Back button autofocus, a better way to focus.

[Lost Canadian]

I've been using back button AF for about 6 months or so and I won't go back to standard AF. It's just such a great tip. Anyway, without getting long winded I just saw this video which explains it perfectly and figured I'd share. Try it out, you may really like it.

http://youtu.be/FzqQskGoURE

And this is the link to the article where I first read about it.

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2011/backbutton_af_article.shtml

 

[DiploStrat]

Trevor,

Thanks. My son in law is a huge advocate of using the back button. I guess I will have to give it a try since all of the cool kids are doing it.

N.B. The video is a very well done explanation of why this works better. Thanks for that.

 

[photoman]

I played with this a little bit on my last trip and shoot with mixed success. I see the advantages but it will take a little getting use to.

 

[4xdog]

I'll give it a try, Trevor. There are definitely some situations where this could be useful.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Thanks for sharing, I'll have to experiment with this. As a total DSLR newbie I'm open to any/all tips/tricks.

 

[anotherguy]

Back Button 4 Life! It definitely took a little time to adjust, bit once I did my keeper rate for wildlife increased substantially.

 

[pappawheely]

Best explanation I've seen. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Rallyroo]

I've used back button focus since 2001.

The only complication I have is when I ask someone to take a picture of me with my camera I have to remember to change to half-button focus for them.

 

[ywen]

con of using backbutton is if you do forget to focus prior to everyshot, there is a chance your pic will be out of focus.. say you take a bunch of pics in sequence, if the initial focus lock was poor, all pics in that sequence will be out of focus. If you tie the focus to the half-press of the shutter, you allow the camera to attempt to acquire focus prior to every shot. I went back to the traditional half-press after realizing this deficiency.

ironic that article on the canon site as canon dslr is notorious for poor focus.. all of my canon bodies randomly does front & back focusing in ways you can't predict. Shooting at sub f/1.8 you also can not tell via OVF whether focus is off. The only way to reduce occurance of oof images is to attempt to acquire focus before each shot...

 

[fourstringfletch]

Great explanation thanks!