Jaye |
Manual Focus SLR's vs AE Focus SLR's From my fellow photographer's experiences... Which SLR, manual or AE, gave you the best quality results? I have become fascinated with my manual forcus cameras, and haven't used my AE SLRs much of late. I have a Canon A-1, and a Nikon FG.
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John A. Lind |
Jaye, "AF" is commonly used to describe "auto focus" and "AE" is commonly used to describe "auto exposure" which are two different things. From your question, I'm concluding you are asking about "AF" versus manual focus. The advantage of manual focus: The disadvantage of manual focus: Now for an opinion from a "control freak:" If you have a vision of exactly what you want in the photograph, use manual control. I can think of a number of practical situations in which manual control is the appropriate method. One in particular is an exacting depth of field. Controlling exact placement of the critical focus distance for exact positioning of the near and far depth of field limits. If you are willing to accept what the camera designer(s) decided is "correct" relinquish control to the camera. For those that might argue high actions situations demand auto-focus, I would remind them that somehow camera focusing was managed by photographers for decades without auto-focus systems. It's a "convenience" if it provides the desired results but *not* a necessity. Depending on specific camera design, AF systems can have difficulty operating correctly in low light and with slow lenses. -- John
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Mark |
Great answer John. All one needs to review are the several HUNDRED postings on the DPREVIEW.COM forum from Nikon 5700 owners complaining about: 1) Slow Autofocus 2) Poor autofocus - in both low light and low contrast situations 3) Inability to take action shots in AF mode All kinds of workarounds are possible of course, each with it's own problems: 1) purchasing a really expensive flash like the Nikon SB80DX with an autofocus illuminator that kinda works sometimes if you can determine the conditions as specified in the firmware. 2) purchasing a special laser pointer with "faces" to provide enough detail on the subject to provide the necessary contrast (warning: your clients may think you are shooting at them !) Warning#2: you may need 3 hands, one to hold the camera, one on the shutter, and one to hold the laser pointer. Is this getting crazy or what ?
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