It really comes down to the photographer. I've used AF for motorsports photography, and it makes it easier, and more reliable in getting sharp shots. I know I could do it manually if I had to, but when you're a working pro, you need every shot (or as many as possible) to count. I'm not a working pro, but that'll be their modus operandi.
I rarely use the AF on my Mark IIn, mainly because my specialty area is macro photography and I obviously manually focus for that. It's nice to have great AF though. Have a look at Artie Morris' birding images - he uses AF to great effect, as do many birding photographers.
I sometimes have to laugh at these new photographers just getting a DSLR - many keep it in P mode and don't learn anything at all about the technical side of photography. As an example, a South African girl I know has just bought a nice Nikon D5000 and when I mentioned the exposure triangle to her (shutter speed/aperture/ISO), she had no idea what I was talking about. Lucky she's keen to learn. Pity she's not living in Australia, she's good looking and I'd happily give her some one on one training lessons lol.
Dave
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian Robinson
I know a prof sports photographer , he told me autofocus if often more hassle than it's worth , and he frequently uses his long fast lenses in manual mode because on many occasions the lenses hunts too much and you can loose the image before autofocus finds the focus, whereas an experienced camera jocky can get a very good focus manually in less time.
You use the depth of field to give sharp focus over a range of distances.
If you want better depth of field - for more forgiving focus - you stop down the lens a few stops.
Would I buy the lens ? .... no, I don't need a lens with that focal length range.
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