Camera Labs

As a new DSLR user, and Olympus owner, I'm confused by the C-AF+MF mode.

The manual says you adjust the focus manually THEN go to Continuous AF. Would the move to C-AF not destroy your carefully adjusted manual focus?

How does one take best advantage of this mode?

Regards,

Terry

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E-620 : HLD-5 : 7-14mm : 8mm FE : 9-18mm : 12-60mm : 14-42mm : PL 25mm : 50mm Macro : 50-200mm SWD : 70-300mm : EC-14 : EC-20 : EX-25 : XZ-1
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Let's say you're using C-AF to track a bird, and the bird suddenly goes stationary. Well, sometimes, the quickets thing to do is using manual focus to nail the bird, instead of having to change from all AF points to single point.

That's me, anyhow.

I also remember reading of a guy who used an E-3 and a 50-200 SWD to shoot some American Football. Well, he tracked and he tracked during the past time, but then out of nowhere some people let out a bunch of balloons, and the AF just wouldn't understand that this VERY big punch of bright colored things weren't the motive. So he took his finger of the AEL/AFL button and focused manually, and nailed it.

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Olympus shooter and a calm voice of reason.

Thanks, nomix, those examples make sense to me because the MF adjustments come AFTER the C-AF is activated, and while you're pressing the shutter button halfway (or the AEL/AFL button). What got me confused was the (E-620) manual, which seems to imply, on p. 57, that you use MF first:


Any thoughts on these instructions?

Cheers!

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E-620 : HLD-5 : 7-14mm : 8mm FE : 9-18mm : 12-60mm : 14-42mm : PL 25mm : 50mm Macro : 50-200mm SWD : 70-300mm : EC-14 : EC-20 : EX-25 : XZ-1
Flickr photostream

It can also be used to give the camera a better starting point to start focusing from. If for instance you are using a telephoto such as the 70-300, and your lens is zoomed out to infinity but you want to shoot something that is only a couple meters away, if you manually focus the lens to approximately where you want it, the lens will have a much easier time finding focus.

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E-3!
12-60 2.8-4.0
12-60 2.8-40 [Also going]
40-150 3.5-4.5
70-300 4.0-5.6
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