Back button focus: You'll NEVER go back!
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Back-button focus means pressing your shutter button no longer automatically autofocuses your camera. Instead, you control it with the AF-On button. It provides the best of manual focus, AF-S, and AF-C, without having to change modes on your camera.
With newer mirrorless cameras, such as the Sony a7 III, a7R III, and a9, you can program separate buttons for standard autofocus and eye AF. That's perfect for portraits and sports, where sometimes you want to rapidly switch between those focusing modes.
With many DSLRs, such as the Nikon D500, D850, Canon 5DS-R, 5D Mk IV, and 7D Mk II, you can program one AF-On button to do a single autofocus point, and a second button (such as AEL) to focus with all autofocus points. That's perfect for shooting wildlife, where sometimes you need to pick out a single subject from a cluttered background, and other times you want the camera to track a flying bird against a clear sky using all the camera's autofocus points.
Buy STUNNING DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY: Our store (sdp.io/store) or Amazon (help.tc/s)
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SETTING UP BACK-BUTTON FOCUS: sdp.io/tutorial. Find the tutorial for your camera, then check the description of that video for a link directly to back-button focus.
Best explanation of back button focus I’ve ever seen. T- 5,944 and counting...
I set my camera's to back-button focus to shoot some sporting event's, only regret is I should have done it years ago. Thank's Tony.
I like the fact that other people have no idea how to use your camera once you set this up. Amusing.
Yeah it's sad, but back-button focus also combines continuous focus and single shot focus. You have the best of both worlds and half-shutter presses also effects the VR/IS of lenses. So pretty much imperative to shoot with back-button focus and it's what I have been doing for 20 years now starting with the Nikon F5 and D1 in 1999 lol.
Hahaha I was just gonna say that!
@@patricksmith2553 and Patrick I assume you are a still photographer and you don't shoot video right.
Question: what telephoto lens would you suggest for a canon Rebel series DSLR that cam keep every thing in complete focus and have a power zoom. Does anyone make such a lens for DSLR's?
@@HoundDogMech I don't shoot with Canon gear anymore, except when I work for a specific company that provides Canon gear. I own Nikon gear and use that 80% of the time, but I don't know what you're talking about. There is no such thing as a lens that keeps "everything" in focus unless it's a wide angle shot at f16 or something. As far as a power zoom, those are only available for high-end video lenses mainly used for broadcast. Canon makes a few of those lenses like the Cine 50-1000mm lens and so does Fujinon, etc. However those lenses are extremely expensive and you wouldn't ever buy one to use on a Rebel. Maybe you can clarify your question?
@@patricksmith2553 and there you have it I bought a Canon Rebel T5i do do video because I saw the great video a buddy was making of Model air planes. But when I couldn't keep them in focus I went back and realized he never zoomed ... so I wasted a little over a grand with all the accessories and turned around and bought a Canon XA-30 Video camera, When zoomed to and focused at Infinity them placed in manual focus every thing is in focus at any zoom right down to 15' ... Why ? Video Cameras Have PARFOCUL lenses. anyway I just do it for fun not trying to make the next gone with the wind epic or even a commercial. Just Toy R/C model Airplane videos for You Tube.
Thanks for your comment.
Fact, Tony and Chelsea get 13 cents for each person using back button focus.
R Wils “shills! They’re paid by mr.Backbutton III”
I knew it!
Yes, from Backbuttonautofocus Inc. ..
they should get TWO DOLLARS!!!!!!!
Now that's funny
Back Button Focusing is a great way to get that perfect focus in our shots. Very comprehensively explained. Using Back Button Focus on my Rebel T6 improved my shots to a great extent.Thanks a lot, Sir.
Back button focus has been a game changer for me over the years.This video is probably one of the best ones I’ve seen showing how it functions. Great video Tony and Chelsea.
Useful info, I need to give that a try.
I have been shooting like this for a couple of years now and i wouldn't go back, but it does take some getring used to and you may want to give up initially but give it some time. Once you get it naturally it'll be hard to go back
same here
Only been shooting with a quality camera for a year, but as soon as I saw your video on back button focusing and switched I was sold. Much more control of the shooting process IMO. Now both my cameras a6500 and a7iii are set up that way.
I keep the focus on the shutter button and just use AF lock button as intended. Lol but whatever gets the job done for you personally may be different.
