AF Area Mode

[WayneF]

Give ye thanks to Nikon's patented 3D Tracking which maintains focus on natures perfect killing machine even as it's distance decreases from casual-viewing meters, to throat-ripping centimeters!
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I never get it though.. Seems to me the primary goal of what it has to do is to recognize the subject so it can follow it, and then continue focusing on said subject regardless of where it moves. There would be no point of recognizing which focus point had the subject, if it did not also focus. So the focusing seems a given, the recognition seems the toughie.

Reading around, 3D tracking seems to be primarily a color recognition system, continuing to recognize the subject by its color against the background. Nikon manuals say:

3D Tracking

When the shutter release button is pressed halfway, the colors in the area surrounding the focus point are stored in the camera. Consequently, 3D tracking may not produce the desired results with subjects the same color as the background or that occupy a very small area of the frame.

But that raises the question, what do the other menu choices do, and why?

 

[kluisi]

Example of 3D Tracking: Picture it -- There you are on the romantic plains of the African Serengeti! You survey a gorgeous... Nay... Ferocious man-eating tiger lounging in the mid-afternoon sunshine. You've composed your shot from a safe distance but, in so doing, have managed (however inexplicably) to *severely* piss off said ferocious, man-eating tiger which is now sprinting towards you at full speed, fangs bared for the inevitable kill. Anticipating just such circumstances, however, you have wisely selected to employ Auto-focus *with* Nikon-patented 3D-Tracking technology!

This ensures Shere Khan, even as he closes the distance between you in mere fractions of a second, changing the focal point as he does so, stays in clear focus as you snap away. Oh yes, great white hunter... Rest easy in knowing the last photos you will ever take while bound in this mortal coil will be clear and (almost) as razor-sharp as pretty kitty's glinting incisors! Give ye thanks to Nikon's patented 3D Tracking which maintains focus on natures perfect killing machine even as it's distance decreases from casual-viewing meters, to throat-ripping centimeters!

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Then, just as the tigers teeth close, the dream ends and the photographer laments the fact that (s)he did not actually get those pictures, but is still alive and realizes that (s)he should have known that it was a dream because there are no Tigers in Africa. Sorry...I couldn't resist.