Capture NX: "Show Focus Area" ?

[pete_harlan1]

<p>"Show Focus Area" in Capture NX seems to be of little value.</p>

<p>I've just noticed with this option selected, it indicates <strong>WHICH</strong> focus pointed was selected, <strong>NOT</strong> what the camera was focusing on.<br>

This becomes obvious following a shoot where focus and recompose comes into play.</p>

<p>Just curious if anyone sees any value or use in this option?</p>

<p> </p>

[howard_owen]

<p>If you photo is obviously unfocused or focused improperly (assuming focus and recompose was not employed), then it can be useful to see whether you and the camera agreed on what the subject was supposed to be. In my case, it helped me determine that the 80-200 AF-D (3 copies) was never going to work on my D200.</p>

[tobey_bilek]

<p>No for the reason you mentioned.</p>

[steven_clark]

<p>Of course the real question is if you're going to use focus and compose do you even need multiple focus areas?</p>

[pete_harlan1]

<p>"Multiple focus areas" is a misnomer.<br>

The camera only focuses on one given point.<br>

It would just be nice for ANY software to determine what we focused on at the moment of<br>

shutter release, not the focus point selected. maybe someday. LOL</p>

[bkkstudios]

<p>The multiple focus areas, I find, are very impractical in studio settings. Because, the place you want to focus on a subject is sometimes not within the focus point area in the camera (they are in the center only, roughly, not the edges), and changing the focus point is an incredibly slow, annoying process, to click the thumbwheel this way and that, when you're trying to move really quickly.</p>

<p>Finally, not sure if you found this, but I find if I use a focus point at the extreme left or right of the available focus points, the chance of a sharp image are reduced dramatically. On the D200 I'm convinced it was a permanent bug. On the D3 I notice it occasionally. So I tend to focus only using the points clustered around the center and recompose.</p>

<p>That's a long story to say I agree with you!</p>

[pete_harlan1]

<p> Having the ability to move focus point is very valuable in some situations (i.e)<br>

Photographing a flower from a tripod when focus and recompose is NOT what you want to do.</p>

<p>I started this thread after shooting my neices's ballat recital.<br>

Using a 50mm prime, I found <em><strong>"Dynamic/Continuous" focus</strong></em> would not work from close range for obvious reasons. Shooting indoors, focusing on the eyes at f/2.8 and then recomposing for a full length shot is not the way to do it in this scenario. (LOL)<br>

Although the D3/D-300 are great cameras; I am amazed/disappointed that with todays technology, I still find myself using OLD techniques to get proper focus on close moving subjects. (i.e) Trapping.</p>