Always Late Productions Get with the program dude 😂
back button focusing for 700D canon
Always Late Productions I was doing the same but it’s more complicated that way since you have to keep the button pressed, with af-on you can let go and the camera will maintain focus and your finger will be free
Program another button for AF-ON. I do front button focusing.
Personally, I used back button focusing for really long time but lately I switched back AF-ON button to stop focus function. I found that focusing with AF-ON kinda annoyed me and forced me to grip the camera with thumb hovering or lightly pressing on AF-ON button which resulted in pinching the camera awkwardly. Also, I found that on 7D and 50D, moving focus point with joystick and focusing with AF-ON resulted in thumb boogie while my index finger was just chilling. Focusing with half pressed shutter button and moving focusing point with thumb is way more natural for my fingers.
Now, these are just thoughts from boring dad with big camera, so no hard feelings you hard core pros around the comment section. Also, when need be I do switch focusing back to AF-ON, I just find it is not pleasant for occasional shooting. For me it has its time and place to use it.
Cheers!
Same here, I use a 6D Mk2 with battery grip and Tamron 150-600mm G2, it feels easier to use the button as focus-stop with a very heavy camera, hard to explain.
**door bell rings**
Me: hello?
Tony: Hey, i'm Tony Northrup and I'd like to tell you abou-
Me: No thank you **tries to close door**
Tony: **sticks foot in door** back button focus, a technique that changed my photography
Me: ...
Tony: ...
Jude K ...our lord and savior, thumb activated salvation, the father(shutter), the son(AF), and the holy decoupling of the two, do you have a minute?
This is the best explanation on all the focusing practicality. THANK YOU, TONY!
Really well put together video here!! Exudes generosity! Thank you for the illustrations, examples, explanations. Honestly it feels like you guys really put a lot I effort into this and just wanted to say the result is so so great. Much appreciated as I think we can all always keep learning when it comes to photography.
I am trying to implement this in my photography. Definitely seeing some benefits, but it's hard to undo a few decades of muscle memory using the shutter release to focus...and recompose.
I tried BBF with some legacy lenses and it's not working. j/k
For me, I like BBF better, but I don't see much of a difference since I'm a slow shooter. I focus, recompose and shoot, usually one at a time. I rarely focus once then shoot multiple times. If you are using f/1.4 for closeup portrait, focus once and shoot multiple times is risky. A slight movement will cause the eye to be out of focus. I usually don't just hold the shutter button and spray and hope that I get a good picture out of 100. I rather get a couple good ones of out 5. With a moving subject, using AF-C with multi-shots makes sense.
As long as one is aware that "re-composing" changes the plane of focus, especially when you' re close, and the pic may be soft. Composing first and using the joystick to pick the focus point is technically better, though not as fast.
yep, I just set up my shot and then select which af point I'll use then take the shot
Hi, can you tell me what re-close means?
@@sadbravesfan I think SOOC meant "when you are close". It's a little more risky doing a focus re-compose when you are really close to the subject in-focus and at a shallow DOF. You still get a lot of usable shots. Constant practice helps.
@@femiaboludestudios4731 thank you for your reply. That makes sense if I understand what you're saying in that if you are very close, then you can really change the distance from your subject when you re-comp compared to say if you are far away then a re-comp wouldn't change the distance that much.
Having Eye and Face detection AF helps in that case, no?
Hi Tony and Chelsea, thank you very much for your tremendous effort to teach photography to everyone with clarity and rigor. I did program the single back button of my Nikon D5300 in AF-ON mode. Something which might be stressed is that doing so, it actually disconnects the auto-exposition function (AE) from the auto-focus function which are normally linked together when both attached to the half-way pressed front shutter button.
The net result is that when you focus (with the rear button) and recompose : as you press the front shutter button to shoot the picture, you also set the exposition to the recomposed picture light (in particular if you are in single point exposition mode) and you lose the right exposition of your initial focus point (if this point is the one you wish to expose properly, of course). This case often arises to me and I have to (i) focus with the rear button (ii) expose by maintaining the front shutter button half-way pressed and then (iii) recompose and shoot (taking care to let the shutter half-pressed during recomposing...which requires some practice !
Maybe the above could be an opportunity for another Tony & Chelsea video !
