"William Graham" <weg9@comcast.net> wrote in message

news:bx7Nb.47803$sv6.125242@attbi_s52...

> "Jim Waggener" <jimw@visi.net> wrote in message

> news:4004623f_4@corp.newsgroups.com...

> > " These days I think manual focus is better for things like portraiture,

> > macro, landscapes, and suchlike."

> > Pretty wide range of use, don't you think?

> With me, it depends on time and light....If I have enough of both, then I

> can do a decent job of manually focusing my lenses. If I were a sports

> photographer, then I think that I would have to go with AF because of the

> time restrictions. And now, with my failing vision, there are lighting

> situations where it is very hard for me to manually focus, and I have to

> depend on the little green LED in my rangefinder to tell me when I am in

> focus......

I tend to believe that given good camera VF optics (this is MUCH

rarer now than it used to be, with only a few cameras having really

sharp SLR VF images), with good eye-correction for the VF apparent

focus distance (generally around 1 meter) and astigmatism (if any),

using a lens that is an optimum speed (f2-2.8 for MF cameras and

the better AF cameras) and of good optical quality (not soft

wide-open) for good MF, and a bit of MF experience, most people

would find MF preferable to AF most of the time, regardless of age.

Unfortunately, these conditions are rarely met these days, and specific

uncorrectable eye defects can make AF preferable (I've lost sharp

sight in the center of my "focus eye", damn!) much of the time

(macro work still makes it pretty useless, though).

BTW, I consider the AF indicators useless for accurate or convenient

focus (too much "slop"), and for fast action with small moving subjects,

AF hunting can make the use of AF impractical.

Also, BTW, this may not apply to you, but I find most optomitrists'

idea of how glasses should be set up rather poor - more useful for me

for age-related narrowing of the range of eye focus is a simple

glasses set up described here: www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/articles.html

(look down the index for "Four-Distance Glasses"...).

--

David Ruether

d_ruether@hotmail.com

http://www.David-Ruether-Photography.com