Carsten Published on August 23, 2007
by Carstenpro

Carsten's blog

Browse posts
IpernityFox 2.1 "L10N or 'Ich kann Deutsch'"
Posted on October 11, 2009
160 comments (latest 6 weeks ago)
IpernityFox is now public
Posted on August 8, 2008
22 comments (latest 9 months ago)
Export from F-Spot to Ipernity
Posted on February 14, 2008
6 comments (latest 11 months ago)
Print Swap/Give Away
Posted on September 1st, 2007
10 comments (latest 23 months ago)
AF Points
13 comments (latest 2 years ago)
Ipernity Visits Graph
Posted on August 3rd, 2007
124 comments (latest 6 months ago)
Back
Posted on July 16, 2007
10 comments (latest 2 years ago)
Out Of Office...
Posted on July 8, 2007
8 comments (latest 2 years ago)
Grenoble » Paris
Posted on July 1st, 2007
11 comments (latest 2 years ago)

Keyword tags

graph
analysis
af points

Member tags

Thomas Stache

More information

This post is public
All rights reserved
  1. Read 1 782 times

AF Points

Thursday August 23, 2007 at 09:08PM

Well you didn't want it any other way: here's an analysis of all RAW files I shot the last 1.7 years that still exist on my hard drive.

It's based on about 15k files. A few 100s to 1000s have been deleted esp. when I took smoke pictures (the 1000s missing smoke pictures will add to the Center AF Point ;). Additionally not included are the pictures from the beginning of my experience with the 20D when I still shot JPEG only (not too long).

I didn't analyse the data for automatic or manual AF Point selection, but most of those are multiple AF Points and included in "Others". "Others" is the sum of all single AF Points and multiple ones with a count below 1% of all the points available. Considering the very low numbers of multiple active AF Points I assume that most of the time I did choose the active AF Point manually (which I do now all the time).

The "Manual" AF is from smoke shots and panoramas I suppose.

So what's the conclusion for me? Only the center AF Point (it's type and sensitivity) is important for me and I do not need to care about other AF Points my next camera might offer...

13 Comments / add your comment?

moritz™ says:
So what's the conclusion for me? Only the center AF Point (it's type and sensitivity) is important for me and I do not need to care about other AF Points my next camera might offer...

That's what I've thought, too. But it is wrong. Sure, the statistics will be more or less the same, regardless how many focus points the camera offers. But for composing shots, the more focus points the better: you can focus *after* composing the picture. Even a slight move might change the distance to the subject. However, using many focus points takes some time and to take some quick snaps, it is often better to use the center point and to recompose after focusing. On a tripod, many focus points are very useful.
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
Nils Pickertpro replies:
I am using only the center focus point now, as the automatic focus with many focus points usually does not do what I want. So I focus the subject in the center and move the camera, like in the good ol' days when you had the viewfinder with these nifty microprisms and this two-half-image-overlay-thing (in german "Schnittbildsucher").

On my EOS50e I used also the two focus points which were not in the center, but this just because it had eye control. I find it much faster and easier to focus in the center and move the camera than to select the focus point with these tiny knobs. Eye control is perfect, but AFAIK no camera has it anymore, at least no camera I can afford. And as the focus point is mostly also the point you use for exposure measurement, this does not have any weird effects...
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
Carstenpro replies:
Yes I can imagine that with eye control the other focus points are of better use. Unfortunately Canon doesn't include this feature any longer :(
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
Carstenpro replies:
I do not use the tripod very often and on the 20D only the central AF point is usuable in low light anyway. This might be better with better AF sensors, but on the 40D e.g. only the central one is a high sensitivity one (don't know how this is for Nikons).

Well and for my usual style of taking photos I have the time to compose the image... ;)
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
eckes replies:
I also use the center point most, but sometimes if doing a lot person shots i use the upper row of focus points just as a "reminder" to not center the noses. That said I dont mind so much that a D40x has only 3, but it is really sad that they are all horizontal.
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
Doomshammer says:
You definetely have too much time :-) j/k

But I think if I would do such an analysis, the result would be similar, as I usually only use center AF point too.
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
Carstenpro replies:
well it didn't extract the data by hand ;-)
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
Roberto Ballerini - travelingpro says:
I only use the central point, because I wasn't satisfied with the multiple point metering of my 350D

--
Seen in a user home page (?)
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
Ulrich says:
Ich benutze immer nur den mittleren Fokuspunkt oder fokussiere manuell, ja nach Situation.
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink / translate )
Bigoode [Degel] says:
very interesting
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink / translate )
bauvana says:
Geht mir genauso. Wegen mir braucht es keine weiteren AF Punkte mehr. Ich nutze zu 95% die Mitte, oder ab und zu mal manuell.
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink / translate )
Felix / baex says:
Thanks for counting. Must have been hard work :-)
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )
Sebastian Yepes says:
Check this out, no more Excel or hard work..

gfx_af_points.jpg

www.ipernity.com/blog/20030/29210

Thanks for the inspiration ;-)
Posted 2 years ago. ( permalink )

Add your comment

Reply to this comment

Edit your comment

Please sign in to post a comment Sign in now?


rss Latest comments – Subscribe to the feed of comments related to this post.

 

Català | Čeština nové | 中文 | Deutsch | English | Español | Esperanto | Ελληνικά | Français | Galego | Italiano | Nederlands | Português | More...