Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]On Sat, 04 November 2000, Jim Brick wrote: > > At 09:48 AM 11/4/00 -0500, gbicket wrote: > >Morning! > > > ><snip> > > > >Now as long as we're considering the remote possibility of photographer > >error, let me jump to confess that after lots of trying with the 80mm R, I > >could never consistently put the focus plane where I wanted it. Some rolls > >would come back with hilariously misplaced planes of focus. One by one > >revealing that while there was indeed a razor sharp focus plane, and > >beaucoup bokeh, often nowhere near I intended it. I got it right between a > >third and half the time! There were even shots that turned out interesting, > >but fully unintentional in terms of what I had attempted to do. > >Compliments about the unintended focus plane in a particular photograph made > >it worse! > > > ><snip> > > > >Enjoy the light. > > > >Greg > > > > Greg's post is a great post. Everyone should read it in it's entirety. Not > just this snip. > > What Greg has outlined is exactly why AUTOFOCUS camera/lenses are useful > for only a very limited and select set of conditions. Like bright sun, ISO > 400, f/8-f/22. Weddings, flat walls with graffiti, etc. Autofocus > algorithms look for vertical or horizontal (whichever your camera maker has > provided) contrast lines. Since you, the human, who are looking at the > ground glass screen, know what it is that you want in focus, how can a > computer program written by a programmer, sitting in a cubicle somewhere, > know what you want to focus on? They cannot, the camera can't, and even you > the human, will sometimes have trouble. > > This, to me, is why autofocus is useless to the photographer-artist, > commercial/illustrative photographer, amateurs who want to control what > gets put on the film, etc. Autofocus is great for weddings, journalism, > county fairs, happy snaps, vacations, and all of the times when you can > live with where, on the subject, the focus program focuses your lens. > > Jim So, Jim, if I'm understanding you correctly, AF will reduce the influence of pilot error, resulting in uniformly mediocre results :) Doug Herr Birdman of Sacramento http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/telyt - -------------------------------------------------- Stay in touch with Northwestern and the world. Click http://www.nualumni.com to get your FREE Northwestern StartPage. Customize your own collection of the latest news, sports, stock quotes, and more. Check it out today!