Continuous shooting and refocus...

Hello everyone,I have some problems with my D3100 set in continuous shooting mode with AF-S, while I am holding shutter button down and panning, my camera constantly tries to refocus between each shot, even if it is set to AF-S, not AF-C.This is bad, because I am sometimes shooting sports, car races, and I need that modest 3 fps, but now I get the first shot, then it hesitates.Is there an option to lock focus after I press the shutter button?

Depending on what lens your are using and at what distance you might try the Manual focus. Focus on the point you plan on shooting and then you and pan without having to worry about the focus changing.

The lens is 18-105 VR, and also tried with 35mm f1.8 G, the same thing is happening. I know D3100 is not very fast on focus, but a simple lock will do the trick.I am always 5-10 meters away, and shooting the cars passing from left to right, or vice versa.So there is no way to lock the focus?Hmmm, this is very strange, I am panning and focusing on the same point, but the camera constantly tries to refocus, so I am getting 1, sometimes 2 shots per second, and I often do not get focus at all... :suspicion:

Focus on the point you want in auto and then switch it to manual focus, that will lock your focus providing you dont move it.

Dumb question, are you using the auto-area AF or single-point AF?

Mines a D5100 so I don't know if it works exactly as the D3100 regarding focusing, but I assume it does.

Here's what my D5100 does....

In continuous mode and dial set to [M],[A], or [P]. Press to pre-focus, then fully press to take photo burst, the camera shoots without changing focus between photos.

In [Auto] the camera refocuses between each shot.

My guess is you're in auto

AF-S is the wrong AF mode to be in. You need to be in AF-C.

Difference between AF-A AF-S AF-C focus settings Nikon focus modes

AF-S is for non-moving subjects.

"AF-C (AF continuous, sometimes called continuous servo) is good use when photographing moving objects. When your camera is set to AF-C and you focus on a moving subject, for example a dog running towards you, the focus will stay on the animal so long as your shutter button is held half way down. In other words, the camera will keep re-focusing as the animal moves. That is, so long as you keep your shutter button held half way down."

Never in Auto, most of the time Aperture priority, and in some cases Manual. It is logical to use AF-C, but D3100 is not fast at all when it comes to focus, so I thought it is better to keep it in AF-S and pan left and right.I found some article about AF-C mode, even it continuously wants to find the focus, it is possible to release the shutter even if it is not entirely in focus, so I presume that is why I constantly get latency between shots, D3100 is trying to focus each shot.Still, I do not like it, often while trying to focus it gets more out of focus, so if that occurs in the moment of shutter release, the picture will be out of focus.Is this because of D3100, or it is the case with professional cameras also?

alfaholic said:

Never in Auto, most of the time Aperture priority, and in some cases Manual.

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For panning and shooting the cars, shutter priority would be better than aperture. You can set the speed to get the best background blur while making it fast enough to get the car in focus.

It has a focus lock, but you need to press the button and hold it down, it is very difficult in those conditions where you need to pan and hold the camera steady, and do all other things you usually do when shooting sports.

If you're panning you're in the wrong mode.

The settings I would start with are focus Mode AF-C and AF-Area mode set to dynamic -- Metering set to center weighted or spot. Pre-focus on the spot where the action will take place -- if the action is coming towards you a slower shutter speed is alright but if it is crossing in front of you a faster shutter is needed.

alfaholic said:

It has a focus lock, but you need to press the button and hold it down, it is very difficult in those conditions where you need to pan and hold the camera steady, and do all other things you usually do when shooting sports.

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I don't understand why you find this difficult. I have remapped my AE/AL button (on a D7000) to use for focus so I can separate focus and shutter release, and have no problem at all using it using it that way. I do a lot of bird photography, both static and in flight, and have found using AF-C and the back buton for focus to be much better than using the shutter release for both.

It just takes a little practice to get comfortable to usign you thumb on the AE/AL button and your finger on the shutter release.

I should try that, thank you.