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How often do you use Autofocus? (1 Viewer)

J

Juniper_Jade

Active member
I'm wondering how often your average Canon bird photographer shoots in AF mode when using a DSLR (as opposed to a point-and-shoot).

50% of the time? 80% of the time? (I suspect it depends to some extent on the equipment you are using at the time? If so, please explain.)

Do you ever switch to manual focus? Under what conditions do you switch?

Does anyone prefer to shoot manual most of the time?

ALSO: How often do you use continuous (burst-mode) shutter release? And how many frames per second do you find adequate for your purposes? How many fps is optimal? Is more always better?

Please elaborate as much as you are willing.

Thank you! :)
 
AF 99% of the time. If I am after an extreme range record shot I will put my 2x Mk3 on my 800mm and am forced to use MF or live view focus, but this does give me 1600mm + 1.3 crop.

Burst mode - always (on wildlife). My burst mode is set at 6fps (slow) and 9fps (high). With practice you learn to take 1 or 2 shots at a time but you can keep your finger pressed down if something interesting is happening, if you are set in single shot then you may miss out. As to frame rates - I think 6fps + will keep almost everybody happy.
 
Af

I use AF most of the time, but you need to know when and how to use to achieve consistent results.

Iv also attached a sample of a Yellow-legged gull taken with a Canon 1D4, ef400L F5.6 & Canon's new 1.4III extender focused manually, and proof that you can take birds in flight without using AF.
 

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It seems you're a beginner in the field of photography? I'm not an expert (but I'd say I'm past the beginner stages) but I've been using DSLRs for about 5 years now, and I found that when I'm on vacation or something and have my camera with me I usually keep it on auto-focus just because it's quicker to get good shots than to keep adjusting it manually. But I have a small business where I need to take a lot of product shots and for that I almost always use manual focus so I can get the exact part of the product in focus when I'm taking the pictures. It's much easier to use manual when you have a tripod and are taking a picture of something that isn't moving. But for moving shots AF is usually easier.
 
80% on the time. I use a 600D and Canon 400mm 5.6 lens. When a bird is sitting very still especially in a dark area I lock my tripod, switch to Live View, then to manual focus, then manually focus on the eye with 10x magnification to get it critically sharp and then only shoot. This reduces vibrations to a minimum and seems to improve noise performance and metering by quite a fair bit.
 
I tend to do 90% of my focusing manually and only us AF to do the final focusing, this though is mainly down to the lenses I have, with them not too quick off the mark in focusing terms. Thus I find I can focus the lens quickier than the AF function.
I am getting the 400 f5.6 which meant to have a nice and quick AF so I may move to fully using AF but for now I am happy with the results

Tim.
 
When shooting birds, I normally have my camera set to AIServo, 6fps (or 10fps) and with the appropriate CFn set so that by pressing the button on my EF 500 F/4L, I can change to OneShot. I normally shoot from a public hide, and the above helps me to capture a bird flying into view unexpectedly - whilst, say, I'm concentrating on a grebe in the foreground.
 
For BIF I almost always use AF on 8 f/sec, but also use back button focus which I have found gives a higher success rate. For perched birds usually don't bother to take the camera off AF and still use back button. Main set up is a 1Dmk4 with a 300mm2.8+ 1.4

John
www.kellingnature.zenfolio.com
 
I would imagine that much would depend on what body and lens combination you use.I am lucky that I have some fast lenses so I use AF 99.99% of the timd although very occasionally I help the lens stop hunting by manually finding the target then use AF to fine tune.
Perhaps another consideration is how good your eyesight is and I don't trust mine.
 
For birds, I have an EF400 f5.6 mounted on a 7D body. I use AF probably 95%. Center sensor selected for stationary and slow moving subjects, selected pattern and servo mode for birds in flight.
Exceptions would include when branches or brush confuse the camera and very close subjects where the depth of field is shallower than the desired depth of focus.
 
I regularly use manual focus. If you're focusing on the animals eyes and you're viewing it sideways, the chances are that it will be off centre. Focus points aren't smart enough to know the correct part to focus on and manual adjustments can be too slow for a continually moving subject.

I still have a EOS 3 film camera with Canons Eye Focusing System. It worked great for me and the amount of times I could have used that now. Just think how good it would be now if they had stuck with it. Cameras with 50 plus focus points...you would practically just look at where you wanted it to focus and it would be done.
 
For birds I probably use AF ~80-85% of the time - leaving MF only for tricky situations (low light, branches, stationary bird waaay far away etc.). For insects and other macro stuff it's probably other way around - ~80-90% of the time it is MF (or AF at first and then fine tuning the focus manually before pressing shutter button).

I must admit that for some unknown reason I do not use burst mode at all - even for birds in flight.
 
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