Autofocus

[hmphoto <hmphoto@delphi.com>]

> With patience, anticipation, 
>practice and luck you can do just fine with manual focus. Lots of mighty 
>good pictures have been made with it. That said, though, I am impressed 
>with the latest generation of autofocus from C and now N. Their AF is 
>pretty universally accepted for those applications now, and that means 
>the competition gets even tougher.

I kinda feel this is what I was talking about the other day when I said 
the TV guys were doing everything on automatic, and the still guys were 
fast becoming the same.

I mean before this superfast autofocus you had to have the ability to 
"read" a game and anticipate where the action was going to occur, the 
skill to follow the play with a long lens, the skill to keep the play in 
focus with a very short DOF, the ability to hit the exposure, and the 
ability to anticipate the action so that you got the image.

Now anyone who is able to push the exposure button can get sharp photos.  
I know you still have to be able to anticipate action and compose the 
shots, but the hard ass competetivenss of focus skill is no longer there. 
 Nor is that praying to mystical FOCUS GODS to smile on what you hope 
will be THE PHOTO from the game.  

That was one of the things you respected most about the really good 
sports shooters was "Man, could he nail that focus."  Because once you 
reach a certian level there are few things that separate the really good 
photographers from the good photographers. One of the best photographers 
I have had the pleasure of knowing, Greg Gibson of the AP in Washington, 
is one of those guys who can nail the focus with a 600 of a Football 
player jumping to intercept a pass on a dark rainy day with a 600 shot 
full frame and at full apperature.  No croping or enlarging needed.  I 
know, I was shooting next to him and working out of AP's lab.  I was 
lucky to get some decent images for my paper and he gets killer images, 
and it was raining so bad a motor of mine developed a permanat short.  
Someone like that I have the utmost respect for his skill. 

I guess to me looking at a photo of a football game or whatever shot with 
a really long lens knowing it could  and probably was auto-focus I am 
always thinking along the lines is it live or is it Memorex.

Just the out of date ideas of a purest.  I still shoot my fancy do 
everything cameras on full manual, but I do use the auto-focus. :)  

After all it is pretty darn accurate!  And my eyes are not what they used 
to be.

Harrison McClary
hmphoto@delphi.com
http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto