manual vs. auto

[Leonid1111]

A very shameless question, sorry:
What are the differences and advantages (disadvantages) of AF compared to manual lenses?
Leonid1111

[David Wild]

The biggest advantage is that you can forget about focussing, most of the time, and concentrate on the subject matter.

The biggest disadvanteg is that it can be fooled when their is insufficient light, or there is insufficient contrast in the subject.

[mwinog2777]

There's no advantage to a manual lens. You can always over-ride the auto, and do it in manual.

On the modern Canons auto is sharper than manual; computer is better than eye. Situations which fool it are same which will confuse the eye.

[hmhm]

Back when I was a shameless measurebator, shooting portraits of auto-focus test targets, I tried to test myself against the (regretfully imperfect) auto-focus system of my 10D. I fretted over my 10D's tendency to back-focus slightly, but then discovered that it was still way more accurate than I was.

The only situations where I can win is in very low light where the 10D will fail to AF completely, whereas I'm able to focus manually, albeit very inaccurately. This situation isn't very common for me.

Admittedly, the 10D has a tiny viewfinder compared to a 35mm full-frame, and none of the rangefinder-like focusing "aids" that old pre-AF SLRs used to have in the viewfinder, so it doesn't really do its best to make manual focusing effective. I guess they figure AF aids would be distracting in the viewfinder, and that most people wouldn't use them any way (or else they're just pinching pennies on the design).

I think manual focus is particularly useful when it's a nuisance to keep placing the AF points on the right place, e.g. for tripod-mounted macro work.
-harry

[PacAce]

leonid1111 wrote:
A very shameless question, sorry:
What are the differences and advantages (disadvantages) of AF compared to manual lenses?
Leonid1111


If you do any kind of action or sports photography, the AF lens is indispensable. I remember when my workhorse camera was the Canon A1 with a manual focus lens. A friend of mine who rides horses competitively invited me to one of her gymkhana events so that I could take pictures of competing in several of the races, one of them being the barrel race. I had a difficult time trying to keep up with the horse and rider in full gallop let alone trying to focus the lens to get a good shot. I ended just focusing at one particular spot and then waiting until the horse and rider got to that spot where I could then take a picture. Needless to say, after a couple of rolls of shooting this way, the pictures were pretty much boring because they all "looked" the same.

That's when I decided to upgrade to the Canon Elan IIe with it's autofocusing capability. What a big difference. I no longer had to worry about trying to keep the rider and horse in focus and I could concentrate on the "action". With the Elan in AI Servo mode, it took care of all the focusing for me. The pictures came out a LOT better and were much for interesting to view. And, yes, they were pretty much in focus, too! :)

[Canuck]

Hi!
I have found that I don't like AF, it is just easier for me to play with all the settings on the fly. I can prove I have had enormous success shooting exclusively manual with aircraft, people and landscape shots. I was at Heathrow Int'l Airport shooting the waning moments of Concorde and was using the other aircraft coming in prior to that to get an idea what I would need for settings, look at it and go from there. Other than the Concorde pics, an Aer Lingis (Irish) plane pic comes to mind. In July, I also took pics of the B-2 taking off, again completely manual and have been told that all the aforementioned pics are awesome. I generally decline comment on my work and let the pics do the talking. Another point, the B-2 was an easy shot as it is hard to mess up. I'm saying you're taking a pic of a plane that is black to start with. The cool bit comes in when you look to see which one it is. This one was very legibly "Spirit of Florida". Now to make it even more amazing, it was taken on 35mm film and a cheap Sigma 70-300 that I have since sold, and replaced with an EX one. Now, the replacement truely rocks! It amazes me to no end what a difference a lens can make! I've rambled enough...

Cheers,
Canuck

[defordphoto]

And on the other side of the spectrum I shot manual for many years....Many years and I love the AF on my 10D. It lets me work on the srtictic side of things rather than deal with the technical aspects. And yes, you can get artsy applying manual settings, I just prefer using the AF.

Like I always have said, it's so nice to have all these choices with these cameras. They really let us all stretch our artistic wings and fly.