Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Hoey
Kind of forget that other than Joe, probably all members here are full A/F users.
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Oh, i don't know about that, Don. I use MF for landscapes from time to time and birds ocassionally, for macro quote often, and for 100% of shots with my tilt-shifter (which is MF, obviously). I'm guess that (TS/E aside) many other members here do too. One thing I often do, however is "cheat" by AFing on a point of interest somewhere off centre, then flicking the AF/MF switch to MF, compose and shoot. (I pretty much always use centre point-only AF; this method seems quicker and easier than fiddling about changing AF points, or just focusing by eye in the first place.)
The main gotcha with this method is with the 10-22mm lens. With anything longer, if you forget to turn the AF on again before you put the camera back in your bag, you see right away when you take it out again, but the DOF on the 10-22 is so large that through the viewfinder you can simply not notice that it's nowhere near focused. It's only when you look at the results on the big screen that you realise what a dumb mistake you made!
EDIT: this was one good thing about the mini-cement mixer focus motor in my old 18-55 kit lens: because it was so loud, you couldn't miss noticing that the AF motor wasn't doing anything. With these high-tech fast, quiet USM lenses, if there is a little bit of breeze or the birds are calling, you can't hear them!