On my new 60D: automatic AF point selection or not?

I finally upgraded from my old and beloved XSi to a 60D and I am thrilled. I am still in the process of figuring out the buttons . I am happy to figure out the new perks, but I don't really want to start at the begin. Here's one question:

On the XSi I used almost exclusively the single (center) AF point. The automatic AF point selection was very often off and in the heat of taking pictures I found it easier to focus in the middle and then recompose.

Should I change this habit with the 60D? Is the automatic AF point selection on the 60D better? What do you generally use? If you could throw in your preferred metering mode then this would be great.

drmaxx wrote in post #13621296
I finally upgraded from my old and beloved XSi to a 60D and I am thrilled. I am still in the process of figuring out the buttons . I am happy to figure out the new perks, but I don't really want to start at the begin. Here's one question:

On the XSi I used almost exclusively the single (center) AF point. The automatic AF point selection was very often off and in the heat of taking pictures I found it easier to focus in the middle and then recompose.

Should I change this habit with the 60D? Is the automatic AF point selection on the 60D better? What do you generally use? If you could throw in your preferred metering mode then this would be great.

No matter which camera you use, you should NEVER let your camera decide where to focus!

Also, I think (I could be wrong) that 60D has 9-point AF points and they are all cross-type, so, you should be able to manually use any of those points to focus (meaning, you don't always have to use the center-point and recompose).

nepali wrote in post #13621320
No matter which camera you use, you should NEVER let your camera decide where to focus!

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Also, I think (I could be wrong) that 60D has 9-point AF points and they are all cross-type, so, you should be able to manually use any of those points to focus (meaning, you don't always have to use the center-point and recompose).

I see you have the 7D
How do you focus it?

archpictures wrote in post #13621538
I see you have the 7D
How do you focus it?

Just like my advise in the previous post, I use single-point and I select my focus point manually.

Manually select the point! With the 60D's D-pad it is very easy to do.

I manually select the point I want to use.

Center point focus and back button focusing. I found that I get a lot better hit on focusing dead-on with the 60D

MakisM1 wrote in post #13622565
Center point focus and back button focusing. I found that I get a lot better hit on focusing dead-on with the 60D

+1 on this.

nepali wrote in post #13621320
No matter which camera you use, you should NEVER let your camera decide where to focus!...

I agree. I have no problem with using the outer focus points on the 50D, but I always manually select the point. Auto AF Point select rarely gets it right. It's not as much of an issue on P&S cameras due to their huge DOF, but missing your focus point on a DSLR often means an unusable image.

As far as metering mode, I use Evaluative about 95% of the time - it does a pretty good job, especially on bodies (such as the 50D - don't know about other ones) where it's biased to the selected focus point. Spot metering for the other 5% when the exposure is tricky.

Thanks for the feedback - I guess, I'll stay with my 'old' habits.

I have a 60d and for still shots I have no problem selecting the focus point to use.
I use all of them but I do not use automatic.

the automatic mode is sketchy at times, even on the nicer XXd bodies.