Focus and Recompose.... or Choose a Focus Point?

Hey....

What is the general consesus...

Focus and Recompose... thus risking moving off plane and having an oof image....

or...

Choose an outer focus point that lands where you desire.... and risk the fact that the sensor may not strong enough for acurate focusing... thus having an oof image..

or.... Is there some secret method that no one is sharing about.>?

I mostly use center point focus and recompose. If I'm so close (running up against minimum focus distance) or using such a big aperture that doing that could be a problem, I'll just manually focus after I've composed.

If I have the time for the shot, I use a different focus point. If it is quick, I use center focus and recompose (I also bump up the aperature a bit)

Focusing to me is something too basic to clutter, so I use only the center point--no futzing--and recompose as necessary. The only times it matters is when shooting with a very fast lens (faster than 1.8 ) at a short distance, in which case I'd be focusing manually.

Used to focus and recompose, but that was an iffy proposition because of the obvious "are you sure that that is the same distance as the subject" issues. But with the 5D Old School, I found no comfortable way to quickly choose the focus point.

With the 5D Tech II, the focus point selector is on the little thumb button, that I can get to without taking my eye off the viewfinder. And all you have to do is point it in the direction you want, rather than scrolling through the focus points, over shooting, scrolling back, over shooting again, getting the one you want, and by that time the subject has hailed a cab and gone home.

Much better implementation in the Mk II, so now my shooting has changed for the better. Much fewer missed focus shots than the recompose method.

If that had been the only upgrade, the Mark II was worth it.

Rad

Radtech1 wrote in post #8715668
Used to focus and recompose, but that was an iffy proposition because of the obvious "are you sure that that is the same distance as the subject" issues. But with the 5D Old School, I found no comfortable way to quickly choose the focus point.

With the 5D Tech II, the focus point selector is on the little thumb button, that I can get to without taking my eye off the viewfinder. And all you have to do is point it in the direction you want, rather than scrolling through the focus points, over shooting, scrolling back, over shooting again, getting the one you want, and by that time the subject has hailed a cab and gone home.

Much better implementation in the Mk II, so now my shooting has changed for the better. Much fewer missed focus shots than the recompose method.

If that had been the only upgrade, the Mark II was worth it.

Rad

I have a 5D (not MkII) and it works as you describe the MkII. The button can be pushed in any one of 8 directions to jump to the desired focus point or pushed straight in to toggle between single/multi point modes.

i select the closest focus point (easy to do on the 50D)

I choose wherever I want because the 1D2 is so strong in every area.

mike_d wrote in post #8715716
I have a 5D (not MkII) and it works as you describe the MkII. The button can be pushed in any one of 8 directions to jump to the desired focus point or pushed straight in to toggle between single/multi point modes.

You are right, it is there. I honestly don't know why I never used it like that. Perhaps slightly different ergonomics (smaller?), or, more likely, I never associated that function with that button.


:o

Moving Objects: Center Point + Crop In Post if I want it off center
Static Objects (Average to Deep DOF): Center Focus Point + Recompose
Static Objects (Shallow DOF): Off Center Focus Point

At razor-thin DOF, Focus and Recompose can yield OOF shots.

BTW, here is a comparison of focus/compose with using an off-center point, 100mm focal length, six foot subject distance, f/2.8.

This shows the visible tilt of the focal plane with focus/recompose (look at the hairline), but the focus on the right eye of the manikin is still well within the depth of field even at large enlargements.

Recomposed: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/rdkirk/39085146​78
Not recomposed: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/rdkirk/39077390​55

I try to keep things simple by shooting exclusively at F/22.



I kid. Select focus point for me - easy on the 50D.

You can "set" where the camera focuses?
Man, I gotta read that manual.

Focus point either bang on the subject and if I can't get the focus point bang on I manually focus ignoring the focus point..

I said I have a secret method, but I don't... the true answer is I use both methods depending on the situation.

On the XTi, the centre point is more accurate, so I tend to use the focus/recompose method by default. However, if the light is decent and the DOF is large, then i will use the edge points.

The other method I use is to shoot with the centre point, and then crop the photo in post to get the composition I want.