Auto Focus

[Bob 38]

Last night I was visiting a camera club. I had a try of Nikon which had Auto Focus & anti shake??? when I got home & looked at my Canon 400d camera with 75-300 lens, it got me wondering is it the Camera or the lens that has the auto focus.

[Jon]

is it the Camera or the lens that has the auto focus. Yes.

The Auto-focus sensor is in the camera body; in Canon cameras and some Nikons the motor that responds to signals from the body is in the lens. In some other Nikon camera, the motor is in the body and turns a drivce shaft in the lens.

[Bob 38]

Thanks Jon, if I where to buy a Canon with The Auto Focus built into the camera, which would you recommend, with the price of approx £1200.

[440roadrunner]

Thanks Jon, if I where to buy a Canon with The Auto Focus built into the camera, which would you recommend, with the price of approx £1200.

I think you're confused. Regardless of what system you buy, part of the system is in the lens and part of the system is in the body

One comment on this is manual focus lenses. Pentax bodies have "I.S." (antishake) built into the body, so you can use their antishade on just about any lens you can fit to the camera. Also, the AF system INDICATOR in their bodies works with manual lenses without the need for so called "AF confirm" focus chips. So you can manually focus and see the benefit of the focus indicator.

[neilwood32]

The best way to describe the system is that the AF sensor is within the camera in both Nikon and Canon. Canon (and modern Nikon) have the AF motor within the lens which responds to signals sent by the camera circuitry. As Jon pointed out the older Nikons has a drive within the body which drove the lens.

As for the antishake, both Canon and Nikon have decided that in lens image stabalisation is best (technically it is) and offer it on a large proportion of their curent lenses.