Why I use single point focus

grandpaw

Senior Member
This is a good example of why I use single point focus. This bird is among a lot marsh grass and using single point focus allows me to lock on to the birds eye and not the blades of grass in front of my subject, preventing my subject from being out of focus. Single point focus lets me pinpoint exactly what will be sharp in my image and eliminate the camera from grabbing focus on the blades of grass in front of my subject.

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Texas

Senior Member
Looks good, perfect choice for the picture shown.

I mostly use 'group' since it fast and so far smart enough.
Even though I'm not sure exactly what criteria it uses...
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Looks good, perfect choice for the picture shown.

I mostly use 'group' since it fast and so far smart enough.
Even though I'm not sure exactly what criteria it uses...
I use Group AF a lot too and it took me a while to figure out how it works exactly.

What I like about Group AF: It uses all five-focus-points simultaneously to achieve focus lock (sweet!), it automatically employs a degree of focus-tracking (sweet!) and, when in AF-S mode, Group AF also employs facial-recognition and attempts to focus on the eye of the nearest person (sweet!). In my experience no other focus-mode snaps to and maintains a solid focus-lock like Group AF. In low light situations where other modes struggle, or fail entirely, Group AF will grab and cement a focus-lock without hesitation.

To better explain how it does what it does, think of the whole group of five focus-points you see in the viewfinder as one, humongous focus-point. I say that because Group AF will always attempt to focus on the nearest bit within the group of focus-points without giving preference to any particular focus-point (because it's acting like a really big single point). That's a subtle, but important, difference.

With Group AF the criteria for where to lock focus is, "What's closest?" Closest Bit = Bit Most in Focus.
 

Daniel Aegerter

Senior Member
I have the D500 set up for single point AF with the AF-ON button and group AF when pushing the joystick.
Love group AF for moving subjects (tracking as mentioned by horoscope fish) but sometimes, the closest bit shouldn’t be in focus, then I can switch to single point AF.
That’s one of the reasons I love the D500 so much.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Single point most of the time, group sometimes against a clear sky, all points when ime chasing swallows in flight :D

I much prefer single point but ime not good enough to catch these on it.

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Roy1961

Senior Member
Contributor
I have the D500 set up for single point AF with the AF-ON button and group AF when pushing the joystick.
Love group AF for moving subjects (tracking as mentioned by horoscope fish) but sometimes, the closest bit shouldn’t be in focus, then I can switch to single point AF.
That’s one of the reasons I love the D500 so much.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

similar, single point is AF-ON and group is FN1 at the front of the camera, my thumb and 4th fingers do all the work.
 

Daniel Aegerter

Senior Member
How did you do that? I’d like to try it on my D850. Can’t figure it out...

You can do that with custom controls.
There you can define what each button does and which af mode to utilize.
I think that there was a YouTube video explaining very detailed how to do that (quite possibly from Steve Perry) but can’t find it right now.


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