Manual override.

[dekeyboy]

Do you ever manually override the focus on an auto focus lens. If so why?:shrug:

 

[Phil V]

Quite often as necessary, but I also find that if the AF system is struggling, then so will I.

 

[danphillips]

Occasionally in very low light when the lens is 'hunting' it is easier to manually focus. Or if I want to make sure a person's eye is sharp for example I might flick to manual and then just slowly move the camera until they are in focus.

 

[weybourne]

As per the previous posts and also the rare occasion that I'm using a hyperfocal distance.

 

[boyfalldown]

Do you ever manually override the focus on an auto focus lens. If so why?:shrug:

very occasionally, normally if I'm shooting something that I know will confuse it. For example last weekend I shot a harpist through her strings for some shots so I overrode focus. Birdcage veils is the other common one for me.

 

[weybourne]

very occasionally, normally if I'm shooting something that I know will confuse it. For example last weekend I shot a harpist through her strings for some shots so I overrode focus. Birdcage veils is the other common one for me.

...and net curtains

 

[Nod]

...and safety fencing

 

[Carter64]

Not so much overriding AF, but I don't even turn it on when I'm doing any macro with tubes.

 

[AESamuel]

I actually prefer manual focus to auto focus so long as it isn't focus by wire and there is a suitable aid (split image focus, range finder etc.).

 

[HoppyUK]

Not so much overriding AF, but I don't even turn it on when I'm doing any macro with tubes.

Yes, mostly this ^^^ with macro.

 

[woof woof]

Do you ever manually override the focus on an auto focus lens. If so why?:shrug:

I can think of two pretty common reasons to do it... macro, and when the lens will want to focus on something that might very well not be my target like when shooting through glass or a fence.

 

[rob-nikon]

Another situation is when you try to photograph an animal through grass stems. I photographed a few pheasants in long grass this year where auto focus kept picking up the grass in front of it. I used the manual override to focus on the pheasants eye rather than let AF pick up the grass.

Another trick i use when photographing through mesh fences at wildlife parks/zoos is setting the focus limit switch on the lens to 2.5m to infinity. This stops the auto focus focus trying to pick up the fence mesh. It's most helpful when there is a second fence about 1m in front of the lens, otherwise having the lens right up against the mesh stops any problems.

 

[funky_sam]

I always use it for video, if during recording I want afew pics as well then just stop recording, let autofocus settle and take a pic, press the record and we're back to recording. This also means you can use the af to get focus right and not have to use 5x or 10x zoom but then again on a 7D autofocus is pretty much spot on all the time.