Kind regards
My try at BBF was a fail on my Sony A7S III. It may be a quirk in their software. I will try again but I cannot loose more shots on 'location' because I am fiddling with focus.
I love BBF on my Nikons, for the reasons you cite. I use it on my Sony A73 too but there is a slight cost, because on the newer Sony's AFS and AFC are not the same. AFC is phase detection, whereas AFS is phase detection followed by a tweak of contrast detection. I can't say how much benefit the CDAF tweak provides. CDAF is known to be slower but more accurate than PDAF, but we might be splitting hairs. Thanks for the tip on assigning the 3 buttons on the back of the Sony, I never thought to do that and it will be life changing.
There is a simple solution to that. You can assign 3-4 buttons to back button focus on your Sony. Set one for AF-C single point, one for AF-C wide, one for AF-S single point and one for Eye-AF. That way you never have to change your focus mode again. That said I found that AF-C is more than accurate enough
First time I have seen a video on this topic. Excellent.
I do use that button in oposite way. It interrupts AF system when pressed. So if I want AF not to work when I use trigger (for recomposing purposes etc.) I just hold BBF.
Interesting... whatever works best you i guess :)
This was insanely well put together. Nicely done guys!
Remembering back to my many years of shooting auto racing, primarily the Indianapolis 500, it was really helpful when Canon added the ability to activate auto focus with a back button. Initially the cameras had auto focus on ly kn the center, then added two more auto focus areas to either side of center. For good composition, and efficiency when quickly turning right to pick up an oncoming car, I always focused manually so I could get good focus no mater where the car initially appeared in the frame, then I stayed with manual focus. My thumb was always on the rear button, and I believe that 100% of the times a car started to do what the driver didn't want, (that was thousands of times for me over the years) I hit the thumb button. I never missed the start of an incident because the camera was looking for focus before shooting, and I never had a frame of the incident out of focus.
I actually learned this from Chris Winter. Yes it makes it makes photography soooo much easier!
I love back button focus (or dual back button focus on my R6). The only problem is during cold (COLD!!) winter shooting. No matter what I've tried I can't get buttons to function through gloves, and taking the glove off instantly freezes my hand leaving my fingers useless. So, unfortunately, I find myself switching back to shutter does everything in those conditions. Then I can just use a remote inside my mitten. Any suggestions?
Except on lesser bodies, Nikon kind of forgot that we left-eyed guys exist. I used to be a back-button user while I was on the Canon system, but the placement of it on anything bellow D800 series is horrible for anyone using the left eye for framing through the VF.
After 20 years of shooting Nikon and trying the backButton focus several times,I dont like it
im comfortable the old fashioned way...could never like back-button
Do you need to keep your finger on the BBF button, or press it once and release on the subject you want to be in focus, then just shoot using the normal shutter?
You convinced me a while ago to try out back button autofocus. After getting used to it I don’t even know why it’s not the default for at least higher end cameras. I can never go back. On the A7riii I love being able to switch between eye autofocus and regular focus with the same two buttons you showed. Back button autofocus really allows me to focus more on composition since I no longer have to focus and re-compose.
Hi Tony & Chelsea,
I love watching and learning so much about different aspects of photography.
I am a professional Rodeo photographer in Australia and at 72 years I still learn so many helpfully hints from your videos, thank so much.
Thank you for the video, guys. Never knew this was possible! God bless.
I have a Fuji and I use it in a similar but slightly better way (for my use at least). I have the shutter with the double action as usual, but I have assigned one of the buttons of the back for "Focus lock". So when I want to take several pictures with the same focus distance, I focus once, hold the back button, and take as many shots as I want.
Also when I change the lens to manual focus, I have that same button assigned to the opposite action: when I press it in that case, it actually focuses, as you have here
Great video!!..Very Important learning..Thanks alot!!
A bonus tip for Sony a9, a7iii, and a7Riii: you can assign C3 as AF-ON on registered area. You can easily swap between 2 focus areas instantly.
Very well explained. I tried it for a while and (anecdotally) felt that the AF focus was slower to acquire focus lock on BBF than SBF on the E-M1.2 (firmware 2.3). I tried it for several months so I feel like I was over the lack of familiarity aspect when making my assessment on the effectiveness. Have you experienced or heard of anything similar?
Why take your finger off the half-pressed shutter?
