Hooray the A70 has full manual control

[Don Schaeffer]

I have been using the manual mode for exposure but I have been very frustratred with the autofocus. Finally, after more than a year, I read the manual and low and behold, the A70 has full manual focus. It isn't even hard to use. What a piece of camera for the price.

--Don

[Spirit]

Isn't it though? For the quailty of pictures, features, easy use, and more importantly PRICE, in my opinion, it is THE perfect beginner camera for anyone who wants to learn more about how to use digital camera.

My first digicam was the A70. Hooray for the A70. :)

[Moppie]

The A80s better ;)


What use's have you found for the Manual focus Don?
I find the DOF so great, and the AF so accurate that I have never found a need to manauly focus.
The only time I ever put the camera in MF is when I want to lock and hold a focus for continous shots. But I let the camera AF first, then switch it to MF.


And I have to agree that the A series is by far the best beginners camera on the market, I know more than a few DSLR users use them as back ups.
Despite claims from other manufactors they are still one of the fastest compacts on the market, with fantastic shot to shot times.

The only problem is the leap from A series to DSLR is relativly small in terms of required technical knowledge, but huge in terms of cost :(

[Don Schaeffer]

You may be right Moppie. I really havent used it yet since I just got off my duff to find out. I just like manual control of the camera. I have had some disappointments with the autofocus aiming at the wrong thing. I'll give it a serious run and get back to you.

--Don

[Moppie]

I don't let the AF focus on the wrong thing, I only use single point (turn off the AiAF) and use focus assist beam. Iv gotten into the habbit of focus first with the centre rectangle, compose second.

I'll be interested to see how you get on with the MF though, Iv found the only way to make it useful is if you make sure the MF magnify is on, this magnifiys the centre section in the LCD, otherwise you really can't tell if you have accurate focus or not, and even then you have to be reasonably close anyway.
If you had the camera in a fixed position on a tripod, and wanted to focus on spefic part of a macro scene with out having to move the cameras position then the MF would be useful :)

[Don Schaeffer]

I have a magnifying hood so my eye is pinned to the LCD. Pixillation on the LCD is pretty bad--not like a ground glass. This feeling of wanting to focus is left over from SLR days. We can only see. I haven't been out with the camera today.

[Don Schaeffer]

You are right, Moppie. I can't see the sharpest focus very well unless I magnify the image with digital zoom then retract before snapping the photo. Sometimes manual focus works better than auto, sometimes not. Best use both.

--Don

[charlypp]

I have a A510 and use the manual mode a bit with the telephoto lens for stuff that it doesn't want to focus on. Usually it will focus past it. This picture was done on manual focus. The Tree is about 6 ft away and taken threw my window panes. I have a Hoodman that I use for the lcd screen with a 2x. magnify eyepiece and it works great for that manual focus.Here is a picture taken on manual focus

http://photos22.flickr.com/30142187_7eff2fa615.jpg

[Foxtail]

I use the manual focus pretty often, mostly when it comes to catch a fast moving object at a predefined point. This way, one can almost completely eliminate the delay between pressing the release and the moment when the photo is taken (all the time it would take the AF to focus).

Here's my way to get the best results:
I have set my A95 to centre-only autofocus by default (so the camera is focussing only the centre of the frame). Now I direct the camera to some object in the distance where the moving object will pass by later with AF, press the release button half way down and then the MF button as soon as the camera has focussed to my "target". This way, the A95 remembers the focus setting the AF has measured for my "placeholder object" (now in MF mode, but I don't have to focus myself).

Some examples of situations, where I have been able to capture great results of moving objects that way (that, by using AF, would already have left the frame during the delay after pressing the release button):

landing aircraft on short final at the airport: prefocus on objects directly underneath the flight path
trains driving by: focus on a mast at capture distance
birds at a birdhouse: focus on the birdhouse
sprinters at goal line: focus on the goal line or the equipment next to it
I really love the A95 for its MF functionality!

PS: Unless the object does not have too big a contrast to the environment, you can minimize the "shooting delay" even more by pressing the release half way down a few seconds before THE moment (this way, the camera also sets the lens aperture and exposure time ready). If the contrast is too high, you have to go to manual exposure (M on the mode switch).