I have a question about point #28 in the tips sticky...

#28 Set your f-stop deep and focus a third up the image to get good front to back focus

do most people normally use the lower middle focus point (on a 9 point system)?

That tip is to do with hyperfocal focusing Frank, and is not directly related to which focusing point on the camera that you use. Indeed for hyperfocal focusing you will manually focus anyway.

Briefly stated hyperfocal focusing is based on the fact that the depth of field of the subject focused upon extends 2/3s behind that point, and 1/3 in front of it. If you are focused at infinity, then this 2/3s zone is wasted. By manually focusing at an area closer to you than the main subject, you can effectively make more of your foreground appear in focus. This hyperfocal focusing article will explain it better than me.

I think this hyper focus thing juts clicked for me. Am I correct in stating that once you calculate the hyperfocal distance, you need to manually focus on that point?

col4bin wrote in post #2331017
I think this hyper focus thing juts clicked for me. Am I correct in stating that once you calculate the hyperfocal distance, you need to manually focus on that point?

Not necessarily, if there happens to be a useful landmark (e.g. a boulder) at that distance, then you could use your camera's focus points on that. However, manual focusing is a common way of doing it. For instance, Dimitri (dv2004) has a little DEPSSI card that lets him read off what distance to focus on given his focal length and aperture, and he then just adjusts for this distance on his lens.

rudgej wrote in post #2332668
Dimitri (dv2004) has a little DEPSSI card that lets him read off what distance to focus on given his focal length and aperture, and he then just adjusts for this distance on his lens.

Ahh! So that's how the Master does it?! Nice one, the sincerest form of flattery is imitation, so I'm going to buy one of these