>I have somewhat specialized in motorsports photography, where things move
>extremely fast and focus is - for me - a constant challange and difficult
>problem. I agree with your conclusion that choosing a point, carefully
>prefocusing on that point and shooting at the right moment is a winning
>strategy. With race cars, I'll use my 300mm and 1.4X-A t/c to capture them
>from mid corner through exit. This allows me to prefocus at the nearest
>point, usually mid corner. Then I practice adjusting focus to farther away
>as I pan along with the car. It is very difficult to do correctly, and even
>harder to do consistently. Motor drive is essential to do this, as you can
>"lead" the sequence to get the framing accurate and follow through without
>extra motion. The M.18v pistol grip works well for me; with the M.15v I
>tend to rotate the whole camera the instant I press the shutter button.
>
>Adding to the difficulty is the fact that each lens has a different amount
>of focus ring rotation to change focus over the same distance. So I have to
>practice and "re-learn" how far to twist the ring with every lens.
>Fortunately, this is only needed for the longer teles; with focal lengths
>under 135mm, its just not too big a deal.
>
>Try that technique in manual focus mode with your camera and see if it
>helps. It takes a lot of practice, and I'm still not as good at as I'd like
>to be.
>
>John P
Many thanks for your advice, John . I think this photo session of a bycycle
race was an occasional happening for me, because my main themes are macro,
micro, nature and travel photography. My intention to tell this experience
was, that I had false imagery about the practical value of auto focus. And
if you have to switch the auto focus off, then you need a better viewfinder
than the most AF-bodies have.
Matthias
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