Low Light Focusing

[Ahh!]

You have Nikon, so I am on safe ground here: AF needs a couple of things to work:
S-ingle AF, not C.
The focus point in the middle.
Zoom lens below 200mm.
And, ya, the menu set up on the flash and the camera...

I'm now fully convered to back focus and do not have it tied to the shutter release at all. Been thru 2 many events with a shutter that wont release on command.

[lyncca]

Yep, and it is also true that it only worked in the focus points up and down the middle line. I hope that isn't true on the SB00 as well... Will test when I get home.

If anything, I am stubborn. I WILL figure something out or it will kill me. I do not believe in "work arounds"!

[Ahh!]

The" where" the focus points are is a camera restriction, not a flash issue.

[Randy Chambers]

Good job Lyncca, thanks for the perseverance figuring this out.
Thanks to all the others info as well.
I learned something here.

[lyncca]

Originally Posted by Ahh!

The" where" the focus points are is a camera restriction, not a flash issue.

Well that blows. I've never actually used the "center focus" setting before. By the time I got this camera, I was well past that.

Originally Posted by Randy Chambers

Good job Lyncca, thanks for the perseverance figuring this out.
Thanks to all the others info as well.
I learned something here.

Me too. Here I thought I knew about everything about my camera (not about photography itself). I'm really glad I know this now cause those low-light environments can kick your butt if you can't get the shots to go off.

[tukaniray]

I find that when I try to let Auto Focus do its job at night ... I always run into the no flash or no take when I click.

My way around it is ... If I can see the subject pretty well ... I switch to Manual Focus and then shoot away.

The Auto Focus brain in the Nikon's seem to lock up the ability to shoot if it thinks the shot was not able to focus. As if it knows it would be a waist to shoot the non focus system.

-ray-

[toverman]

Glad you figured it out, Lyncca.

Low-light, low-contrast situations are the most difficult situations to autofocus in, as you found out. Looks like you might have a workaround.

On my Canons, I use a button on the back to autofocus rather than the shutter button. What that means is that I can take as many underexposed, blurry photos as I want without the camera locking up. It also means I can tweak the focus manually without having to change any settings or having the camera try to refocus when I press the shutter.

[lyncca]

Originally Posted by toverman

Glad you figured it out, Lyncca.

Low-light, low-contrast situations are the most difficult situations to autofocus in, as you found out. Looks like you might have a workaround.

On my Canons, I use a button on the back to autofocus rather than the shutter button. What that means is that I can take as many underexposed, blurry photos as I want without the camera locking up. It also means I can tweak the focus manually without having to change any settings or having the camera try to refocus when I press the shutter.

That's an interesting idea too. I may try that in a "no pressure" situation.

[toverman]

I don't know how to set it up on a Nikon, but with Canon it's a custom function (varying depending on model). It does take some getting used to, but it's about the only way I autofocus anymore. Nice that with Canon USM lenses I can manually focus without changing the switch on the lens, too!

[tukaniray]

There is probably a Custom feature in the Menu to set the Fn button to do that for the Nikons.

I change the settings on my Nikon Fn button all the time for the event that I am shooting.

-Ray-

[RKEnnis]

Originally Posted by Ahh!

You have Nikon, so I am on safe ground here: AF needs a couple of things to work:
S-ingle AF, not C.
The focus point in the middle.
Zoom lens below 200mm.
And, ya, the menu set up on the flash and the camera...

I've always found it annoying that the AF assist lamp won't work in AF-C mode! I assume Nikon had what they thought were good reasons for implementing it hat way, but still...

[mgstudio99]

Just get a small LED flashlight and point it to your subject and use that light to focus with.

good idea...