Back Button Focus

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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
Kevin H said:
I should have taken this advice:D
When out yesterday a 10 point buck comes out with in 30' time for two quick snaps and he's off needless to say there blurry forgot I had it on BBF :D
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I would tell you "I told you so " but that would not be very nice. LOL. when I pick up my wife's camera it is difficult for me to i.e. because it is not set on BBF. It is right hat muscle memory is hard to overcome which is why I saw shoot a lot for a couple of weeks before you shoot something important


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TedG954

Senior Member
Sure 'nuff. I did it too. I stepped outside to get a nice Thanksgiving photo to send the folks in the frozen tundra. I shot a 3-frame HDR. I processed the photos and produced the HDR. It just didn't look right. Darn camera. Darn lens! What's wrong now!!!

Went back out and steadied the camera on the balcony rail...... ran back in to process. #@%*&#$!!!!

This lens is supposed to sharp as a tack. Did someone sneak in and drop my camera? Yep. I'll bet that's it.

Then. BOOM! Back Button Focus.

I felt stupid and relieved at the same time. 3rd try..... perfection.

You can laugh. I did.

This was a DUH! Moment.

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Daz

Senior Member
canuck257 said:
A little perseverance for the first few outings and you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.:encouragement:
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It seems pretty intuitive straight off the bat, just needed to work out how I made the button on the grip be focus too, all good now though :D
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
Daz said:
It seems pretty intuitive straight off the bat, just needed to work out how I made the button on the grip be focus too, all good now though :D
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As I have said on many occasions. Do not start off with some shoot that is important. Go out every day and shoot something and shoot a lot so that BBF becomes second nature and you forget about focusing with the old fashioned way. I know there are people out there that go between the two focus methods but for most of us mere mortals we need to have consistency.

It is worth the effort to learn. I would not go back to the old method at all. I was setting up my D7100 for my wife to shoot and she has very small hands and her thumb just does not reach the BBF button comfortably so she has to use the shutter button. When working on the camera to finetune the lens it took me forever because I would try to focus using the BBF.
 
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Daz

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
As I have said on many occasions. Do not start off with some shoot that is important. Go out every day and shoot something and shoot a lot so that BBF becomes second nature and you forget about focusing with the old fashioned way.
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Yep ! Off out tomorrow to do some light painting and long exposures around the city so I will play with it there, tomorrow is just shooting for fun so should be all good to learn it :D
 
Danno

Danno

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
Back Button Focus is a great tool for so many photographers and is something I think everyone should try at least once. Below are a few sites that talk about the how and why of Back Button Focus.

Benefits of Using the AF-ON Button for Autofocus by Nikon USA


BACK BUTTON FOCUSING – EASIER THAN YOU THINK! by Improve Photography


Here is a good YouTube video that goes over the why and how of Back Button Focusing.


You can do a search of the forum on "Back Button Focus" or BBF and see the many threads that have been created on this subject.

Try it, You will like it.






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Thanks for sharing Don. I have tried explaining this to a friend and this helped. Good stuff

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Daz

Senior Member
Well I have done a couple shoots using this and I think I have it dialed, its a lot easier than keep changing it to manual focus when doing long exposures !!
 
Danno

Danno

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
I was just reading up on that problem and I did read that they were supposed to have fixed that problem in the D7200. I know that it does not work in the D7000 or D7100 though. Don't have a D7200 to check it in though.
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I switched mine to the BFB the day I pulled it out of the box. I looked at the menu in response to this question and you can priority to either release or focus priority. It is in the options menu under Autofocus. You can select it for AF-S or AF-C. I set AF-S to focus priority with the BFB. I had set it on Release, but I am going to try the Focus priority on AF-S for a while and see how it goes.
 
D

Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
Danno said:
I switched mine to the BFB the day I pulled it out of the box. I looked at the menu in response to this question and you can priority to either release or focus priority. It is in the options menu under Autofocus. You can select it for AF-S or AF-C. I set AF-S to focus priority with the BFB. I had set it on Release, but I am going to try the Focus priority on AF-S for a while and see how it goes.
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You really need to set it in AF-C. That way when you hold the button down it is AF-C and if you release the button it is AF-S. That is one of the best reasons for BBF


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Danno

Danno

Senior Member
I am sorry. I reread my note... I got things a bit bacwards. I set up the BFB as you described. I was trying to say they fixed the issue described in the 7000 and 7100. Sorry... sometimes I get a bit jumble I rush.

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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Danno said:
I switched mine to the BFB the day I pulled it out of the box. I looked at the menu in response to this question and you can priority to either release or focus priority. It is in the options menu under Autofocus. You can select it for AF-S or AF-C. I set AF-S to focus priority with the BFB. I had set it on Release, but I am going to try the Focus priority on AF-S for a while and see how it goes.
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That would be good,have you actually tried it yet,the option was always there to set it but the camera ignored it in BBF.
 
Danno

Danno

Senior Member
I










I have been trying it. I have had some pretty good success with it. I have taken a bunch of photos were I focused using the BBF and locked in the focus and than recomposed the shot and took the picture. I like that and the focus has been sharp. Last night I took some outdoor shots downtown and I had a little trouble getting the shot. I wanted to recompose a shot of my two friends in front of the Court House but I could not get the focus to lock in unless it was on my friends. I think it was more the conditions than the settings but I am still fiddleing with it. I cannot discount that for me it was very late and I was not the sharpest knife in the drawer at that point. I get flustered easily when I get tired.

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