What is the difference between auto macro and manual focus

You see, times like the ones described above are when nailing the hyperfocal distance becomes very important. Focus bracketing involves focusing at several different places throughout the scene, then merging the resulting shots together in a post-processing program such as Photoshop. Fourth, you can use manual focus if there are a lot of distracting foreground elements.

I mentioned the pitfalls of autofocusing in snow, and that is a good time to use manual focus. This is a common problem when photographing portraits; you need the eye in focus, but your camera keeps targeting the nose or forehead instead. So you switch to manual focus, and quickly ensure that the eye is sharp.

But if you pre-focus on the perch, then—as soon as the bird flies in—you can fire off a few shots, and get one or two that are perfectly in focus. Most of the time, autofocus is going to be the better option. In most cases, yes, autofocus is faster than manual focus.

Macro photographers tend to use manual focus pretty regularly, especially those that shoot still subjects e. This is because macro photographers often have very precise points of focus they want to nail, plus lenses just autofocus very poorly when shooting close up.

Some landscape photographers also use manual focus most of the time, especially those that do focus stacking, or who often shoot deep scenes that require a careful hyperfocal distance focus point.

Sports photographers use autofocus almost without exception. This is because sports photography is extremely difficult to do without advanced tracking algorithms—so sports shooters tend to activate autofocus and leave it activated whenever they go out to shoot.

Your email address will not be published. Save my name and email in this browser to see the comment immediatley and edit it if needed.

If you compare Autofocus of a cheap camera and an expensive one, you may be surprised to see exactly how big the difference might be. Notice that I said might be. In most cases, high quality cameras and lenses are able to focus faster and more accurately. Our cameras are on the tripod and we have the time to carefully compose each image. What is most important for us is the fine tuning of the focus. We want the image to be as sharp as possible and focus has an important role in this.

When viewing the image on a smart phone or small computer screen you might not see a huge difference but once you begin zooming in on the image you will see how certain areas, if not the entire picture, are out of focus and soft. For wildlife photographers, or any other photographers that photograph moving subjects, a quick Autofocus is more important. Lenses will stay with you for years but camera bodies will be changed more often. Lens technology advances more slowly than camera.

How to focus manually is an entire article in itself, and one we will publish soon, but we need to briefly talk about it now for you to better understand when it should be used. Unfortunately, focusing manually is much harder on older lower-priced cameras.

Live View is very important when focusing manually. Normally you need to twist a couple rounds back and forth around the sharpest point but you should be able to easily find it. The next challenge is to know where you should focus on the image.

However, this changes if you have a subject extremely close to the lens or far away. I recommend reading this article by Cambridge in Colour to get an understanding of Hyperfocal Distance. Even though Automatic Focus has its purpose, I recommend you landscape photographers to start exploring Manual Focus. Automatic Focus has really improved during the last years and in most cases I think it does a good job. As I mentioned, you might not see a huge difference on a laptop or smartphone but if you wish to print large images that one percentage can make a big difference.

Thanks guys. This is the lens that I am now thinking of. The manual focus option would be this lens. This is the manual version of what you are thinking of.

This lens is a ten element design and quite good, but from my own personal experience, unless you use the inbuilt lens hood to keep light away from the front element, you will have low contrast pictures. It also requires the PN extension ring to allow you to do Not a great imposition, but unless you have that accessory, you will be a bit restricted in your micro photography.

By the way, that little pin in the side that you see in the picture, is a focus lock. The Micro-Nikkor in warm weather can and does move from the position you have set in almost any position, except level. Very frustrating, so that little focus locking pin is a must to have and use. It does not have that locking pin, I wish it did. Forgot to add, my information about the AF version was gleaned from the Nikon Compendium, pages I've not used that AF, but would agree it will be a better fit on modern bodies.

The lack of metering with macro gets one into doing exposure math for every shot, well worth avoiding. Oct 13, Never AF for me, my only micro lens is the Nikon 55mm 3.

My go to is a F mount no name bellows and several different enlarger lens. Oct 14, Messages: 12, Oct 26, Jan 23, I have used both manual and auto focus for macrophotography.

Both work, it is a matter of taste. Mine is the 52B model. No disappointments. I prefer manual focus and this one is manual. If you go this way, you might want to find one with the lens hood as the hoods are a little hard to find. Bill Barber. Oh, there are two models, the 52B and the 52BB.

Th B is a more solid metal construction as contrasted to the 52BB which is more plastic construction.