Thank you Tony, now when I'm trying to explain why I use BBF, simply I can send them this video :)
I'm so excited to try this! I never knew about this. I'm so glad I found your channel
Use it all the time from one of your previous tutorials some years ago, love it Guys
Switched to BBF long time ago and discovered a new world!!
What you mentioned at about 2:48 is THE sole reason I ditched my RP and R (they can't do this) and got an R6. I feel like the internet doesn't talk about this enough
Story time: when i started out, i bought a canon 10-22 that had a broken af/mf switch (it would just stay on AF).
I couldn't shoot astrophotography, it would just keep trying to focus. I went home, googled my problem and there it was, a forum post about bbf, my solution.
I googled bbf and there was Tony, he was only 22 at the time (2014), had a full head of white hair, gave me a hand, pulled me from the life of sin and index-powered AF and gave me a second chance at life. Now (2018) he's 73 and he's still preaching to whomever may want to transcend factory default settings. Godspeed, you beautiful man. Ps.Your daughter, Chelsea is very strong, that dog and lense look very heevy.
hilarious
lolllllllz!
I'm still laughing!
Thank you man, the best explanation on youtube
Great for the times when dusk turns into darkness when the autofocus starts searching.
DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use the “Back button” as a drinking game while watching this video! You will wake up DEAD! Jusssssss sayin.
i agree with you guys but also you're using these buttons wrong in some situations.
İf you want to 100% nail focus when you taking a portrait at f/1.4, you can't use "focus and recompose" and "back button focus". İn this situation, if you use back button focus you will slightly miss focus at least 20% of your photos.
Back button focus technique is good for all situations, but not perfect when taking portrait with shallow depth of field.
Zeynel Abidin EMİR that’s why you buy a sony camera with eye-af. Eat this, old dslr
Good point :). But i still have some reasons to buy dslr. Maybe one day I will get a sony camera to.
just choose the focus point that's most close to the point you want to focus then :S the problem with some DSLR cameras is that these points are too centralized =\
Mike that's not the point. I want to say (even focus point on the eye) if you use back button focus technique you wil miss focus. Because of the milliseconds from until you press shutter button.
Try it with like a 105mm f/1.4 lens. And shoot 20 images with and without using back button focus. You will see...
Zeynel Abidin EMİR That's exactly what lens Tony used for the first demonstration.
Amazing video, you really improved since your last BBF video (and that was already great and enough to make me switch to BBF)....also really happy to see that you still create longer videos:)
Such a simple thing that'll speed up my bracketing for landscapes, I'll know I'm focussed on *exactly* the same position every single time - thank you!
I just adopted this technique after I got my D7200. It's working great so far. Fun fact fact that I just realized, you can set the camera to shoot even if it doesn't think it is focused, but this only works in AF-C. So... Make sure you set it and forget it in AF-C and it'll work great.
I always have the fear of focusing wrong in AF-S. If I use the back-button focus (i.e. for portraits) and I don't have the perfect focus, then all my photos will be blurry.
There are too many features on the newer breed of camera, such as face detect and eye autofocus to not be acquainted with back-button focus, exposure lock, etc. However, for me, it is faster to get that first shot quickly by having one button do it all.... The Shutter Button. However, you are right on all other positives regarding back button. Thanks for another valuable video.
But my smartphone doesn't have any back buttons... 🤔
you can buy one from aliexpress
I'm convinced. I re-programmed my cameras as suggested. Then I shot having TOTALLY FORGOTTEN about the change. My focus was close enough to look OK on the back of the camera, so I was happy... until... on the computer... ARGHHHHH. Terrible. But I'm not giving up. I shot a softball game with BBF and it was OK. I'm still learning this technique, but I can see the promise and what all the hype is about. More practice needed!
Yeah it takes a week or two to develop the muscle memory but you'll keep that with you for the rest of your life.
@@TonyAndChelsea Thanks. Encouragement is always appreciated. BTW I enjoy your webcast and your books. You (both) do good work!
Great video, thank you. So for continuous focus, do we need to change the focus mode to AF-C then in addition to holding the back button focus?
I set my omd em5 mark 2 on manual focus, using the focus ring. It allows me to set a button on the back for back button focus. It’s the best of both worlds, plus it frees up the shutter button for the exposure. If you want to expose for the sky, you just point, hold the shutter button and recompose. Or do the same for the ground.
