Auto focus for Macro

cooldood

Bird Mainiac
May 16, 2023
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I have no experience with Macro photography other than YouTube. I hear "never use auto focus" a lot. However the R5 is incredible at AF so does the old never AF for macro still apply?
 
I have no experience with Macro photography other than YouTube. I hear "never use auto focus" a lot. However the R5 is incredible at AF so does the old never AF for macro still apply?
"Never" is always wrong. AF can obviously also be used for macro. Nothing is forbidden, and, after all, excellent macros were shot long before AF even existed.
It depends on so many aspects, like size of the motive, wind, soil wet or not, motive 3 dimensional or flat etc...
Do not let the "others" decide, rely on your own experiences which you'll rather quickly acquire. I often use AF for macros, but must say I hate tripods... And , some days, exclusively manual focus.
Honestly, I let the "situation" decide whether to use AF or not.
Wish you much fun !
 
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I have no experience with Macro photography other than YouTube. I hear "never use auto focus" a lot. However the R5 is incredible at AF so does the old never AF for macro still apply?
I just took a look at your :love:bird pictures.
Im even more convinced that you'll excell at macro very soon...:)
 
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It also depends on the lens - most macro lenses that do greater than 1:1 don't even have auto focus so it does't apply. The problem comes in when you are at greater than 1:1 and the dof gets so thin that the af has difficulty or cannot properly focus on the area of interest of your subject, such as the critters eyes. I only hand hold and use manual rack focusing myself, even with my ef 100mm lens. but you have to actually play around and see what works for you. As for YouTube macro tutorials, you have to do some good filtering to get decent ones that aren't rubbish. And from my pov macro is only 1:1 or greater, so even the canon lenses that say macro but are only .5x / .5:1 are not considered true macro lenses, they fall into the close up photography category which is acceptable and legitimate, but not true macro.
 
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I did a lot of macro on insects "in the field" with the 5D4 and the EF100L IS USM Macro.
and with the "old" EF100 Macro, non-L.
Always handheld, always with AF (Servo AF), down to the MFD and 1:1.
I couldn't imagine my macro work without AF.
With the R6m2 I I haven't used the 100L yet.

Of course, if you go on static objects in studio environment and controlled light, maybe with step up rings. and higher magnification than 1:1 I'd go manual and with slider.
 
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I am just starting to play with it.
 

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