Africa Wild

Great images BT

I tried the back-button focusing on Saturday. Not sure if I'll convert but I will give it a few more tries; it was easier to adapt to it than I thought.

PJL wrote:Great images BT

Thanks PJL, I'm really enjoying the new lens, I'm excited about photography again!

I'm also fairly new to back button focusing and so far I'm generally pleased with the results. I think it's one of those tricks which once you get fully used to you'll never go back, but at the moment it's still like learning to ride a bike.... forgetting to pedal at important moments occasionally

I picked up the camera on Saturday evening to shoot an orange thundercloud and wondered why it didn't focus when I pressed the shutter release button. I assume I'll get used to it eventually. I haven't read up on it but I assume the exposure is taken when the shutter release is pressed?

I try too... but not easy... to change habits

BluTuna wrote:I haven't read up on it but I assume the exposure is taken when the shutter release is pressed?

That's certainly the case on my Canon... I normally use aperture-priority and so after focusing and moving the camera around, the AE automatically changes the shutter speed until the shot is taken. Of course, it can still be locked - on my camera the AE lock is handily next to the BBF button, although that might not be the same for Nikon

One advantage that I hadn't thought of until recently is that there's now no longer ever a need to switch a lens to manual focus. If an animal is well hidden behind bushes etc and it's not about to bolt, I sometimes use the live view zoomed right in on the animal and then manually focus to get it sharp. BBF means you don't have to switch to MF when you take such a pic... here's an example of a pic taken that way... auto focus had no chance.



And cropped....

Hmmm, hadn't thought of that one. I think that alone is enough to warrant the continued use of BBf.

My Nikon only has the single AF-L/AE-L button on the top right which can be reassigned to AF-ON. It looks like the D7xxx range is the same.

PJL had the problem of pushing the wrong BBL button, now have set both to BBL and removed AE Lock. Have not seen the use for AE lock????

Wow, great shot BT

I'm thinking about getting this lens for when we come over.