Or you can just use the back button to lock focus. That way your camera will always be ready to focus and shoot with just one button pressed not two.
I feel like this is Tony's millionth, and best I guess, video on BBF, but my brain still thinks the "press to hold/stop focus" is the natural/logical procedure.
It took me a year to switch to doing this and now I love back button af.
HOW DOES IT WORK ON A7R4?
As always, a great and informative video. From your prior BBF video, I went to BBF with my D-750 and then again with D-850 a year ago......never looked back. Always appreciate the updated video on this topic.
Can you do a tutorial on how to use the AE-L button? Great tutorial btw. I was looking for tutorials about AF-L for a long time now. Thanks!
This is by far the most useful advice I've ever heard (as far as advices on how to use camera goes). I've been using this setup for a while now and it's been a game changer. Not only I'm getting both in one (continuous and single shot), but my autofocus is so much faster in continuous and I did not realised this till today. I was using my camera as usual and I noticed that my autofocus is a bit wonky, kinda slow and hunts a bit, thought it was something wrong with the lens and reconnected it a couple of times till I realised that camera is set to single shot autofocus. It's crazy when you think about it, I managed to notice a huge difference in speed and accuracy to a point where I thought that I dropped a lens or something. That's how good continuous autofocus is. And with this setup I'm getting single shot af with continuous af speed. As the title says - I'm NEVER going back! Thank you for this incredible advice!
Hi I’m Tony Northrup, life can be hard, we all have our daily challenges, laid off from a job, rents past due and you have to put food on the table. Let me tell you about a solution that can get you through these tough times... “back button focus!”
Now you can show your boss who’s boss, buy a new house and feed your family gourmet meals every night, all with back button focus. Never do you have to feel, “less than” in life again.
Now you have the tools to succeed in life, go get em tiger.
This is Tony Northrup,
Where’s your back button focus?
I don't tend to have much rush with autofocus, so since I've always found that switching to manual focus on the lens is very easy, and even if I wasn't generally in one shot AF I could still recompose that way. So since I don't like having my thumb captive in order to be ready to autofocus, I haven't really adopted this.
Great Video!!! Just one question, do I have to maintain the back button pressing when I set the camera on AI Servo? Thank you!!!
Thank you for sharing your advice, I highly appreciate it
Note that focus-and-recompose can fail on very shallow depth-of-field situations.
Yeah, this isn't endorsement for focus-recompose. You should only use it when you don't have any other option, like the scenario we showed.
Well, I didn't like back focus button because I was used with cameras that didn't have. But the cameras that do have usually have a shutter button that is too soft, so pressing it half way require much more sensibility and back focus button end up being better.
Very informal and practical. Thanks to you. Subbed to your channel immediately
why can't u just use tracking to recompose
If your camera is set to continuous shooting mode and you keep the shutter half pressed you don't have to refocus every time even if in one shot focus.
It keeps sense to keep single shot on shutter and continuous in the back so you don't have to switch.
But regarding the if something happens and the camera is already focused in the ballpark it makes sense.
Tony, I have a SONY A7 Mk II. Your QUOTE "you can program one AF-On button to do a single autofocus point, and a second button (such as AEL) to focus with all autofocus points." I have set up the AF-On button as per your guide to the MF/AF button. However, how do set up AEL to be set up with all autofocus points using the AEL button? I don't see an option for that.
if a bird is perched, you dont switch it to single servo, you can still shoot the bird in continuous autofocus whether the focus is in the back or the front, it doesnt matter. what is the point whether on front or back? you still have to make sure the focus points are directly on the subject if it moves or the camera moves
Great explanation: very clear and concise! I don't know however if this makes AF-S and AF-C redundant. With my Fuji X-T2 I have noticed that AF-S focuses on a still subject where as in AF-C this is not always the case.
Used to use it all the time but it most translated into slopping focusing technique.
No autofocus, no Eye Control autofocus, no back button autofocus, no wi-fi, etc.
How the hell did people like Irving Penn, George Hurrell, Francisco Scavullo, etc. ever manage to shoot portraits?
And, poor Ansel Adams...……….no built-in lens stabilization, Google Maps, or apps to direct him to those locations and whatnot.
I fail to see the purpose of this comment. Are you suggesting people don't take advantage of available technology? (I apologize if your comment was not meant to be sarcastic.)
