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Autofocus


Csacwp

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My photographic journey is leading me towards photojournalism in humanitarian situations and warzones. I’ve only used manual focus lenses up until now, mainly on the M but also on the SL. I travel with 35mm and 90mm M lenses, and am now considering getting the 90mm SL (and the 35mm when it is finally released).

 

I have never used autofocus before, nor have I tried any of the native SL lenses. I am confused about autofocus... does one have to continually select different autofocus points in the viewfinder? Or can one keep the point in the middle and focus with it only to recompose like one would do on an M? What are the merits of autofocus vs using smaller, manual focus lenses?

Edited by Csacwp
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Like you I went through the learning curve especially on capturing fast moving subjects through longer focal length lenses. From my own experience, there are no fixed rules. It is very much down to your preference and camera AF capability limitations. Generally, avoid over dependence and high expectation on AF. For contrast detection AF in SL, low light & back lighting tend to confuse the AF easily. You question about return back to center position on focusing window. I tend to prefer that myself but it has it’s drawbacks. Can be annoying when you’re taking portrait shots. So I tried facial recognition instead and was pleasantly surprised by it’s performance. But again it has limitations when there are too many faces in the background.

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Following works for me, I leave AF point in the middle activate AF on my main subject recompose whilst holding shutter button and shoot.

I found this method very quick for handheld photography.

Photographing with camera mounted on tripod I use joystick to AF on main subject.

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