Focus assist?

[katie h.]

Forgive me if this is a beginniner question, but I was wondering if

anyone uses their camera's low light focus assist at weddings. I

have a n80 and a sb80dx and the focus assist projects this tacky

glowing red pattern on everything. Is there a time/place during a

wedding that this would be useful? Will the pattern be noticable to

the people that I am taking pictures of? Do different cameras use

different methods of low light focus assist? Or, Should I just

keep it turned off and focus manually like I do now (I get good

results most of the time, but I'd like better)?

[pavelp]

Does not it automatically switch off when the shutter fires? I use focus assist pattern with my Minolta AF system and the pattern never showed in the pictures. I do not know what Nikon does, but there is no real reason for lens to keep focusing once the button goes down.

[johnmarkpainter]

You might consider using it at a Reception MAYBE, but I don't like it on ever....it makes

people tense up in anticipation of the Photo.

 

If you are shooting every person as they walk up the Aisle, that might be ok.

 

jmp

[bruce_rubenstein]

I find that the red AF assist lights don't draw much attention to themselves, and most people don't notice it. On a camera with quick AF, the light only has to be on for less than a second. The white ones, on the other hand, make it very difficult to take a true candid. Depending on the type of picture you want, this can be good or bad. It's like having a camera that say's, "Hey, I want to take your picture!"

 

So far as the N80 goes, in real low light the AF gets very ify unless the center AF sensor is used with an AF assist light.

[al_kaplan1]

You wouldn't have this problem if you use a manual focus camera and learn to zone focus, or better yet get a rangefinder camera like a Leica M or one of its copies. You can focus them in next to no light.

[bruce_rubenstein]

... and if you came from shooting Nikon you can start by unlearing how to focus, because the Leica lenses focus backwards from Nikon lenses. (The aperture rings rotate in the opposite direction too.) When you're done with that, if your right handed, you can learn to play the violin left handed.

 

 

We all know that Leica is the universal solution to all things photographic, because no one uses anything else.

[anton frid photography]

Katie

 

my focus assistant is always on. I actually use it a lot and so far i havent heard any complains. MY S2Pro does have a switch for turning it off, but i choose not to :)

 

It comes up in the low light situation of lets say, bride getting ready....taxi ride to the church....I always have my flesh on during the asle walk up, first dance...and so on. Again...nobody will mind as long as they know you take great photo's :)

 

may your light be always on :)

 

Anton Frid

[al_kaplan1]

Bruce, Pentax and Nikon lenses turn the "right" way. Canon, Minolta, Konica, Fuji, Olympus, Zeiss Jena, Meyer Optik, Schneider, Angenieux, Novoflex, Kern, Astro and just about everybody else that made or makes lenses makes them turn the "wrong" way just like Leica.

[bruce_rubenstein]

I have invested 25 years, using MF Pentax and Nikon cameras, in making my fingers rotate the focus ring without having to think about it. I will no longer use 3rd party lenses that do not focus in the same direction as OEM lenses. It took months to get used to opposite directions that Pentax and Nikon rotate to mount and dismount. I also like my fixed lens Minolta and Canon rangefiners, but rangefinders make more problems for me than they solve.