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Autofocus Help Needed

Kphelan

Member
This just in from the Silly Question Dept.....

I am trying to use my X100 with rear AF only. This is my standard working m.o. with dslrs. I would like the AFL-AEL button to be an AF activate switch, ie. I see a subject, place the AF rectangle on my focus point, hit the button, and focus is locked at that distance until I hit the button again. I am using the optical VF exclusively, btw.

I went through the manual and have the following settings:

AE/AF-LOCK MODE = ON/OFF SWITCH
AE/AF-LOCK BUTTON = AF LOCK ONLY

Here's my question: When is focus actually locked? My understanding is, when I first press the button, the AF rectangle turns green, focus is locked. I then shoot the picture.

Evidently this is incorrect. I went out yesterday and shot approx 75 images this way. Sunny day, ISO 200, f8, aperture preferred. Many of the shots are out of focus. So I ran a test. Apparently if I press the AFL-AEL button, so that the AF rectangle turns green, and then take a picture focus is way off. If I do the same so that the rectangle turns green and then press it again so that the rectangle turns white - focus is spot on.

Am I the last person in the world to this party? I've read the manual and cannot find any reference to visual cues when focus is locked. Am I correct that my procedure requires a double press of the AEL-AFL button?

---Kent
 

OlliL

Member
Did you activate manual focus, before using the AEL-button to focus?
Might be a dumb question and if so, I'm sorry for that.

Anyway, when you set the camera to MF, a simple click on AEL sets the focus on the subject in the rectangle.
 

Kphelan

Member
No, I am using AF-S. I prefer the cleaner finder window. Tho I will try MF and the rear button as well. Thanks OllieL.
 

OlliL

Member
Just tried it on mine.
When in AF-S I need to pre-focus via the shutter button, then keep the AEL-AFL pushed to lock focus and metering. I can then let go the shutter button and recompose.

In MF AEL-AFL only sets the focus (and locks it, even when you depress it).
 
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