In article <33B856C0.4A1F@beaches.net>, annienpc@beaches.net says...
>Chris Eve wrote:
>> Jeff Goodspeed wrote in article <33B7EC3D.4F38@pamd.cig.mot.com>...

>> >Can someone kindly and gently explain what's wrong with me?
>> >I just can't get excited over the current auto focus cameras.

>> There's nothing wrong with you, you're just a human who the hype didn't
>> reach, join the club. There's still a lot of us out here using viewfinders
>> and rangefinders, and no, there not all Leicas, just ordinary folk who take
>> photos 'cos they like taking photos.

>nothing's wrong........yet!! you just haven't reached the age where
>you NEED to use the autoFOCUS!!! *laugh*
>seriously, I wasn't excited about them very much either, until I
>discovered that it was becoming increasingly difficult to focus at
>wedding receptions, etc.

Ah, but for many people there is a solution:
I have myopia combined with astigmatism and age-related inability to
focus. I had a pair of glasses made that corrected for four distances by
alternating corrections with main lenses and bifocals - which has worked
very well (infinity correction for non-camera eye, camera VF distance
[about 3.5'] for the camera eye, next closest distance for the non-camera
eye bifocal [set low and small - 25mm flat-tops], and the closest distance
set for the camera eye bifocal). It took about 2 weeks to feel comfortable
with night driving and movie watching (the camera eye tends [at first] to predominate when it is dark, or the subject does not have a lot of
well-defined detail), but for everything now, continuous sharp focus over
a wide range of distances has been restored, and I can see the camera
viewing screen very sharply again. (And I agree with the original
poster - for me, AF just gets in the way...)
Hope This Helps
(David Ruether - http://www.fcinet.com/ruether )