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View Full Version : D 90 Focus Mode Question



Gasbull12
11-09-2008, 01:07 PM
Several of you may recall that I planned to purchase a D 90 and had some simple questions about accessories a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for the help on those. I am now the proud owner of a D 90 w18/105 lens. I am very pleased with both and would encourage anyone on the fence to go ahead with the purchase -- you won't be disappointed.

As this is my first SLR in many years, I've found myself more challenged by the controls than I expected. I still haven't mastered all the commonly used controls and will need to make a cheat cheet to remember thier use -- I'm 69 btw and slower than I used to be.

My question concerns the focus modes, particularly the choice between Auto-area and single point, and w/in single point, the choice of normal vs wide mode. Which will be my best default? Part of my indecision comes from reading that the fancy, marketing oriented face detection mode in live view simply focuses on the closest face it detects -- an odd choice in my view. But seeing how that works makes me wonder how Auto-area works. When it selects say, 5 points, where/how does it select the plain that it focuses on? What does the algorithm do? Without knowing that, I don't know whether to use auto as my default, or whether I'll be happier with the results I get through proper use of single point? Or might "wide zone" single point even be the best choice. The manual isn't much help to me on this. Any comments would be appreciated. (BTW my screen name comes from my interest in natural gas stocks -- a stupid name choice to use here:) )

Visual Reality
11-09-2008, 02:18 PM
Auto lets the camera attempt to select a point for you - this is almost never necessary and is slightly slower. Leave it on single point with a small point, wide may be helpful if trying to catch a fast moving subject.

Focus and recompose, or select your point with the directional pad.