Haha so true! I cannot fiddle with bbf. Wah.
So I suppose your are a anti vaccines too since According to your logic, human kind did survive withouts it .
I am a BBF convert of many years, but in fairness programming the button to af-l (or having an older nikon with dedicated button), would offer a simple alternative without having to flick to mf in your first example.
Focus, lock and hold, recompose, shoot away, let go when done. No harder than keeping the button pressed for bbf and moving subjects.
It is the moving subjects I really switched for though! :)
Scriptosaurus rex I use the same way with AF lock! I think it’s way easier than using AF-on.
Scriptosaurus rex BBF convert, sounds like changing your religion or cult or something like that😂
So which tutorial for the a6400?
From what I can tell it has a similar body to an a6300, but the same processor and menus as the a6600( (larger body) and the a7iii and a7C which have completely different bodies and sensors, so there isn't a good match for what is likely the most popular a6xxx camera out there.
Have this setting active on my camera too. Just got blurry photos when I asked a colleague to take a few snaps from my family.
Help? Shooting at 1.4 at 1/1000 or faster outside, my eyes are consistently slightly soft in portraits? The back button focus is catching the Eye-AF small green box. Then I hit the shutter. But is it possible that in between the focus catching and me pressing the shutter, there is a tiny bit of distance movement that makes the eyes go soft? Lens last time was Sony Zeiss 50mm 1.4 at 1.4.
Switched to BBF a long time ago after watching an earlier video. It's so intuitive now that I can't imagine going back. It has simplified and sped up my shooting. Thanks!
I'm shooting Nikon D3300 and D5600. I seem to have much trouble finding RUclips help on subject focus tracking for video with these cams. I know these aren't the best cameras for this but I'd sure like to master this as far as these units will go. Xo
I used BBF on canon, but went back to default on Sony A7 cameras
I feel like this is completely overrated and with modern mirrorless cameras also no longer necessary.
Right now I'm using a Z50. This weekend I actually wanted to give back button focus a shot. But I switched back immediately because of one big issue that turned it into a total deal breaker for me. With BBF enabled I now need two fingers to take a photo instead of one. One finger to engage the focus, the other to hit the shutter button.
That means that I cannot enage the auto focus and use the rear control dial at the same time. I have to switch back and forth which actually made me miss some shots.
And using it for recomposing is useless these days, too. The entire viewfinder is covered in focus points now and almost all mirrorless cameras can track eyes. So just set it to track the eye, compose and shoot.
Also, enabling BBF doesn't change the feeling of the shutter button. You still have that tactile bump when pressing it half way, making it feel very awkward to hit.
I think it's overrated and adds nothing to how you use the camera.
You guys FIXED the AF on my beloved K3 with Chelsea turning me onto this method. Thanx a million!!! Btw...CN is far more adorable than that puppy.
Usually get out of focus pictures when handing my camera to others..
Hello guys,
I’d like to ask your opinion and recommend regarding the Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro lens and Sigma 105mm 2.8 Marco which one os better for macro and portrait photography. Thank you!
When I hold AF on, it does not keep focusing. Are you saying that you're using AI Focus mode? Back Button focus has the same function as half shutter press, so the AF mode can only be servo, single shot, or AI Focus.
On my sony A7RII, is it worth to keep the face detection on when using EYE AF ? Does it affect the speed ? Here I shoot mostly random street people on events with 1.8 lens so for me EYE EF is the key for good photo. Please help me.
3 years ago already!? BBF is not for me. I tried it on and off for the past 5 years but I always go back to regular shutter button configuration. I do mostly nature photography and I'm not a professional if that makes any difference.
My camera stopped working with autofocus ,i found back focus some what works though.. Even though it wasnt set that way before. The shutter button will not work. Its weird but the back button is better.
I tried it many times, but i like Af-on as AutoFocus lock. :)
Canon has mastered all the button alternate functions on their DSLR bodies.
All of my Canon bodies I use the mfn2 button,depth of field preview, af/on and the AE-LOCK* button for everything but focusing. Like most pros I find that back button focus is a huge let down in a fast paced shooting.
WHEN BACK BUTTON IS NOT USEFUL.#1
While pressing back button Auto Focus you can't select another focus point. Let's say you're shooting and decide to move the focus point on a bird that's just to right of center but you have set the focus at center af point. Now if you try to press the a.f. selection button its impossible.
