Expanding on my last post, I’ve had some folks point out that not many photographers are using super telephotos with Memory Recall buttons. Point taken. Their question is how to speed up focus with just a normal lens. Perfect, here is a list!
- Focus limit switch. Many lenses have a focus limit switch. This switch reduces the range a lens will hunt for a subject. Generally there are two settings. ‘Full’ which means the lens will use all the range it has to focus. And ‘5m-infinity’ or something similar (infinity is show by an ‘8’ on its side). If you know your subject is further than 5 meters away, use this switch so your lens doesn’t have to focus the entire range looking for your subject.
- Lens barrel AF buttons. Similar to memory recall, some lenses have focus buttons on the barrel, offering you another place to engage autofocus. This might help you engage autofocus faster if your fingers are resting on the button.
- Use fast glass. Lenses that are 2.8 and faster are very bright and transmit a lot of light. Brighter viewfinders mean cameras can autofocus faster.
- Use ‘pro’ body. New cameras, and pro level cameras, often autofocus faster than earlier versions. New autofocus modules can operate in lower light and faster than older cameras.
- Shoot in bright light. Along the same lines, autofocus is always faster in bright conditions. Now if we could only photograph in bright conditions!
- Put focus point on high contrast scene. If you point your camera at the blue sky, and hit the autofocus, the lens with scroll back and forth looking for a focus point. Put the autofocus sensor on a high contrast image point, and the camera snaps into focus. In low light you might have to search for the best focus point.
- Choose the right autofocus pattern. My default pattern is single point, works great most of the time. But for wildlife and adventure sports shooting, I may choose Group Area autofocus. The larger surface using multiple active focus points allows me to find and focus on my subject quicker. Take a look at my earlier post on autofocus patterns for more info.
- Turn off autofocus. Yes, you heard right. Try using autofocus at night for the northern lights. Instead, I set my lens to infinity during the day, then turn off autofocus and gaffer tape the lens at infinity focus. I also occasionally prefocus for adventure sports if I know where an athlete will be for a dramatic shot.
- Memory Recall button. Check out my last blog post for more on this feature.
- Take off your teleconverter. If you need a teleconverter for the shot, then use it. But teleconverters reduce light, which in turn slows down autofocus speeds.
- Reduce your autofocus patterns. One cool feature on the D850 is you can eliminate autofocus patterns you don’t use, which makes switching to the right autofocus pattern quicker…and therefore you are autofocusing faster (rather than toggling through different modes). I limit my patterns to single point and group area autofocus, the two patterns I use the most.
- Use back button focus. I use back button focus for faster autofocus. How? Because I can eliminate recomposing after focus. With back button focus, focus on the right spot in your image, and then shoot away, recomposing every shot if you like. With shutter button focus, each shot engages autofocus, meaning you will have to go back to the right focus point for each shot, press the shutter halfway down, recompose and shoot. It’s faster using back button focus.
- Use the center sensor point for autofocus. Often the center focus point is the most sensitive sensor (cross-type sensor) in your viewfinder, and a good choice if you are in a tough autofocus situation (like low light or minimal contrast). For example, on the D850 the center point can focus down to -4EV, while the others focus down to -3EV.
- Practice. The biggest variable in autofocus speed is you! If you can quickly swing a big telephoto into position to track a flying bird, then you will get the shot. But if you miss the bird in flight, or just can’t find it through that telephoto, then all that super fast technology won’t help you. Practice makes perfect, or in this case, faster autofocus.