IS AUTO FOCUS OVERATED???

This is my first forum post!!! I recently bought some Carl Zeiss lens and have found manual focus with a eg-S screen on a 5D2 to be more effective (in most cases) than using auto focus. I have MA corrected my lens. Whats your feeling on this???

Try shooting sports with a long zoom using MF with your lens wide open. It can be done, but it takes a lot of skill.

If you are shooting landscapes with a wide angle lens and small aperture you definitely don't need AF.

I wouldn't say AF is overrated - it's a tool like any other and has its place. Sometimes it is the right tool and sometimes not. As Bob said, modern AF is faster than a person can manually focus so for fast action it is definitely the way to go, but for macro and landscapes, where you usually have time to make sure the focus is where you want it, manual focus (I usually do it with Liveview) can give the best results.

its not

Glad you are a Carl Zeiss fan... Overrated? Not really. If you shoot still subjects and have all the times in the world to compose the shots, AF really isn't necessary. When you have to focus in low light or shooting moving subjects, you are better off with AF.

AF and MF both have their place.

Call me lazy but I like AF (even with the eg-s screen)

To me, they serve different purpose. In controlled environment, I have no hesitation to shoot Zeiss for Portrait....

Oh cool ... another IS thread!

iresq wrote in post #13709480
AF and MF both have their place.

Give me a DSLR body with a bright viewfinder, an excellent screen and I'd do manual focus almost all the time. Just like I did when I started out in photography. Back then it was manual only and I cannot recall any focusing problems.

Musicmacd wrote in post #13709394
This is my first forum post!!! I recently bought some Carl Zeiss lens and have found manual focus with a eg-S screen on a 5D2 to be more effective (in most cases) than using auto focus. I have MA corrected my lens. Whats your feeling on this???

Are you aware of the history of Canon SLR's and 35mm cameras?

In the 1980's, Canon had a series of cameras based on a state-of-the-art system, the FD mount. FD cameras, such as the AE-1 Program, were among the best in the business, and they used manual focus lenses that were some of the most effective on the market.

But Canon's technical and commercial advantage disappeared when Minolta came out with their A-mount series of cameras in the mid 1980's. The Minolta Maxxum offered a new autofocus system and a series of autofocus lenses to work with that camera. Minolta autofocus cameras offered something that Canon could not match. It turned out that photographers preferred the convenience of autofocus to the process of manual focus lenses, and Minolta moved to the top of the industry.

At first, Canon offered a few kludged autofocus FD lenses. Then the company gave up on the manual focus FD system, and in 1987 Canon released an all-new series of autofocus cameras, the EF-mount EOS series. Photographers complained they were being abandoned by Canon when the EF cameras were released. Then they saw the cameras' autofocus capabilities, decided they liked autofocus more than manual focus, and made the switch.

If autofocus was "overrated," then the Minolta Maxxum would have failed, and Canon would not have been pressured into developing the EF-mount. Canon would have joined Nikon in using the same lens mount for 40 years, and most of the lenses currently produced would have never been developed. Instead, only a tiny fraction of EF-mount lenses in use today are manual focus lenses, presumably because the customers want it that way.

These are the lessons taught by history.

AF is definitely not over rated underwater! It is usually your best friend when trying to track little critters with a macro lens.

Just a point, but its my understanding that modern AF lenses are made with AF in mind, and as such tend to have a slightly less fine control over focusing manually as opposed to traditional manual focusing lenses (such as the Carl Zeiss lenses which are made purely for manual focusing).

After looking at family photos from 20 years ago, AF is essential since most of the pictures are not properly focussed.

Hehe! I've seen some action shots with a Leica M9! It does take skill!

lol. nope.