Generally, for hand held shooting of static or slowly moving subjects I'll use the center point and recompose.
When the camera is on a tripod, especially if I'm shooting in the portrait orientation I'll select an individual focus point that's in the right spot. When I'm shooting sports or other fast moving subjects I'll use all of the focus points in one of the dynamic modes. The Nikon focus system tracks a moving subject very well in this mode. I turned off the shutter button focus quite a while ago and only use the back button. All of those modes are there for different reasons and styles of shooting. It takes a while to learn any particular brand and model's focusing system works mechanically and works for your style. In Nikon's case the description in the owner's manual isn't really very good. I was much more successful after reading Thom Hogans guides. He dissects the various modes in a way that made sense to me. gs George Sinos -------------------- www.GeorgesPhotos.net www.GeorgeSinos.com On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 7:18 PM, Christine Nielsen <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Jul 24, 2013, at 7:15 PM, Aahz Maruch <[email protected]> wrote: > > Let me rephrase: does anyone actually use manually-selected AF points for > handheld shooting? > > Yes, frequently. > > It was once explained to me - and this might be of interest to bird-shooters > out there - that setting the camera to continuous AF and dynamic focus area > (or whatever its called that allows the camera to choose among focus points), > and shooting in burst mode... Would allow you to shoot/keep in focus a moving > subject as it travels through the frame... But the person who told me this > shoots Canon, so... Never tried it, myself... anyone care to comment on that > claim? > > It's the AF that tempts me most when my eyes wander to Nikon.... But, I > wouldn't switch for a crop sensor camera... > > :) > -c > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
