Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/11/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Monday, Monday, November 23, 1998, William H. Cassing wrote: > A friend of mine, a pro photographer, once remarked that AF and AE are for > those who are really bad or really good. I'm not too sure I agree with him > totally, but he has an interesting point. There is a lot of truth to this. AF does not make a bad photographer good, but it will help someone who just can't focus well. For example the following story relates how AF can help someone who knows a little about photography and is familiar with point and shoot cameras: I was covering the Kentucky / Vanderbilt basketball game with the VP of our company who is a huge UK fan. He doesn't know much about photography. He knows a little, his dad owns a newspaper and he did shoot some photos but had to have the camera set for him. Anyway there was one player we were needing photos of. I had gotten a cred for Stephen since he is such a huge UK fan and gave him an EOS A2 and 300 4.0L. I figured he could get some good sidelines stuff. Just set the camera for him, it is AF so like a big point and shoot. I was concentrating on the game action. After the games is over Stephen hands me the camera, 30 frames or less shot. I kidded him about using so little film. After getting the film souped he had a shot of the player we were needing photos of walking off the floor, mid stride, giving a thumbs up and winking! Damn I never lived that down around the office. Me, the only photographer on staff to have covered 2 world series, a Super Bowl, the Masters, more NCAA tournament games than I can remember and out shot by an amateur. But, I still could not shoot AF. Just learned the old way and that is the way I shoot. Concentrating on the focus is second nature now and to try to remember where the focus point is in the frame is too hard, it detracts from my paying attention to the action taking place in the finder and I loose the "moment". AF is one of those things you have to play with to see if you like it and want to use it. Just be aware that on the high end AF cameras the view finder is much darker and harder to focus than the R8. The EOS stuff screams, don't know first hand about the Nikon F5, but the sonic wave or whatever they call it is supposed to be micro seconds faster than the canon, but is only on a few lenses, I think. Best regards, Harrison McClary http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto preview my book: http://www.volmania.com mailto:hmcclary@earthlink.net Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.