What focusing technique/style do you use? (Please Participate!)

[carrbowl]

well...didn't know that button was called that??? learn something new every day!!

[humminboid]

Whatever's best.

Center autofocus 95%+ of the time, manual for critical stuff like macro; set it at min. focus, and move the body back and forth till focus is achieved. Be sure you have enough DOF for your subject. LOVE that focus indicator in the viewfinder!

We do tend to make things more complicated than they need to be!

[venchka]

I have tried both: In and Out. In seems to work best. Most folks agree. I'm sticking to In Focus.

[Jaycee]

I usually keep my D300 on 21 focus points to keep focus pretty quick. I am a strong believer in back-button AF focusing because it's helped me so much with birds and wildlife. I went into the menu and turned off all focusing from the shutter so only the back AF button controls. I also keep the lever on the front of the camera on C for continuous shooting all the time. This lets me track birds as long as I keep the focus point on the bird and my thumb on the AF button. And if I want the equivalent of S for single-shot, I just focus and lift my thumb off the back button to freeze focus. I use the center AF point only. I had to adjust to all this at first but it's really improved my percentage of usable shots. The AF button freezes focus better than the shutter button ever did for me, which allows me to focus and recompose without losing focus, and I'm tracking movement much better now.

[bgpro611]

I've been using the AF button for a few weeks now and find it to be a better way to focus (for me anyhow). It works great following the kids around!

[toverman]

I have the center focus point selected on all my camera bodies, using it to autofocus (using the "*" button) and recompose the shot. That way, if I want to make adjustments with manual focus (all my lenses are Canon USM) then I can without pushing anything else.

With macro shooting, I go manual focus all the way.

[cooltouch]

I find myself agreeing with the folks who point out there's more than one way to focus, depending upon situation, and that there's no poll selection for choosing both AF and MF since one might (like me) use both a modern AF camera, and old stuff.

Further, I have an adapter for my Canon DSLR, which allows me to mount my manual-focus Nikkors on it, so I do quite a bit of mf photography with my Canon, and not all of it "Live View" either. Although, with that squinty little viewfinder my camera has, Live View does make mf easier.

Best,
Michael