially considering my shooting style (hand held, long lenses wide open, close up portraits with focus on the eyes, model/subject not 'frozen' in a pose) being able to be able to (re)focus using AF up to the very last moment before taking a picture, could, compared to manual focusing, save it.
http://m0.i.pbase.com/g4/20/670620/2/61044460.BSTK04.jpg
(F801, 2.8/80-200 AF-D at 200mm, Tri-X)
Admittedly when shooting in a technically more deliberate way (eg using my 500CM, on a tripod, with a stopped down lens for more DoF and a posed 'frozen' model) manual focus would/will do the job just as well, and maybe even better (since the focus wouldn't shift every time the model would, even ever so little, change position)
On the other hand, for things like sports (European football, surf, fieldhockey, tennis), PJ and events (eg catwalk, weddings, corporate events) having AF (and other automated functions like dedicated TTL flash, automatic winder, advanced TTL metering) in my experience really was a major advance, allowing much faster and Instantaneous /spontaneous shooting even under less then ideal conditions (even if the result may not be technically 'perfect' all the time), especially with nowadays DSLR's.
http://m2.i.pbase.com/g4/20/670620/2/136095082.GpDbrhWa.jpg
(Academy Artemis Antwerpen, Fashion Department 2011, D3, 4/200-400 VR1, f4,5 1/320th, ISO 6400)
http://m0.i.pbase.com/g9/20/670620/2/129136820.xT8CbCtc.jpg
(Quick Silver Pro Hossegor 2010, D3, 4/600 AF-I + TC 14EII = 840mm, f7,1 1/2500th, ISO 320)
Edited on Aug 08, 2017 at 09:28 PM · View previous versions
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