Re: I'm Getting an Auto Focus Camera

[Tom Reese]

Herb Chong wrote:

except for the number of focus points, it's not especially different 
from anyone else's AF film camera for under $1K. you've been hearing 
mostly from people who use MF over AF even on a modern body. i use AF 
about 80% of the time and don't when it's not appropriate.

I never really needed autofocus until this past weekend. We spend the 
weekend in Westmoreland State Park in Virginia and I had numerous 
opportunities to photograph ospreys and bald eagles in flight close-up.

The snap-in focus on my MZ-S failed miserably. That feature works with 
the center focusing point only. It's impossible to track an eagle in 
flight with a 600mm lens and keep the bird in the exact center of the 
frame so the camera can detect when it's in focus.

I finally switched to my 200mm lens (the longest autofocus lens I have) 
and that didn't do any better. The camera couldn't focus fast enough to 
handle the job. This is the first situation I've run into where my MZ-S 
couldn't handle the job.

The point of all this is that in some situations you need a lot of 
focusing points and fast focus.

I'm frustrated enough that I'm thinking about jumping ship and ordering 
a used 1V HS.

Tom Reese