Events and autofocus

[antigallican]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

I’ve always used my Leica SL manually - single point, back button focus on the joystick, shutter speed and aperture on wheels controlled manually. If you photograph events and do anything else I’d love to hear what your SL settings are and the reasoning. I’ll explain why I ask... I find following a bride and groom as they walk together a bit accident prone.  I can do it but I always manage to take some  oof pictures. I’m keen to reduce these. Thanks

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[douglas fry]

Its a good question and one I asked myself a few years ago. I realised I was getting more oof shots now than I did back in the days of my M6’s, so I ditched all my auto focus lenses and went back to manual focus lenses on my now M10, M240 and SL and the sharp picture rate has much improved. Ok so it takes a bit of getting used to again and acquiring muscle memory but I shoot a bride and groom walking up an aisle with an M10 and 35mm Summilux at f2 or occasionally a bold f1.4 and there is NO problem. 

 

Equally at at events in low light it’s really easy to shot at 0.95 on a SL, nice bright viewfinder and easy focus throw on all the manual focus lenses. Autofocus (for my work at least) was a solution to a problem that never was a problem in the first place. 

 

My my lenses are neat and compact and I can shove a couple in my pockets rather than hump a camera bag around. 

Just my view of course

[frame-it]

16 minutes ago, antigallican said:

I’ve always used my Leica SL manually - single point, back button focus on the joystick, shutter speed and aperture on wheels controlled manually. If you photograph events and do anything else I’d love to hear what your SL settings are and the reasoning. I’ll explain why I ask... I find following a bride and groom as they walk together a bit accident prone.  I can do it but I always manage to take some  oof pictures. I’m keen to reduce these. Thanks

 

[douglas fry]

You just need to practice rotating the lens barrel smoothly so that the couple remain in focus the whole way. Try photography people walking towards you in the street over and over again - doesn’t take long to get the hang of it 

[LocalHero1953]

I use AFs with face recognition (which defaults to multi point if it can't see a face) or single point and don't have a problem with getting focus with the 24-90 or 90-280 zooms. I don't do burst shooting and I use tracking only with (e.g.) dancing.

I'm puzzled why you are having problems. Are you holding the shutter button half down too long (thereby locking focus)? I hold it only for the slightest moment while it picks focus, and the AF with the zoom is fast enough for that, unless someone is rushing fast at the camera.

I have done one wedding without problems, but I use the SL for theatre and musicals (on stage at rehearsals) where there is plenty of movement in lowish light.

[jaapv]

One little known quirk: AF tracking works better with the electronic shutter.

[antigallican]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

5 hours ago, douglas fry said:

You just need to practice rotating the lens barrel smoothly so that the couple remain in focus the whole way. Try photography people walking towards you in the street over and over again - doesn’t take long to get the hang of it 

Thanks for this and your other post. I'm sure you're right - I used film slrs like this for years and I own an M9.  But you know, the modern thing people want is shallow depth of field. If I look at all the old photogs I rate they are all on f8 or f11.

[antigallican]

4 hours ago, jaapv said:

One little known quirk: AF tracking works better with the electronic shutter.

Thanks Jaap. I never knew that. I've tended to avoid the electronic shutter because it can lead to distended figures.

[Chuck Albertson]

AF face recognition works well in these situations, as Paul noted.

If you stick with back-button focusing, set up the camera so that it moves focusing from the shutter release to the joystick only. First switch the camera to MF mode, then in Setup/Customize Control, scroll to the AE/AF Lock Button, then to MF mode and select AFs or AFc as desired. That way, depressing the shutter release part way won't freeze the focus point and you can continue to focus with the joystick. The viewfinder readout will say the camera is in MF mode, but you can choose AF mode (static/dynamic/face) and AF field size (1-point/field/zone) as appropriate. It's intuitive as hell.

[antigallican]

20 hours ago, Chuck Albertson said:

AF face recognition works well in these situations, as Paul noted.

If you stick with back-button focusing, set up the camera so that it moves focusing from the shutter release to the joystick only. First switch the camera to MF mode, then in Setup/Customize Control, scroll to the AE/AF Lock Button, then to MF mode and select AFs or AFc as desired. That way, depressing the shutter release part way won't freeze the focus point and you can continue to focus with the joystick. The viewfinder readout will say the camera is in MF mode, but you can choose AF mode (static/dynamic/face) and AF field size (1-point/field/zone) as appropriate. It's intuitive as hell.

Thanks very much Chuck. I don't have focussing on the shutter release - never have had. But the rest of your post is news to me and gives me what I want - a snappy way to move to face focussing briefly then switch out again.