Focusing on a moving object (horse!) quickly

rich_g85

rich_g85

rich_g85

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12 Jun 2003
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Either Tonbridge or Biggin Hill
Hi all,
I have a (probably dead easy) question for you lot..

I took my Canon 300D to a cross country event yesterday and was really let down by the fact that I had the background & jump in perfect focus and the horse blurred.

How do I correct this? The 'professional guy that I was trying to impress', said that I should investigate whether my camera can do 'continuous focus'. The idea being that as soon as a moving object (ie, the horse) comes into the shot- the camera focuses straight on that instead, thus eliminating the problem.

So... can my 300D do that? If so- how?!! I've looked through the menu options and can't see anything about focusing modes. As for the manual, that doesn't really mention much- apart from manually selecting an AF point.
 
Its called AI-SERVO iirc on canon bodies. I think on the 300D its only avaialbel in the "Sport" mode. Someone else will confirm.
 
There is more to it than just focusing on the horse, thr horse itself will probably take up quite a bit of the fram so you should try and use a small aperture (higher f-stop). Something like f8 will help keep the horse totally in focus.

The focus mode you are refering to is called/named AF-C. Your 300D should have this mode burried in the options somewhere. Set it to this and you cantrack moving objects.

Job done,...

King.

PS: Slightly drunk, excuse the grammer/spelling.
 
On a Canon, it's AI-servo, and the 300D does NOT have it.
I do understand that it might be possible to enable it using a firmware hack, but it'll still never be as good as a better body.
 
This is my major problem with the 300D i have. The lack of AI-Servo is a complete pain! It's available in 'sports' mode, but what use is that :(

You're going to have to change bodies if you want it!
 
Mr_Sukebe said:
On a Canon, it's AI-servo, and the 300D does NOT have it.
I do understand that it might be possible to enable it using a firmware hack, but it'll still never be as good as a better body.
Click to expand...

IIRC its the one thing that hasn't been hacked. The 300D can do it as it does it in the "Sport" mode. Rumour has it certain button combinations can force it to activate in manual modes.
 
Matt said:
This is my major problem with the 300D i have. The lack of AI-Servo is a complete pain! It's available in 'sports' mode, but what use is that :(

You're going to have to change bodies if you want it!
Click to expand...

One reason why I chose the D70 over the 300D, that and the lack of spot metering. Both veyr useful for capturing skiiers on a white background.
 
Taken from another forum, apparently this works on a 300D

1. Achieve focus lock on a subject and then whilst keeping the shutter half depressed and the subject centered, move the lens focus ring - camera drops into AI servo and will stay there as long as the shutter is kept half depressed. (Only works with lenses that support full time manual focusing such as Canon USM and Sigma HSM lenses)

2. Achieve focus lock on a subject and whilst keeping the shutter half depressed use the lens zoom mechanism to zoom in slightly. Camera drops into AI servo and will stay there as long as the shutter is kept half depressed. Obviously only works with zoom lenses and doesn't work with parfocal lenses.

3. Achieve focus lock on a relatively close subject and then whilst keeping the subject centered, and the shutter button half depressed take a step forward. Camera drops into AI servo and will stay there as long as the shutter is kept half depressed.

All three methods take a little practice and some methods work better with some lenses than others. Fairly easy to do though.
Click to expand...
 
just out of curiosity

does any body know how to activate this mode, on a minolta dynax 7d

would be fun to play with :)
 
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