If you rely on autofocus ...

[Curtis N]

... This is what can happen.

I spotted these Sandhill Cranes at a local nature preserve. They are pretty rare where I live.

As soon as I saw the pictures on my monitor, I slapped myself. The camera focused on the grass in front of them, and the cranes were blurry. There were some better shots, but no great ones. Oh, what I would give to be able to go back and shoot these with manual focus!

300D, 75-300 elcheapo Canon lens at 300mm, 1/800 sec. f/8 @ ISO 400
Cropped to about half size

[ryno4youth]

Bummer, I have been there. It can help if you make sure to select a focus point, and not use the auto select. Great looking birds however.

[jfrancho]

What do you mean, Curtis, those blades of grass in the foreground look fantastically sharp and in focus. Just Kidding. Bummer. At least you got to see them with your own two eyes.

[ssim]

That can happen even with some of the best lenses out there. I have found that on particularly hot days that the heat waves in the air will fool the autofocus. I was shooting today with the 500 f4 and when looking through the camera you could see how it was continually hunting. There were no grasslands or anything else in the way of the subject except it was a very hot and sunny day. Had to switch over to manual focus to get the job done.

Looks like it would have been a beauty of a picture.

[Ron Lacey]

... This is what can happen.

As soon as I saw the pictures on my monitor, I slapped myself. The camera focused on the grass in front of them, and the cranes were blurry. There were some better shots, but no great ones. Oh, what I would give to be able to go back and shoot these with manual focus!


With all due respect I think you're blaming a wonderful tool for your own inability to use it properly. I've been using 35mm slr's for almost thirty years, long before Minolta pioneered the first auto focus SLR, the Maxim, and having auto focus has allowed me to get shots that I never would have been able to get with my old F and A series Canons. I beleive your 300D allows you to choose from 6 auto focus points, the answer isn't manual focus but selecting and prefocussing on the correct auto focus point. Try manual focusing on a swooping bird in flight, it's difficult to the point of impossible but the practiced use of auto focus will allow you to get shots that are almost humanly impossible in manual focus.

Hope you take this in the spirit it's meant, learn, embrace and use the technolgy.

[Curtis N]

With all due respect I think you're blaming a wonderful tool for your own inability to use it properly.With all due respect, I'm not blaming the tool. I'm blaming myself for failing to understand its limitations.

I had the center AF point selected, aimed at one of the birds, locked focus, recomposed and shot. There are a few things about the posted image that may be deceiving. First, it's heavily cropped from the original and not exactly the center of the frame. Second, the birds probably moved a bit between the time I focused and the time I pulled the trigger. There probably was a piece of grass in front of the bird that I didn't notice when focusing.

The 300D has 7 AF points but I have the center AF point selected almost all the time. I have noticed that the actual areas that it uses are larger than the little squares in the viewfinder. Many times I have put the AF square on a subject with little contrast and it has instead focused on a high contrast object outside the square. I just never seem to notice when this happens until later.:mad:

AF is a wonderful tool. I wouldn't own a camera without it. But just like auto metering and auto white balance, it's important to understand how it works in order to predict when it won't.

[Blackburnian]

Hi Curtis,

What I loved most about this post was your written comments below the picture :D .

Needed a good laugh this morning!!!!

I always only use the center point for focusing. But, do get fooled at times when thinking I was focused on my subject!

At least you have a memory of what you saw. Always enjoy the outdoors even if the pics don't come out. I just love being close to wildlife and it's just an added bonus if I get to bring home a nice pic.

Marc

[WepWaWep]

I can relate, believe me. I was out shooting a Monarch butterfly I had rescued after a heavy storm this last weekend. Popped on the macro lens to get some shots of this poor guy. Did a test batch at ISO 400, they were all too shallow. So I went back out with the flash, set the ISO to 800 and was getting some okay shots. It was really windy and focus was a problem, that lens doesn't have IS like my tele does. None the less I was able to get some nice shots.

Well the sun started to come out and so did the Yellow Swallowtails. They were pretty unconcerned to my presence and I wanted to get a shot. Set the camera to 1/100 on the shutter, should get a nice DOF and at that speed with a flash it should be fine, got a square lock on them with the auto-focus and pressed the release. Okay... except for the wind. The majority are dead center, great background and... out of focus. Should have upped the shutter speed to 1/200. Maybe set the FEC up to get a little more flash... dropped the EV by a third... maybe.

A couple turned out but the best ones are, well crap. That's okay. Conditions were less than ideal and once again I've learned something about my technique.

Same story for that Wood Duck I caught in flight... next time make sure the IS is on the second setting and have the AI servo locked! LOL

I had a great time once again doing something I enjoy. Didn't waste any money on prints, just disturbed a few electrons.

[ngannet]

Yeah, that kills me when that happens!!!!! Sometimes even on the LCD the shots look pretty good but when you upload them it is disappointing. I can't tell you how many times I was pissed at myself for not doing the right thing during a fleeting moment. It is great that you got to see them, they are rarely seen around here too, so it's a real treat when one shows up. Keep going back. There has been one sighting in Absecon NJ for weeks, in a field next to a parking lot of all places. So these birds may stick around for a while, and at least are more stable than the damn nighthawks I've been trying to capture!!!!

[zacker]

i lost some great butterfly shots to! I had the center focus point dead on, i was about 3 feet away and the butterfly is a tad out of focus and the flower he's sitting on is sharp.... go figure!
-zacker-