tron said:Thank's both of you for sound advise and encouragement. Even without BBF the 3rd attempt was satisfactory (OK that was with 100-400 and had higher ISO due to 5.6 but anyway there were many ultra sharp 300 2.8 pictures).East Wind Photography said:Yeah thats a good point. It's a habit you need to build to use it quickly and effectively.
Part of the setting is to enable BBF (default for AF-ON) and if you want to go right to spot focus you can set the * button for that. However you also need to set the shutter button for metering lock only. It's separate from the AF-ON setting but it is required to suspend AF in mid pan or to instantly disable AF so you can manual focus while still having metering and IS on and active.
Valvebounce said:Hi tron.
Give yourself a chance on BBF, it will take a while to get used to so don't quit after a short test, also don't swap just before any important event, you will forget to focus some times until you retire your brain to BBF! ;D
Cheers, Graham.
tron said:Thanks. I will make some BBF experiments to compare results but I have used EOS cameras the classical way for many years and I will tend to think the other way. It is worth a try though (especially experimenting with the birds moving away...)East Wind Photography said:tron said:Question: Some may say that using Back Button focusing is faster. Up to now I have not tried it for birds since I do not find it practical. Only for shooting landscapes with a tripod.
Any opinions, facts, observations on that?
I set AF-on for center point and the * AE lock button to AF-on center spot. By using either button I can quickly go to regular AF mode or spot AF mode when I need to target a smaller subject.
For birds in flight and sports, back button AF is essential. For servo to work properly you need target the subject maybe a second before you shoot so AF can predict where it needs to be during the shutter fire.
Another benefit of back button AF only is that it's easier to manual focus when you need to. Just take your finger off the button.
I also set the front dof button to switch between servo and one shot and between that and the back buttons I can cover most everything. I wish the 7d2 would let you program a button for single shot silent to high speed drive mode. I guess I need to get a 1dx for that function.
Up to now BBF is perfect for shooting with tripod static distant scenes ( > 1 Km) where I do not wish the lens to try to focus every time. The temple is rumored to stay in place ;D ... and the moon rising behind it will not fly away
So for this case this is my favorite method (in conjunction with focus preset)
Two interesting articles I have found are:
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/9174241280/configuring-your-5d-mark-iii-af-for-fast-action
http://mikeatkinson.net/Tutorial-9-Photographing-Birds-in-Flight.htm
For landscape i just use one shot or manual focus using 10x live view. Though I can see the benefit of using it for this purpose. The problem comes when you have to switch your mindset between BBF and normal front button AF. Too confusing for me. I just use BBF for everything and shut off AF on the front shutter button. Always works the same no matter what subject I'm shooting.
I always try to keep my workflows as simple as possible. Change is tough but if it makes the task at hand simpler then in the long run its worth it. One would think front button AF would be simpler but it's not considering the many exceptions where you would not want the camera to AF on the shutter button.
Upvote
0