51 Focus Points

[Halfmoon]

It is a marketing tool to me....

When I first heard of the no of points... I was so wow... I would love to have this too....

Actual shooting, not that useful, and the cam focus on wrong thing instead....

Tend to use centre (70%) or the left or rigth point (30%) more... At least it hit what you want in focus....

 

[Zaknafein]

I suspect this is more a "marketing" feature then something that would be really useful. How much more accurate it would be? I would think that having 51 sensor points would confuse the AF more if you have multi layers of objects in a scene you compose to shoot. Does the 51 sensor and it various configuration start searching all over the place fighting against you to over-right your preference of which object to focus on? I suspect most of us will leave it to its bare basic configuration for ease of use and speed.

well, canon 1D Mk2 has 45 points of AF sensor. and many many sports photog uses it. that should give u an idea how useful more AF points are
once chosen on an AF point (eg center AF point) and focus locked, the other AF points help to "lock on" to the subject if it moves out of the center AF point. the other AF points will probably not be active the whole time...

 

[sammy888]

well, canon 1D Mk2 has 45 points of AF sensor. and many many sports photog uses it. that should give u an idea how useful more AF points are

It will have to do alot with the fuzzy logic built-in that will decide and control how the focusing element will prioritised where to focus. Maybe it focuses on movement and then use that to concentrate it focus...maybe.

Well we can only be certain later after folks have had a chance to play around with it long enough to see if it does offer any real world advantage and also how fast it would be to change from one focusing mode to another.

There is also this possible scenario too...those sport photographer could be using a single tracking focus point too and ignore all the other sensor configuration. They bought it as it is the best camera body at that point in time, higher resolution, full frame..etc that they want and the focusing sensors was not that big an issue for them as a purchasing decision heheheh...

 

[CYRN]

for those who are critical about the 51 af pts, I wonder how many actually tried canon's famed ring-of-fire before.

but be glad the nikon have come up with it so that canon will not give us their over credited decade old technology... time to cover the whole frame with ultra sensitive af spots capable of spot metering and a reliable ecf system.

 

[xl1]

so small the area, useless, i won't use it if i have.

 

[satan_18349]

Its small, its packed closely and it sure can hit a much higher in-focus rate esp with higher fps. I will definitely use it.

 

[Henessy]

Noticed the newly announced Nikon camera has 51 focus points.

Out of curosity, what are the advantages of having so many focus points?

It will be very useful if the depth of field is too shallow for you to focus lock and recompose

 

[cantaresg]

This is true for macro shots. But how is the 51 AF points distributed? Anyway, even if you can't use focus lock, you can always do manual focusing. Most macro shooters do that anyway. 40D allows for interchangeable focusing screens anyway for more accurate manual focusing, something that D300 has yet allow, if I did not miss it.

 

[Scaglietti]

I suspect this is more a "marketing" feature then something that would be really useful. How much more accurate it would be? I would think that having 51 sensor points would confuse the AF more if you have multi layers of objects in a scene you compose to shoot. Does the 51 sensor and it various configuration start searching all over the place fighting against you to over-right your preference of which object to focus on? I suspect most of us will leave it to its bare basic configuration for ease of use and speed.

It works. I use the dynamic area mode when shooting moving subjects. It helps to track the subject. It does not automatically searches for the subject itself. You put the selected point on the subject and focus on it. If the subject moves away from the point, it uses other points to track the subject to keep it in focus. My camera only has 11-point. 51-point would be wonderful for this purpose.

Of course, if you subject is stationery, 51-point will not benefit you as much. You would use single area mode rather than the dynamic area mode. Well, it can be helpful if you've got your camera fixed on the tripod, chances are you'll have at least 1 point over the subject.

As I said, 51-point is more geared towards fast action photography.

BC

 

[magnum25]

I guess it simply boils down to what your needs are as a photogarpher, if you are into sports and wildlife then this is definitely for you. If you're into glamour and portraits then these 51 pts. can be quite annoying. But hey, you could simplt turn them off.

The bottom line is that these 51 focusing pts. add a little versatility to our photography. just my two cents.

 

[lsisaxon]

Noticed the newly announced Nikon camera has 51 focus points.

Out of curosity, what are the advantages of having so many focus points?

Subject tracking.

 

[lsisaxon]

Anyone has any idea how this will work?

I cannot imagine having to scroll around 51 points to find my preferred spot for focusing and spot metering. Also, I would imagine the viewfinder being really crowded with 51 little points + a grid!

I won't want to manually scroll through 51 AF points. I'll just let the camera do it for me.. ;p

 

[lsisaxon]

sometimes i think had technology makes simple task complicated.. focusing to me is like u should know where the object is. even a 51 focus point, i guess there will still case that camera mis-focus since no matter how, camera is not our brain.. in the end, $$ is paid for some technology that try to simulate intelligent that we just need to practise few times..

If you shoot birds in flight, it will be a welcomed feature.. ;p

 

[lsisaxon]

It is a marketing tool to me....

When I first heard of the no of points... I was so wow... I would love to have this too....

Actual shooting, not that useful, and the cam focus on wrong thing instead....

Tend to use centre (70%) or the left or rigth point (30%) more... At least it hit what you want in focus....

Because 1) you don't know how to use it, 2) yours is on a consumer body, it doesn't work as well as one on a professional body. Just as a comparison, D2X's focus tracking works much much better than D200's. That's why people are paying so much more for it. Maybe you should try those on the 1D series? ;p Personally, it took me quite a while to get used to the algorithm also. But it's useful only for fast moving subjects, so.. I guess for people like me who shoot birds in flight like only once in a blue moon, it's not quite useful to me also. ;p