Focus points

[Janice]

Why would you use all autofocus points?

I only ever use the centre one. Surely if you used all of them.. then bits and pieces at the sides of your frame will steal the focus??

 

[Hacker]

I often thought that but I have started to use it recently on subjects that stand out from their surroundings (in my case a horse in a field) and it does work quite well, particularly with moving subjects.

 

[Venomator]

Logically the single point is best for, say specific subjects especially where you need to assure focus on the eye ... ... but, for instance on landscapes where there is no specific (single) subject it might be better to use maximum focal points - this will generally give you nearest point of focus and you can then use this with your chosen aperture to try and make the most of the hyperfocal distance and produce the "in focus near and far" type image (there are other ways of achieving this of course !) ... :shrug: ... it would also be logical to use all focus points if you have many subjects such as a flock of birds that are constantly moving to ensure your subjects are in focus - combined with appropriate use of DoF of course ...


Just my take on it ... I am sure there are more technical reasons for using it that I probably couldn't explain as well as others ...

 

[Joe T]

Surely if you want to place a subject on a third, and thus focus on that, a diffferent focus point might be useful? If you only use the centre focus point all your subjects are likely to be centred in the frame?

I use the bottom one for motorsport and quitoe often some of the others for other sports I shoot. For wildlife I want the focus to be on the eye, which is often not in the centre of the frame.

Or have I misunderstood your question?