mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

:thumbup:

Jim Bob

Steve, really enjoyed your video. May give it a try.

glgracephoto Loc: Arlington, WA

BBF is the coolest thing since sliced bread, switched to it after watching this video a year ago.

I am glad I just watched it again though, I missed a step on my D810 set-up so it was currently using both, fixed that now :-)

By the way Steve Perry, I recently found out you are also in my Nikon users FB group, and recently looked at your gallery, wow, awesome stuff!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

BBF is not for everyone. Some like it. Some don't. It does take some getting used to. I don't recall the body you are using, but some camera's like the Nikon APS-C bodies don't have a dedicated AF-On button. i believe the exposure lock button needs to be reassigned.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

You're one helluva salesman t!

Drala2k Loc: Vermont

First no selling on it, it is a personal preference. But for me it helped with my focusing. A lot of people who claim a lens is soft are actually experiencing micro-movements of the camera when pushing half way to focus and then click the shutter, at least for me. BB separates the focus from the shutter button. Plus it holds the focus without having to touch the shutter so that you can reposition the shot. On my D7100 it is now my preferred focus. But you have to work with it. It takes a bit of time to get use to it.

rbfanman

BBF is one of those things I did not care for at first, but which slowly grew on me once I began using it more. It is more convenient than using manual focus, or even non BB auto focus. There are fewer buttons / dials / etc to mess with. You don't accidentally trip the shutter while using it. You can choose what to focus on. It takes a bit of getting used to, as do other aspects of photography, but is worth doing for those who give it a real chance. Use it, or don't.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I won't try and sell you on the technique, my story is free, gratis, zilch!

The setting: a trampoline in a backyard, about 50-60 feet away from the sundeck. Three kids, ages 8 - 13, running, jumping, fooling around on the trampoline. Grandma sitting in a comfortable chair on the sundeck, camera in hand.

So, Grandma (me) selects a focal length to make the depth of field reach from just before the nearest to just past the furthest edge of the trampoline, with an ISO and shutterspeed combination to stop motion. The kids like me to "catch" them mid-air as if they're just hanging there.
I then focus on the approximate centre of the trampoline and set the focus with the back button. I'll take a bunch of photos, making sure I get the antics of all three of them.
Then I change the setting to please myself: I like to "catch" the kids when they are the top of a jump or summersault, the moment they reach the top but are not yet going down. Even though their body stops at that point, their arms and legs often do not, and by increasing the shutter speed, I've been able to get some really good captures of perfectly still body with flailing arms and legs.
If I had to focus every time I was ready to take a photo in the given circumstance, I'd never get a nice photo.
OK, that's (one of) my story(s) about back button focus and I'm sticking to it.

BobT Loc: southern Minnesota

Grandma,

It's situations like you just described that actually do SELL me on BBF. Thanks.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

No, I'm not selling! You can have it for free or not at all ;-))

BobT Loc: southern Minnesota

Well, whatever. You've encouraged me to give it a try. You, and those others, who believe it to be a "plus" feature. Then, down the road and after I've used it for a while, I'll let you know just how I feel about it.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I love it. My shutter button would normally focus AND meter (half way down). Using BBF allows me to focus on "A" point and meter on "B" point, then shoot.

Steve Perry Loc: Sylvania, Ohio

Something else to think about - BBAF actually works the way cameras did in the past. Back in the manual focus days, the shutter release just released the shutter and we used a separate control for focus the photo. Now, instead of the focus ring on the lens, it's a button on the back of the camera.

par4fore Loc: Bay Shore N.Y.

Great video!!

TNmike Loc: NW TN

Steve, I really enjoyed your video. I shoot Canon instead of Nikon and have been using BBF for several years but the principle is the same for both. Just a little different in how to set your camera up. My wife has started shooting with me in the last year and all of my cameras were set to BBF so that is the way she learned and no need to relearn anything. If I told her to she had to 1/2 press the shutter button to focus she would be lost. :) We shoot mostly wildlife but not an issue with other types of photography. As others have stated it's not for everyone. TNmike