A Nikon question

[x5x3]

I was chatting to a Nikon user the other day and he said his camera (a D3 I think) had a feature to help with shooting fast moving objects whereby you could pre-focus the camera and then leave it and it would auto-take a picture as the object entered the field of view?

Does anyone know if this exists and what it is called?

[flat-planedCrank]

Not sure about automatically taking the picture - apart from some sort of remote release like they use behind football goals & above sporting events such as ice-hockey.

I'm not a Nikon user either, but pre-focusing is a technique that some photographers use for very fast moving subjects, or if you panning with objects in the way.

One very simple way is to focus and then deactivate the af via the switch on the side of the lens, but a more common method is to stop using a single button for both focusing and shutter release.

On my camera I have a rear button under my thumb to focus, and the shutter on the normal front-of-grip button. This also has the benefit of effectively giving me both one-shot af (iirc thats 'single' in Nikon language) and servo (continuous?) at all times. Just leave the camera set to servo and tap the rear button if you want to focus.

For Canon users this is normally a 'custom setting' option.


Doesn't quite answer your question but hopefully its close


Cheers.

[ian in lancs]

set any of the better Nikon's to manual focus and shutter button to only fire when in focus. Hold the button down and it will fire when it detects focus. Better way is to set on continuous auto focus and shoot whenever.

[AndWhyNot]

ian in lancs said:

set any of the better Nikon's to manual focus and shutter button to only fire when in focus. Hold the button down and it will fire when it detects focus.

Pretty much, think you can also use on AF and use the focus lock button

[x5x3]

thanks for the replies folks, do you know what the Canon equivalent is?

[ian in lancs]

what's a canon?

[RobDickinson]

x5x3 said:

thanks for the replies folks, do you know what the Canon equivalent is?

By default in single focus mode (no tracking) canon should be set to focus priority (i.e. not shoot when OOF).

So prefocus somewhere, switch to manual focus , make sure its not in focus currently, & hold the shutter down, should fire when something hits the focus point.

I havnt tried it tho.

[x5x3]

RobDickinson said:

x5x3 said:

thanks for the replies folks, do you know what the Canon equivalent is?

By default in single focus mode (no tracking) canon should be set to focus priority (i.e. not shoot when OOF).

So prefocus somewhere, switch to manual focus , make sure its not in focus currently, & hold the shutter down, should fire when something hits the focus point.

I havnt tried it tho.

thanks, this is related to my post the other day about shooting rc cars, still not quite got it right and thought I had found an easy solution - seems not though, lots of practice and a bit of luck required it seems!

[RobDickinson]

Thing is if you point at an area of track its likely going to be in focus enough, I expect this will only work in limited situations if at all.

[mybrainhurts]

ian in lancs said:

what's a canon?

Big thing that goes bang and fires balls. But you missed out an "n"....

HTH...

[GetCarter]

Are you sure you don't mean a zigview? This attaches to a DSLR and will take a photo automatically when it 'sees' movement. http://www.zigview.co.uk/

[itsnotarace]

I think OP is somewhat confused and means 3D (51 point) Focus Tracking

http://www.nikonusa.com/Learn-And-Explore/Nikon-Ca...

Occam's razor etc

[x5x3]

OP is quite confused - he knows nothing about the Nikon range! To try to help clarify though, the person I was speaking to is a full time professional photographer and he did not mention the zigview, he definitely said it was a standard feature on the Nikon.

I will try to contact him today to get some clarification on the name of the feature he was describing.

Edited by x5x3 on Monday 17th May 08:27

[itsnotarace]

Ahh right. Ok the 3D focus tracking thingy is only on the higher end bodies in the range, from D300 upwards

It works really well when you spend some time tweaking the AF-C settings. I found it gave pretty soft (OOF) results when left to it's own devices on the default settings when shooting moving subjects. Although if the subject is moving really erratically (think of a dog running and doing rapid changes of direction) then I would choose a dedicated focus area point and use the averaging over about 12 surrounding points.

[Dave^]

x5x3 said:

OP is quite confused - he knows nothing about the Nikon range! To try to help clarify though, the person I was speaking to is a full time professional photographer and he did not mention the zigview, he definitely said it was a standard feature on the Nikon.

I will try to contact him today to get some clarification on the name of the feature he was describing.

I've just been having a play with my D40 for you... I don't know if things will be the same, or if I've missed the ball on this an the following is all a load of ste and not what you're after...

In the menu, set the AE-L/AF-L button (the one next to the scroll wheel) to AF...

Then, as stated above, compose what you want, and use the AE-L/AF-L button to do the Auto Focusing, then, when you press the shutter button, it will not auto focus, nor will it take a picture until the subject is in focus...

This could be handy for racing (etc) pictures, as the camera will no longer be continuously focusing as you are panning, BUT you will only get one shot for each car, where as I prefer to get three, one as the car is approaching, one as it is 90degrees (ish) and one as it is leaving... (using continuous shooting mode).

[size13]

itsnotarace said:

Ahh right. Ok the 3D focus tracking thingy is only on the higher end bodies in the range, from D300 upwards

It works really well when you spend some time tweaking the AF-C settings. I found it gave pretty soft (OOF) results when left to it's own devices on the default settings when shooting moving subjects. Although if the subject is moving really erratically (think of a dog running and doing rapid changes of direction) then I would choose a dedicated focus area point and use the averaging over about 12 surrounding points.

The D90 has 3d tracking but I couldn't tell you how it works as I've never used it! Maybe I should go and have a play with it.

edited to add

nikon website said:

Advanced autofocus performance with versatile Multi-CAM100 11-point AF system offers fast and precise autofocus coverage across the frame. AF-area modes handle most shooting situations and include 3D-tracking AF, which lets you adjust the composition of an image after focusing on your subject.

Edited by size13 on Monday 17th May 11:11

[Simpo Two]

Pretty much all DSLRs have focus tracking (continuous AF) as an option.

The OP is talking about TRAP focus - ie when an object comes into focus, the camera fires. An entirely different thing.

The D70 had a stunt which could be set up to do this (for one shot) but I don't know about other models. The Zigview does do it - ask GetCarter.