p.2 #3 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
Do you find the AE-L/AF-L button awkwardly placed to serve as AF-ON (for bodies that don't have a dedicated button)? I never got comfortable with it on my D7000.
p.2 #4 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
infimum wrote:
Do you find the AE-L/AF-L button awkwardly placed to serve as AF-ON (for bodies that don't have a dedicated button)? I never got comfortable with it on my D7000.
p.2 #5 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
infimum wrote:
Do you find the AE-L/AF-L button awkwardly placed to serve as AF-ON (for bodies that don't have a dedicated button)? I never got comfortable with it on my D7000.
No. It has not been as big an adjustment as I expected on the D7100 (from D300s).
Apr 29, 2013 at 10:09 PM
Andre Labonte Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
p.2 #6 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
I HATE AF-On ... apparently that places me in the minority.
Instead, what I prefer is AF-Lock to stop focusing when I don't want it active.
p.2 #7 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
I've had this on the old D1x body originally... And all the way through the pro line of bodies. But I'm also of the mindset of Andre here. I don't hate it.. I just prefer to use the AF-L/AE-L on my thumb.
p.2 #8 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
I guess I am another minority member. I read about AF-ON. Tried it. Never really could figure out how to make it work for me. I should probably try again. However, it's utility in shooting landscapes or macro shots in liveview is not really clear, either.
On the other hand, I was never good at console video games, either. "Press triangle-circle-A while swinging your sword to control it's ability to ... [whatever]". Really? Not a chance.
Of course, maybe I gravitate toward styles of shooting, where eye hand coordination is less critical, and hence where I won't need to press so many buttons in some coordinated fashion? For the same reason, perhaps, that I was no good at video games with complex command sequences?
p.2 #10 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
Patrick Cox wrote:
What is AF-ON? (sorry, Nikon newb!)
Check the back of your camera .
It's to use the AF-ON button instead of the shutter button to activate autofocus. So pressing the shutterbutton won't engage autofocus. It gives you more precision on when to autofocus.
And YES I love it, thanks to you guys here I discovered it!
Really nice to use on bodies like my D800e, don't like it as much on the D7000. (button is not placed very well)
p.2 #11 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
Patrick Cox wrote:
What is AF-ON? (sorry, Nikon newb!)
There is a button on the back of some Nikon cameras designated as AF-On. Basically what it does when activated is reduce the shutter button to shutter release only (it does not attempt to focus when half depressed). So, although you are now using two buttons instead of one to focus (AF-On) and release the shutter (Shutter button), it gives you the ultimate control over when and where the camera will attempt to focus or refocus.
This comes in very handy in, for example, birding, when you have a bird in a bush that requires some manual focusing to get it in focus - you certainly don't want the camera attempting to refocus after you have attained critical focus ! This can be applied to many other areas of photography.
Some cameras, such as the D600, don't have this button. You can however remap this function to another button. I remapped it to AE-L and remapped AE-L to Fn.
p.2 #13 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
infimum wrote:
Do you find the AE-L/AF-L button awkwardly placed to serve as AF-ON (for bodies that don't have a dedicated button)? I never got comfortable with it on my D7000.
For me no, I use the dedicated AF-On button on the D800 and switch over to the AE-L/AF-L button on the D7100 without issue.
p.2 #15 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
infimum wrote:
Do you find the AE-L/AF-L button awkwardly placed to serve as AF-ON (for bodies that don't have a dedicated button)? I never got comfortable with it on my D7000.
I didn't like it on my D300 because the larger camera body placed it outside of a comfortable zone. I could reach it but it wasn't in a natural place where my thumb normally fell.
I don't have that problem on my D7100, it seems to be comfortable for me.
p.2 #17 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
I don’t really use it that much but do sometimes for landscapes and tripod work just to set focus, otherwise I can’t understand why you want to take a picture when not focusing. Maybe it depends on what you shoot?
p.2 #18 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
Haven't tried the AF On button on my D 300s yet, but could have used this tip on Saturday taking close ups of flowers. I really like being able to move the focus point around on this camera also. Then there's the Horizon option.
Coming from a D 80, the D 300s is amazing. I wish I had bought one used for about the same price as my D 80.
p.2 #19 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
Mark_L wrote:
I don’t really use it that much but do sometimes for landscapes and tripod work just to set focus, otherwise I can’t understand why you want to take a picture when not focusing. Maybe it depends on what you shoot?
Wildlife is a pretty common scenario where you don't want to keep refocusing. Especially birds or other creatures who hide among branches/trees/plants.
If I've, say, got a bird in a tree, I'm in a fixed position relative to the animal, but I may take 10+ shots trying to find the right pose or head position. My focus distance doesn't change, and having the camera refocus every time increases the probability that the focus will change and maybe I'll end up with the wing instead of the eye in focus, or a leaf that's intruding on the scene.
Also, it lets me not worry about small composition changes - since my next shot won't refocus, the placement of the focus point isn't critical.
And then, if you do want to keep focusing, you can. It just doesn't force the focus mechanism to be directly linked to your choice to release the shutter.
p.2 #20 · Oh, AF-ON... where have you been all my life?
It just doesn't force the focus mechanism to be directly linked to your choice to release the shutter.
THIS ^ doesn't take a genius to see the value here.
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