Two Questions

[guitarman]

First, I hear so much about focusing to infinity. With a 20D how do I do that and why would I want to?
Second, How can I set my 20D To focus all 9 points? I read it in the manual, but I can't get it to work.

[tim]

Focusing on infinity means the horizon will pretty much be in focus for a landscape shot. Personally I focus on what I want to be in focus, not infinity.

The 20D will focus on the closest point or points, but not all 9. If you put it in A-Dep mode it will try to include everything under the focus points in the depth of field (ie make it all in focus). To make sure it's focusing using all 9 points hit the button above and to the right of the wheel on the back of the camera, look thru the viewfinder, and make sure all 9 points have red lights on them. If they don't turn the top wheel on the camera until they are.

[guitarman]

Thank you for the response.

[d'homme]

You would use "focusing on infinity" for a shot like fireworks or as you've probably seen on this site, the moon. Its an autofocus focus thing, not a digital thing (even though my 10s focuses better in dim light than my 20d). If you leave it on autofocus for shots like those, your autofocus will probably "hunt" looking for something to focus on.

As far as the 9 AF points goes, do you want to be able to USE all the focus points, or focus WITH all points.

The top most right button, allows you to choose a single AF point or USE all nine. But if the subject(s) under the 9 points are of different distances from you, the camera's gonna choose the closest point to set the focus, in that scenario as the above poster said, its not going to focus WITH all 9 points. It'll just chose the point that is focussed on the closest subject.