One day some two years ago I got so angry with the screwed up results of the Canon autofocus (5D) that I switched almost completely to Manual Focus. Since this moment, every now and then I may switch to Autofocus - e.g. when I have a scene with lots of Movement - but in the end, I cannot image anymore doing a whole shooting with auto. Just no options, many out-of-focus material, no play with f-stop and depth of field (well, very limited, depending on the mood of the red dot ) etc.

However, I ran into a quite professional microstock shooter lately and he uses ONLY Autofucus...

...so what do you use? Speaking of Studio shooting exclusively....

99% auto.  Manual if it's macro.  Otherwise I'm trusting in set situations.

1ds3 for isolated, 5d2 for most else in studio.  1ds3 outside of studio..

Impresses the peeps ...

90% AF; in what i do manual focus just take to long...

I Switch between those two. I can usually get more accurate focus with AF, but sometimes I don't have a correctly placed AF point (happens a lot with 5D mk II) and I need to focus manually.
When I get a 5D mk III I propably use AF even more.

Generally speaking:

AF: Moving subjects / hand-held camera
MF: Non-moving subjects / camera on tripod

Quote from: lagereek on April 05, 2012, 00:28

Always manual focus, in the studio. in fact I almost always use M/F, indoors or outdoors. Pretty hard, justifying a poor AF result to a client.

You must be good at MF, I get much more good results with AF than with MF, my MF shots are almost always a little off, especially when I shoot with large apertures.

In all my cameras, even medium format, I have installed the Split-screen, nowdays adjusted to digitals, its rather expensive but, dead-accurate! and for all types of shooting, even Macro photography.

In all my cameras, even medium format, I have installed the Split-screen, nowdays adjusted to digitals, its rather expensive but, dead-accurate! and for all types of shooting, even Macro photography.

Yes, a split screen helps a bit. The problem is that it's in the center, and when shooting large apertures the focus plane isn't straight. i.e. if I focus in the center and then re-compose the image, the focus may be off.
(When I'm talking about large apertures I'm talking about apertures in the f/2 region:) )

99% auto.  Manual if it's macro.  Otherwise I'm trusting in set situations.

Same here. I paid a lot of money for the auto-focusing capability of my 1Ds3 and L glass; why would I then not use it?

It's a fact that machinery/technology is almost invariably superior, by a country-mile, to the best endeavours of a human. That's why we have them.

In studio shooting models, 100% auto focus.  I use one focus point, focus on the eyes, then recompose and shoot.  I use 5D MK II camera bodies.

The only time I use manual is macro work but I don't do that too often.

Excellent poll.  I learned something.  My closeup work is being rejected because I insist on making AF work.  It doesn't -- and my over-70 eyes have trouble with MF.

What happened to the "blue heart" or whatever it was that we used for marking posts as something valuable?

Aha... it is not about looking; it is about seeing.   

unless you're shooting my gorgeous 15wk old rhodesian ridgeback puppy.......... frankly, nothing works!! little bugger just eludes the focus zone altogether. if i'm shooting my favourite thing: non-moving non-talking stuff: manual focus. otherwise i'm in "auto" but the move-it-where I want type of "auto".

Interesting!

- AF indoor (Sony A900), but I've been trying for testing to do MF + magnification in the EVG when using the NEX-7 cause it's oooooh so good.
- MF outdoor when shooting landscapes cause they tend to not move (and not laugh at my jokes)

Agreed. Maybe my eyes aren't what they used to be, but I have a hard time getting tack sharp focus looking through the viewfinder. The one caveat is my 5D is a lot faster to focus using the center point, which you often don't want to use since the eyes are going to be elsewhere in the shot.

I always auto focus, using the center focus point, then recompose.  Never have any problem getting tack sharp images using that method with either the 5D or 5DII. 

Only problems I ever have are shooting in natural (low) light and getting a bit of camera shake. 

I like using Live View to manual focus when I've got my camera on a tripod. Really get consistent excellent results. (I have good reading glasses - got a reading prescription in the bottom of my sunglasses - highly recommend it to those over 50).
I considered getting a split screen - miss it from the days of film when I only had manual focus - but it would void the warranty. My D700 is out of warranty now though so I may look into it. Any suggestions on where to get one for a Nikon - and if the lens does the focusing rather than the camera as in the good old days, how does it work?