I'm beginning to understand that the overall autofocus system can be controlled as follows:
First, you set the Focus Mode, which is controlled by the focus-mode selector on the front of the camera that can be set to "S" for Single-servo AF, "C" for Continuous-servo AF, or "M" for Manual.
Second, you set the AF-Area Mode, which is controlled by the AF-Area mode selector on the back of the camera that can be set Single-point AF, Dynamic-area AF, or Auto-area Af.
Third, for Dynamic-area AF the number of focus points can be selected to be 9 points, 21 points, 51 points, or 51 points with 3D-tracking. The number of focus points is selected for the "a3: Dynamic AF Area" setting (page 269 of the manual) of the Custom Settings. There are the following custom settings sets possible:
a:Autofocus
b:Metering/Exposure
c:Timers/AE Lock
d:Shooting/Display
e:Bracketing/Flash
f:Controls
Each of the above custom setting sets has places for a range of settings: for example a:Autofocus has ten palces, a1–a10, with a1 being AF-C Priority Selection, which sets the behaviour of the shutter for Continuous-servo AF in terms giving the shutter focus or exposure priority; a2 does the same for AF-S Priority Selection; a3 selects the number of focus points; and so on for other focus setting through a10.
All of these custom settings a: through f: can be saved in one of four Custom Setting Banks (page 266 of manual), which are named "A" though "D", but which can be renamed by the user. Different combinations of settings can in each of the banks, allowing the user to switch instantly from one combination of settings for a particular type of photography to another by selecting the appropriate bank from the bank menu.
Obviously, this Custom Setting Bank system allows great flexibility in setting up and using the camera for various types of shooting. However, my understanding is that if one needs to change the Focus Mode settings from S to C and to change AF-Area Mode from, say, Single-point AF to Dynamic-area AF one has to change the relevant selectors on the front and back of the camera, as well as possibly changing the default Custom Bank, say from A to B, if one is also changing, say from 9 focus points to 51 focus points with 3D-tracking. It seems to me that having to change two selectors, one on the front and the other on the back of the camera, as well as changing a menu item from Custom Bank A to Custom Bank B could become rather cumbersome, just to change the autofocus setup to be used. Am I correct on this?
Assuming I have understood correctly how the autofocus system can be set up for the various combinations I still have no idea which settings are best to use for various type of photography: as Hogan says in his D300 review, one needs to do a lot of testing to figure out how to use the various combination of autofocus settings in the most practical and effective way, I suppose that his hefty eBook has a lot of the information I need, but I cannot wait four weeks for delivery of the CD, since this is the only way he sell the eBook. As I'm in Windhoek on business I don't have time to test this before I go off on ten days vacation in game parks next week. Therefore, it would be most helpful if someone could indicate what are the best settings for the four types of situations defined in my posting #5 above.
—Mitch/Windhoek
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10268776@N00/