Reason to choose 21-pt Af over 39-pt?

Vlad

New member
Hi all,

The more I read about the D7000 the more I see people choose 21-pt AF over 39-pt for every type of work but full auto (P&S.

Can anyone can explain in layman terms what's behind that choice?

Thanks,
Vlad
 
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Arizphotodude

Senior Member
Vlad, I know for me, the 39 focus points can be a bit much and confuse the camera when I am trying to focus on a specific item in the viewfinder. As an example, if I am taking a pic in a room, and I want to focus on a picture on the far wall, using the 39 focus points spread out across the viewfinder, the camera may focus on a lamp, or some other object instead of what I want to focus on. As a result, my target picture may or may not be in focus depending upon what F stop I am shooting at. Does that make sense? In other words, I think the 21 pts of focus narrow down the "target area" that the camera focuses on, and that is beneficial for most folks. Personally, I rarely ever use the 30 pts unless I am shooting landscape shots.
 

JoeLewisPhotography

Senior Member
Vlad, I know for me, the 39 focus points can be a bit much and confuse the camera when I am trying to focus on a specific item in the viewfinder. As an example, if I am taking a pic in a room, and I want to focus on a picture on the far wall, using the 39 focus points spread out across the viewfinder, the camera may focus on a lamp, or some other object instead of what I want to focus on. As a result, my target picture may or may not be in focus depending upon what F stop I am shooting at. Does that make sense? In other words, I think the 21 pts of focus narrow down the "target area" that the camera focuses on, and that is beneficial for most folks. Personally, I rarely ever use the 30 pts unless I am shooting landscape shots.

Umm, you know you can change that to have a single focus point that you can manually move around and focus on whatever object you want right? Just put it on Single AF area mode
 

Arizphotodude

Senior Member
Umm, you know you can change that to have a single focus point that you can manually move around and focus on whatever object you want right? Just put it on Single AF area mode

Joe, that's true, but as I'm sure you know, you can also just choose the single focus point and focus on your target, hold the focus lock button, and then recompose the shot. For me, that's easier than manually moving the focus point. Like a lot of this stuff, it all comes down to preference. Luckily, Nikon gives us options. Getting back to the original question, I know for me, I didn't like giving the camera that many options for focus. For others, the reasoning may be different.
 
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