Scott,
The autofocus setting was the first thing I changed on my E-1. In fact, I had
made up my mind to do so before I even got my hands on the camera. Before I
bought, I downloaded the manual from the Oly website, and upon reading
"Normally, the camera measures the distance to the subject using the 3 AF
frames in the viewfinder and selects the most appropriate point," my immediate
response was, "Bulls**t! I'm in charge here and I'll be the one deciding
what's the most appropriate point."
So, before I took even the first shot, I set the autofocus to the center frame
only, and that's where it's going to stay. And this is even more fitting now
that I've changed to the Katz Eye screen, which doesn't have all those little
rectangles, just a split prism with a microprism collar, a lot like what I see
in the viewfinder of an OM.
And, of course, being in control at all times requires that simultaneous AF and
MF modes be set so the human in charge has the authority to occasionally fine
tune the auto focus, whether it needs it or not, as a reminder to the little
man in the camera about who's really the boss of this outfit. You don't want
him getting too uppity. :-)
Walt
--
"Anything more than 500 yards from
the car just isn't photogenic." --
Edward Weston
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "Scott Gomez" <scott@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[snip]
> First, the autofocus is making me nuts. It's not at all clear to me how
> one tells just what the hell it's focusing *on*. From the manual, it
> appears that there are three "focus zones" outlined in the viewfinder,
> any one of which is selected by the E-1 as the focusing point. There's a
> little viewfinder doohickey that even shows you which of the three
> targets was used (I've updated to firmware version 1.4; I believe that
> the feature was added in firmware ver. 1.3). However, depending on the
> scene being photographed, the zone encompassed by any one of the
> focus-outlines can be a target-rich environment. Just how does one know
> where the actual focus is, with any reliability? What are the pitfalls
> of forcing the camera to use only one focusing zone (as it appears is
> possible to accomplish through settings)? Having *never* extensively
> used a camera having autofocus, I'm finding this quite frustrating.
[snip]
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