During my trip, I encountered situations where relying on autofocus would have surely resulted in lost shots...a lot of lost shots . This is OK, for example, when you're trying to take candid snapshots at a party. It's nice to capture great candids, but that's kind of the nature of the shot - luck of the draw.
On the third day of my vacation, I went on a morning whale watch trip with the Pacific Whale Foundation (I was lucky enough to have booked my trip during whale season in HI). I was determined to go home with some great shots of humpback whales (being from Pennsylvania, this is not something I get to see every day). Using the long end of my 55-300mm lens, I immediately realized AF wasn't going to cut it as soon as the whales started surfacing. There was a lady next to me who couldn't hack it either - even with her $4000+ Canon 300mm L lens. The narrow DOF, even at smaller apertures, is already a large obstacle to work with. Factor in the movement of the boat, high ISO (to increase speed), and the fact that you're still going to have to do some cropping even at 300mmm, and you quickly realize that you really have to nail the focus to end up with a quality photo. Essentially, you have to act as your own servo mode while spotting and tracking through the viewfinder.
OK, so maybe it really wasn't as difficult as I am making it out to be, but the point is still the same: learn how to master manual focus on your camera. Not only will it help you capture better photos, it also opens you up to a whole new world of extremely low price, extremely high quality lenses from the old pre-AF film era. You'll be able to sell your overpriced Pentax DA* or Canon L glass in exchange for some Super Taks and Series_1s (real Vivitar - not the Sakar garbage from NJ) and save a couple thousand dollars all because you know how to use MF. You'll probably save enough for a vacation to Hawaii...
As always, you can check out some of my photos on the Flickr stream.
Mahalo, 30West
No comments:
Post a Comment