Minolta Dynax\Maxxum 7: 9 focus points or 1 ?

[carsten]

Before I bought the 7, I believed it had 9 focus points, measured

them all, and calculated an average of some sort.

 

Now, with the camera in hand, it appears the camera selects which

ONE of the nine focus points it will use - and only the ONE (which

glows red in the viewfinder). Kind of like a 4WD without

differential locks - effectively a ONE wheel drive.

 

Have I read something incorrectly?

 

BTW Thankyou to those who recommended B&H - great, cheap deal on the

7

[unohuu]

Carsten, you select the focus point that is most important in terms of the metering using the toggling switch on the back of the camera. it really is an amazing tool once you learn the controls.

[michael_hohner]

The 7 has nine focus points. In wide area AF mode it selects one of these nine during autofocus and then focuses with that one focus point. Using the average of all nine focus points makes no sense. It may lead to a focus position that is out of focus WRT all focus points.

<p>

In signel sensor focus mode it's the photographer who makes the selection manually.

[matt hedgecoe]

The 7 has 2 focusing modes: wide focus area and local focus area. Selection between the two is made by the outer ring on the control wheel located just to the right of the rear display LCD. Rotate it so the pointer is at the rectangle symbol for wide area and rotate so the pointer is at the 9 blocks for local area.

 

In wide are, the camera will automatically choose which of the 9 focus sensors to use and usually gets it right. There are occasions when it does not focus in the right place and this is when the local focus area mode is useful. Flick the switch the other way and the inner ring of the control wheel unlocks and becomes a thumb operated joystick. You can then use it to manually select which sensor you want to use.

[carsten]

OK. I can see it does select the ONE, hopefully most appropriate, focus point.

 

I think I'll spend a lot of time switching to Manual Focus and focussing myself.

 

Thankyou for all the responses

[jamesdak]

You can also make your selection and then move the switch to lock and keep whichever sensor you've selected as the active one