Looking to get into full-frame...

Rojin · 12 Sep 2011 at 16:38

Raymond Lin said:
Or bring back eye control back from the 90's, implement it with cross points focus all round.

Compose, look at your subject and shoot.

I still use that on my EOS 3

neil_g · 12 Sep 2011 at 16:46

Raymond Lin said:
Or bring back eye control back from the 90's, implement it with cross points focus all round.

Compose, look at your subject and shoot.

i couldnt think of anything worse, mind you its probably different for humans but specifically for horses i compose, focus, then watch for ears pointing the right direction or tails not swooshing etc, shoot

D.P. · 12 Sep 2011 at 17:04

Raymond Lin said:
Or bring back eye control back from the 90's, implement it with cross points focus all round.

Compose, look at your subject and shoot.

I still don't know why Canon hasn't progressed on this. It semed o work i the 90s, why not now?

Raymond Lin · 12 Sep 2011 at 17:07

Actually, I was being sarcastic, I never got mine to work 100% even after calibration. It keep missing it so I got frustrated and turned it off lol

D.P. · 12 Sep 2011 at 17:12

Tooks said:
Ok, thanks, I understand more what was being said with the links etc.

Thankfully, with my photographic subjects, using the point and recompose method isn't something I've noticed making a mess of my intended focus point, I guess my situations mean it isn't that critical. Having said that, it could have course explain why occassionally I get a shot that isn't in focus, even though I know I focused there!

I shall consider this a bit more next time I'm shooting some portraits.

There are a lot of variables, so sometimes focus and recompose works, sometimes it wont. It is clear if the DoF is very shallow then you can't afford to make small focus errors.

The effect is pretty small if the camera moves only a little so tend not to be an issue, so geting a focus point close to the intended final compositona and moving just a little is usually not a problem.

But always best to be careful. I find it very quick and natural to select and appropriate focus point, and can also tend to predict before hand a composition and a suitable focus point.

It is worth findign out which lenses you own are particualrly bad and being areful with them. It is sadly msotly the fats glass that has this problem.

D.P. · 12 Sep 2011 at 17:13

Raymond Lin said:
Actually, I was being sarcastic, I never got mine to work 100% even after calibration. It keep missing it so I got frustrated and turned it off lol

Well, I never usd but heard it work OK. I would think with modern tech it could be made a feasible option.

Raymond Lin · 12 Sep 2011 at 17:15

D.P. said:
Well, I never usd but heard it work OK. I would think with modern tech it could be made a feasible option.

It worked about half the time, and you got to have your eye dead centre and up against it for it to work.

Although it is a 15 years old tech so they should improve upon it now.

neil_g · 12 Sep 2011 at 18:39

I think i read it was dropped due to eye strain?

ThePirateHulk · 13 Sep 2011 at 00:31

D.P. said:
This is a clasic case of focus and recompose failure, wehn you need mm focusing accuracy.

But if you're doing portraits you're unlikely to be shooting wide open so the undesirable effects of focus & recompose are all but negated.

An Exception · 13 Sep 2011 at 00:35

^^^
So for portraits you close down the aperture so everything is in focus :confused:

I personally am wide Open 95% of the time...

Edit:

Maybe you don't open your aperture up for portraits because you wasn't able to focus on them properly?

Raymond Lin · 13 Sep 2011 at 00:41

ThePirateHulk said:
But if you're doing portraits you're unlikely to be shooting wide open so the undesirable effects of focus & recompose are all but negated.

In the studio, may be.

In the real world, outside. Wide open baby!

ThePirateHulk · 13 Sep 2011 at 06:11

Basically, it comes down to how shallow your DoF is going to be. If it's extremely shallow then focus and recompose IS going to throw your focus out. If you're working with a large DoF then the difference is not going to be noticable in most situations.

Basically, it's a technique that is perfectly valid and works in the vast majority of situations for me.

Trick · 13 Sep 2011 at 14:15

Interesting thread. For me the biggest problem with the 5D Mark II is the lack of focus points covering the frame, and the fact that only the centre is cross type. I do find myself focus/recomposing sometimes but I'm well aware of it's issues so I can work around it. It's not a major problem for most of the things I shoot though.

GTRacer · 13 Sep 2011 at 14:43

Focus recompose isn't that bad if you don't wildly swing it, it's more of an issue with fast, wide primes than fast teles at normal distances.