I just came back from a safari in east Africa and took about 3000 pictures. I'm new to DSLRs, having only bought my D3100 about 6 weeks before the trip. The camera took some amazing photos and I was very happy with it except for one thing.
I've concluded that the only thing that autofocus is good for is birthday parties! In the bush, there was always a tree or limb closer to me than the animal I was trying to photograph and the auto focus always locked onto it. I typically ended up using manual focus which is difficult without a focus ring or something in the viewfinder except your eyeball.
See attached photo. The leopard was laying on a limb at 20 feet and the autofocus selected the limb instead of the leopard. It's subtle, but you can see that the limb is more focused than the leopard's eyes.
I tried putting the camera on "single point" autofocus, but instead of using the center point it picked some other single point which wasn't what I wanted.
I want to understand this problem and how to get around it.
Any suggestions?
I've concluded that the only thing that autofocus is good for is birthday parties! In the bush, there was always a tree or limb closer to me than the animal I was trying to photograph and the auto focus always locked onto it. I typically ended up using manual focus which is difficult without a focus ring or something in the viewfinder except your eyeball.
See attached photo. The leopard was laying on a limb at 20 feet and the autofocus selected the limb instead of the leopard. It's subtle, but you can see that the limb is more focused than the leopard's eyes.
I tried putting the camera on "single point" autofocus, but instead of using the center point it picked some other single point which wasn't what I wanted.
I want to understand this problem and how to get around it.
Any suggestions?