 Ganesh G |
What exactly is the advantage of manual focus? Hi everyone, I am a 21 year old student and a photo enthusiast. I own a lowly 20 year old Yashica MF-2 autofocus camera. What I have not come to undertand even after going around a lot of photography articles is just WHY photographers use manual focus. I understand zooming, but there are autozoom cameras out there (like my newer Samsung FIne 800 autozoom). What I mean to ask is that since autofocus cameras can focus on almost anything, why is the need to complicate matters with manual focus. Can anyone show me through an example where an autofocus has worse results than a manual focus (under normal conditions, enough ligt, no zoom, stationary subjects)?
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Michael H. Cothran |
First, there is nothing "lowly" about your Yashica. They (Kyocera) are one of the finest camera manufacturers in the world. They have just never made it big in the USA. I can think of 4 times where you would want to turn off the AF, and rely on MF - 1. If your subject (for some reason) was in a corner of the screen, and your AF sensor was in the middle, the AF sensor would try to focus on whatever was in the middle instead of your corner subject. 2. If you are doing macro work, AF sensors often have to search & hunt a lot, while MF allows you to focus on the one specific area quicker. And again, if your area of focus is not within the AF's sensor, it will end up focusing somewhere else. 3. In cases where you are extremely selective in your focus area (particularly when you are shooting long lenses at wide apertures), you are better off using MF to insure that your camera focuses exactly where you want it to rather than where IT wants to. 4. When trying to obtain the maximum depth of field, particularly with wide angle lenses, you must rely on using the "hyper focal" distance in your scene. This means you DO NOT focus the lens per say, but using the scale on your lens ring, you position your near and far subjects you want in focus between the two aperture markings that will allow both to be in focus. Hope this helps. Michael H. Cothran www.mhcphoto.net
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doug Nelson |
Leica still does not make autofocus SLR's or rangefinder cameras. Many high-grade Canon EOS lenses allow full-time manual focus. There must be a reason. Does your autofocus system hunt back and forth for focus in dimly lit situations? In some situations, we want to be very precise about our point of focus. If I am doing a portrait, I want to focus on the eyes, or on an eye. Can I really trust autofocus to do an exact job, especially in fairly dim light? In some situations, it just isn't necessary. In strong light, I set 28's or 24's at f8, set the hyperfocal settings on the distance scale for f8 and don't worry about focus, since it's depth-of-field I'm interested in. I have found autofocus to be unnecessary with the little macro work I've done. In fact, if you do macro, you'd save a lot of money over expensive autofocus lenses and $100 extension tubes by using any of the excellent macro lenses and very cheap extension tubes, and a dedicated SLR body. Would I use autofocus? You betcha, if I shot wildlife or sports for a living, or if I must have the latest and greatest zooms. For what I do, manual focus is fine and has saved me a lot of money.
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Andy |
I can think of another reason for manual focusing - pre focusing. If the subject is moving, you may want to pre focus at a certain point and wait for the subject to reach that point and press the shutter. You can also set up the lens at hyperfocal distance as Michael mentioned above and wait for the subject to enter the 'zone'.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
It's more fun to focus yourself.
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Bob Cammarata |
I think that Gregory's answer is most accurate. The reason many focus, (and expose) manually is because it's fun! And, it can be rewarding when challenges have been met, and results equal or surpass our expectations. Don't get me wrong,...auto-focus has its place. With fast action, many shots would likely be missed without it.
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anonymous |
I prefer autofocus, as my subjects (little children!) move so much, but when I am focusing on babies especially, my camera has a hard time finding some contrast to focus on so I have to switch to manual. I suppose it is good to have both options so you don't look like an idiot trying to focus on a babies foot for 5mins cause the autofocus is have a "bad day!"
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Ganesh G |
Thanks everyone for the replies. I guess this would have been a very easy question for most of you to answer. Thank you again, for clearing my doubts. I do though, think that some of you thought I have a camera that can switch between autofocus and manual focus. LOL, NO. I just have a handheld point and shoot camera. Very old one, as I mentioned. Michael, I agree with you on the quality of the camera. 20 years of surviving the rough treatment ;) is some achievement. And I've never messed up any photos. I meant "lowly" only on the technology front though. Gregory, whoever you are, I am turning into a big fan of yours ! I commented on another thread where you had another typical funny remark(on the spiders). Good to have some humour everywhere. Would any of you care to take a look at my gallery and tell me how can I digitally enhance those photos(or if you dont have anything else to do, can you do it for me so that I can learn)? The real photos were much better, just the scanner I used was pretty messed up ! Thanks again. And I will look forward to being an active participant on this site.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
shoot manual on everything. You'll be better all around for it.
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Ganesh G |
I am thinking of buying the newly launched Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ3 camera. It will be a HUGE haul for me as its very expensive by my standards. But I am seriously thinking of putting some time in to do photography. http://www.steves-digicams.com/2004_reviews/fz3.html http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz3-review/index.shtml I don't think it has manual focussing option though. But thats the best I can afford now. Anyone here has any negative points about the camera. Something that will stop me from buying it?
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Peter (lukas) Johansen |
In the good old days then manual fokus did simpley give sharper photos. Not so any more. A good autofokus camera can fokus just af well as a manual fokus camera. That is if the motif allovs for autofokus. if you vant to take a picture of say a statue then there is no guarantee that autofokus will vork. The motif is simpley to difficult to autofocus on. The point is that nowadays then autofokus is very good, but sometimesd the seirous photografer prefer manual fokus. Peter
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Ganesh G |
Peter, I am amused by your language. Are you German ?? Thank you Peter and the others for the tips. I have now pretty much got what all of you mean. Can anyone though, put up two photos side-by-side, one taken with a manual focus and the other taken with an autofocus? That youwld put the point across perfectly to me as well as to many other rookies like me. Still, I seem to get the idea that everyone is thinking I am talking about a camera which can shift between autofocus and manual modes. *NO*, I am talking about a hand-held point and shoot autofocus camera(Whew...so many adjectives). So, in that, theres no point of the camera trying to find a suitable focus(or is there?). I always thought that these kind of cameras were preset with just one focus - infinity. Would be great if someone could clear this as well.
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Kerry L. Walker |
A P&S autofucus camera does focus. What you are thinking about is a fixed focus camera. They depend on a small aperature for great DOF to obtain acceptable focus.
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Ganesh G |
So, a Yashica MF-2 would be a fixed focus camera ?
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Kerry L. Walker |
I am not familiar with that model (do have an old Yashicamat TLR). If the lens does not move, it is a fixed focus camera.
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Ganesh G |
Yes, the lens in the Yashica MF-2 doesn't move. So, I guess it must be a fixed focus camera. My other Samsung Fino 800 has a 38-80 autozoom. In that, I find that the lens moves after pressing the shutter button. That must be for focussing, as Kerry said. Still no comparitive photo shots of manual/autofocus shots. [;-)]
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Kerry L. Walker |
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Kerry L. Walker |
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