Hi, I'm hoping somebody can help me with this. I have custom settings which include re-assigning auto focus to the AE-L button. I like this because I can choose where to focus for depth of field whilst having some control over which parts of a scene I want to choose for auto exposure.
It should have been obvious, but for a night sky shoot I would need to control everything which meant switching the camera from my normal user settings to 'M'. Now manual in my logic means I have control over everything and it's always the nuclear option when camera auto settings get in the way - or so I thought. With total darkness and camera on a tripod in a field, fully charged batteries fitted, all settings made and I'm ready to go.
Then I press the shutter AND NOTHING!! I recheck everything, including the wired remote and still can't take a manual settings shot whilst the other shooters in the group are snapping away merrily with their smartphones. I go back from manual to my user settings, check the focus ring is at infinity and auto exposure then gets me a shot after 2.5 seconds. For now that's all I can do. Back at home I try to figure this out: When my VR lens is switched to M/A and I select M on the camera function dial, the camera is still in Auto focus, and since it can't autofocus on a black sky and aurora, it disables the shot. When I switch the VR lens to M I have full manual control shooting a black sky.
Can somebody please enlighten me? Is full manual control only possible when a VR lens is set to M? That would seem strange because setting the camera function dial to M should override anything the lens may want to do? Or is there something in my custom setup that overrides M and keeps the camera in Auto focus mode, even this I don't understand? In future when my VR lenses are left set in M/A I just want the manual function to give my full control over settings and a shutter button that takes the shot.
It should have been obvious, but for a night sky shoot I would need to control everything which meant switching the camera from my normal user settings to 'M'. Now manual in my logic means I have control over everything and it's always the nuclear option when camera auto settings get in the way - or so I thought. With total darkness and camera on a tripod in a field, fully charged batteries fitted, all settings made and I'm ready to go.
Then I press the shutter AND NOTHING!! I recheck everything, including the wired remote and still can't take a manual settings shot whilst the other shooters in the group are snapping away merrily with their smartphones. I go back from manual to my user settings, check the focus ring is at infinity and auto exposure then gets me a shot after 2.5 seconds. For now that's all I can do. Back at home I try to figure this out: When my VR lens is switched to M/A and I select M on the camera function dial, the camera is still in Auto focus, and since it can't autofocus on a black sky and aurora, it disables the shot. When I switch the VR lens to M I have full manual control shooting a black sky.
Can somebody please enlighten me? Is full manual control only possible when a VR lens is set to M? That would seem strange because setting the camera function dial to M should override anything the lens may want to do? Or is there something in my custom setup that overrides M and keeps the camera in Auto focus mode, even this I don't understand? In future when my VR lenses are left set in M/A I just want the manual function to give my full control over settings and a shutter button that takes the shot.