one shot or servo?

[stitchbug]

Do you generally use one shot or ai servo focus for photographing children/families?

[anthony11]

Early on I was admonished to use One Shot for shooting my baby, with the claim that AI Servo is only for 'predictably moving' subjects, like race cars. When I moved to AI Servo, my results improved a lot.
For older kids and adults who can hold still, maybe One Shot would be more consistently accurate. My 15mo has a way to go before he can do that, though.

[Helen Bartlett]

One shot for me all the time (even with swings and other fast moving targets). I am sure it is personal preference in many situations but I have never got on with AI servo mode.

[egordon99]

I was using one shot mode, until my little baby became a toddler. Especially with wide apertures, I found that the subject would move from the time one shot locked, and I tripped the shutter.

For "posed" shots, One Shot is fine. I have my camera setup to use the AF-ON button to start focusing when in AI Servo.

[photomom2one]

I only use One shot. I find AI Servo doesn't work well for me. I don't find the focus is consistent.

[Gatorboy]

Shooting a portrait of people standing/sitting still : One-Shot
ALL other times: AI-Servo

[NellyNero]

One-shot for me, for virtually everything. I hate AI Servo - like photomom2one I find it's very inconsistent and has ruined shots of slowly-moving things I've tried it on.

[Gatorboy]

One-shot for me, for virtually everything. I hate AI Servo - like photomom2one I find it's very inconsistent and has ruined shots of slowly-moving things I've tried it on.

Practice, practice, practice.

A huge majority of sports photographers use AI-Servo, and move the focus to the back button (*). This way they can keep the * button smashed down to track the moving subject and only have to hit the shutter button when they want to take the frame.

Also, by separating the focus to the * button, you can let off and recompose.