Sorry, I got a bit more time to type.
I should say also that I have used the wide/tracking settings here and there since they came out some years ago, with mixed success. So I’m not Unfamiliar with them, but I’m also not overly familiar with them. In the case of this past week down at the river, I dove back in (bad metaphor there, really sorry) and tried again to see if it worked better than the old settings above. Here’s what I recall:
Wide/Tracking (with cam in AFC): It stayed out of focus in the viewfinder about 90% of the time, period. I’d snap a shot anyway, and about 25% those were actually in focus upon later review, but trying to frame them live was beyond frustrating, looking through fuzzy blur. So then I went to AFS.
Wide/Tracking (with cam in AFS): I’d change the box size and location to suit me, and track the guy out there coming at me at some sort of angle. The little green tracking boxes would sprinkle themselves about the frame, never really firmly corresponding to the subject, but then the viewfinder showed everything nice and focused. I’d say about half of those were actually in focus, maybe a little more. It was usable, but not awesome. Could well be that I’m not using the system the best way.
Single-point AFS: This is my comfort zone. This is what I know. So this is what I wind up going back to, to get the shots. The trick here is to get the box as small as you can afford to, so it hits your subject and not the trees 1.5 miles behind him, but to keep it large enough to pull that focus in relatively quickly (more pixels). Just experiment with it. The other key here is to move that box RELIGIOUSLY with the 4-way keys out back – you have the XT1, if I recall? The 2 got a joystick that I’d loooove to have, for this purpose. Meanwhile on the Xt1, go into your settings and take over the 4-way keys to instantly move your AF point. That lets you shift that AF down into the corner. A quick example:
I see this guy coming in, and I want to shoot him all the way over to the left side of the frame. The distance is changing as he comes in – I can’t leave the AF point at center / half-press / reframe, because he’d be a little out of focus by the time I did. So I stab the left and down keys to scooch that box over down there, and then just pan with him as he comes closer, zooming out slightly as he gets closer and closer. Each individual shutter press, the camera reassesses focus the split second it fires the shutter, and I’m manually taking about 2 shots a second, reframing and adjusting zoom slightly as he comes across. As long as I start off with him in focus, the entire set of 6-10 shots would come in sharp. If the camera grabbed the trees on the far shore, it generally stayed back there.
KBRX1530-P2 by
gordopuggy, on Flickr
So as I close in on each new person coming towards me, I’m adjusting that AF point allll over the place. Vertical shots, then horizontal, and more than half my shots at least do NOT have the subject in the center.
KBRX1179 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
KBRX1182 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
KBRX1200 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
KBRX1246 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
KBRX1253 by gordopuggy, on Flickr