But if you have the top main dial set as a.f. half press all you need do is hit the a.f. selection button and move your point to the desired new position.
Also you shouldnt use it for dedicated flight photography. Because you will be continuously focusing when shooting birds in flight, it will be more comfortable for your hands to half press the shutter button for focus and fully press to release the shutter, rather than having to hold two buttons at once.
WHEN BACK BUTTON IS NOT USEFUL.#2
Normally when you fully press the shutter release button on your camera the camera will prioritise achieving accurate focus before firing the shot.
Auto Focus will no longer be prioritised using back button focus.
This can cause an element of delay that is far from ideal for wildlife and sports photography.
It is possible to override this in your camera’s settings, telling it to immediately take the image when fully depressed, but by default this is probably how your camera will prioritise things, not only the first image but additional images in a sequence can be prioritised to fire regardless of focus confirmation or wait until focus is confirmed.
PLUS THE FACT THAT SOME OF TODAYS CAMERAS HAVE MORE FOCUS POINTS THAN THOSE IN THE PAST. ALLOWING MUCH BETTER TRACKING OF FOLLOW FOCUSING. PLUS FOCUS POINT SELCTIONS HAVE CHANGED NOW WE CAN SELECT SPOT FOCUS POINTS , A NUMBER OF CLUSTERS TO FOCUS GROUPS.
WHEN BACK BUTTON IS USEFUL#1
If you're focusing on a stationary subject and you have the eye in perfect focus you can stop pressing the back button and not worry that your Auto focus will grab something else while you're shooting a continues burst of images.
Although you can also get the same results using top main button to half press and have one of the back buttons set as AF-OFF and simply press that to stop focus then shoot your continues burst of images.
The second popular reason for using back-button focus is the ability to focus and recompose shots once without having to refocus again after the shutter is released. The side benefit is that the camera can act as if it’s in both AF-S or AF-C mode without changing settings. Holding down the AF-On button keeps the AF-C autofocus running, however by letting go and being able to recompose with no further focus movement when the shutter button is pressed, it’s as if the camera is in AF-S mode.
What’s overlooked though is that it’s actually just as easily done with the default shutter focus method too by using AF-L (autofocus lock). The difference is that releasing the AF-On button in the case of back-button focus would stop AF-C and emulate AF-S, however with the default shutter focus setting, AF-C can be stopped to emulate AF-S by holding the AF-L button and then pressing the shutter button.
Or setting back button af-lock as one touch One shot/ai-servo switching.
I don't use back button focus for fast paced action shooting. I prefer to use back buttons for AF-OFF,ONE SHOT/AI-SERVO,REGISTER RECALL FUNCTION. Also with pro bodies you can register your preferred af point selection so you can switch between say a single point to a focus point cluster. Just by holding or tapping a rear button. I know of no pro- photographer that uses back button as the preferred method. Occasionally using back button in rare instances when the action is slow they may use it say in portraits or landscapes.
Hi T & C
The following were set on D7500
** a1 set to FOCUS PRIORITY
** a6 set to OFF
** AE-L/AF-L set to AF-ON
&& Focus Mode set to AF-C and then AF-A
## AF area mode set to all options one by one .
With the above settings I could take pictures even when the subject is out of focus. Seems focus priority (a1) do not function in AF-C and AF-A mode. Is it a normal functioning or I am doing some thing wrong. ?
Thanks in advance for any input on this.
Bala S.
Hi, really informative and a great explanation of using the back buttons but could you tell me if you are using the AEL button for focusing how do you lock the exposure if its needed because of the variations in light levels? I feel using back button focus would benefit me but to the detriment of locking the exposure. Any pointers would be appreciated.
Im confused. Im not a camera person. So do I press this back button thingy and hold it and then press the shoot button? Or do I press the back button release it and then press the shoot button? I don’t understand it. Someone help.
Hi Chelsea - I enabled back button AF (BBAF) on my R7 this week. It only works that way in some modes (e.g., aperture and shutter priory modes). However when I switched it to "Scenes" mode and selected "portrait", BBAF didn't work anymore. In Scenes mode, the camera went back to shutter button focus. Did I do something wrong? Thank you!
This is a great suggestion. I saw the value immediately and setup my camera that way right away.
That might be true for many - but not for me. I never use bbf. Never :)