jmccl Loc: Western Shore of Utah Lake

My camera (Sony Alpha 550) has focus mode settings of Spot, Wide, Area. Spot is pretty intuitive, no questions there. I don't understand the Wide setting. Depending on the framing, various of the 9 little squares light up when I use auto focus. Is the auto focus selecting the hyper-focus focus point based on my aperture setting and zoom position? If not, what does the auto-focus key on when determining the focus points for a given framing? I think I understand the Area mode, but why not just use spot, focus lock on the desired focus point, and then frame your shot?

russebarre9

I have a canon t1i which has 9 squares also. Sometimes auto focus can e funny. The main point is which ever of those squares light up, that's what's in focus. You can move your lens around, side to side, up or down and you will get different ones that light up. You can also manually select any one of those squares my turning the main wheel at least on mine. My modes have a part also because center weighted focus in the center and averages the whole frame, where partial is good for backlight pics. Should be in your manual.Hope this helps.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I'm sure it does that. All DSLR's can use spot focus and lock so you can recompose. I'd tell you how but I don't have the same camera.

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I shoot a lot of sports.....football, basketball, track, swimming, volleyball...and on and on. Spot would leave me dealing with a lot of out of focus shots. I can follow the action and anticipate pretty good..been doing it for a long long time but I would be eliminating 30 plus percent of my shots if SPOT were used, even on a good day in a well lit venue.

bawlmer Loc: Baltimore, MD

Spot focus is more reliable when you have time to frame your shot and direct the focus where you want it. Wide focus, the camera determines which of the AF points is used. Local is similar to spot in that it lets you choose which of the AF points will be your focal point. Which is kinda funny because using spot, you can move the single spot to whatever area you want to be the point of focus. Hope this explains what you are after. And what you said about using spot, then recomposing your shot, is exactly what I do and it works quite well. The others could be used when you're shooting a moving target.