Understanding Autofocus (Part 2)


In our last post, we looked at two types of autofocus: Zone (or area) autofocus, and spot focus. Today we are going to talk about 3 more kinds of autofocus settings: single-shot, Continuous (or Servo) and then there's a hybrid type called AI-Servo.

Single-shot is just that,  your camera locks on a target that you choose and doesn't change. It's what most autofocus cameras do by default. However, sometimes you want to photograph something that moves a lot, such as small children, athletes, cars, etc. This is where changing your autofocus to continuous (nikon) or servo (canon), can help.

Continuous (Servo) autofocus allows you to choose something to focus on, and then the camera will continue to track that subject while it moves. This is really helpful, but can take some practice to get used to. One thing to keep in mind is that you must half-press your shutter button the whole time to allow the camera to constantly re-focus for you if the subject moves.

The last kind of focus is called AI-servo (found on canon cameras). This focus is single-shot, but it tries to determine if your subject starts to move, it will switch over to servo mode and start tracking them. I've not yet found one other photographer who talks about or even uses this mode.

In conclusion, you can see that autofocus can get complicated. Most DSLR's have several ways to handle static or moving subjects. Consult your manual, as usual, to find out how to change these settings and see how well your camera does with tracking moving subjects. 

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