AiAf of Powershot a75 on or off?

[love811]

Hello! Am new here ... just wanted to get your opinion on whether it is better that the AiAf is turned on or off? Sometimes I feel that it is better turned off (so that the AF is centered) when I am taking pictures of just my daughter alone and turned on for group pictures? What do you think? Or do you think it is better that I turn the AiAf on all the time?

[S45_fornow...]

The concensus on that is usually to turn off the AiAF. I leave it off on my G6 almost all the time. Sometimes I turn it on for macro shots of "flat" objects (i.e. DOF isn't a priority to me) to get a quicker focus-lock.

[Don Schaeffer]

I use my camera (an A70) on manual all the time. Centering the autofocus is very important for control. I leave it off.

--Don

[sw2001]

I do a lot of macros (mostly insects) and AiAF is always off on my A75. As I got the camera, I had it on until I got to know more about the camera reading the manual - and thank god there was a function to turn it off :)

[love811]

hi everyone :) thanks for your replies ... just wonderng though, what is the AiAf good for then?

[sw2001]

I am not a pro, but my guess is, that the techies always try to find ways to make it as userfriendly as possible ( one click for everything or so), which is not always easy and not always the best solution.

[Zekevarg]

Good question! I've been thinking about the AiAF for a couple of weeks and finally decided that turning off the AiAF is best for me. I want control over where the AF locks and AiAF sometimes have another opinion of where the AF should focus on. Additionally the AiAF has 9 focus areas marked by 1-9 green rectangles, the AiAF rectangles pop up at different places for each shot and I tend to feel this takes more time for me to process compared to always having the AF spot centered.

Perhaps the AiAF is good for fast point-and-shoot, but as soon as you start experimenting and trying to improve your technique centered AF is preferred?

cheers, Zeke

[Moppie]

I have it turned off on my A80, and had it turned off on my old A40.

As everyone else said, being able to select the focus point is very important.

AiAF is there for those less concerned about selecting a focus point, and want to let the camera worry about taking the picture, they just want to press the button.