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Re: [OM] Which is sharper, autofocus or manual focus?

Subject: Re: [OM] Which is sharper, autofocus or manual focus?
From: Joe Gwinn <joegwinn@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 19:00:52 -0500
At 8:28 PM +0000 12/31/01, olympus-digest wrote:
>Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 08:57:57 -0800
>From: "Olympus" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [OM] Which is sharper, autofocus or manual focus?
>
>Joe, no arguments..  It's just that, I don't care if you have a mirror
>adjusted or not... you are the wedding photographer, it's your JOB that's
>right, it's your __JOB__ that is what we pay you to do, give us razor sharp
>pictures.. and if that means sending your N*kon in for adjustments, then do
>so... saying the mirror is not adjusted might be the definition of the
>problem, but is by no means an excuse.

Absolutely.  I quite agree.  Between the choice of a consumer snapshot film 
(versus pro film) and the choice of a 35mm camera (versus medium-format), this 
wedding photographer was no bargin.

My point was only that this story didn't prove or disprove that manual focus 
was better than automatic focus.  (Hans may have done that; see below.)


>Also, would an out of whack mirror, affect auto-focus? 

I don't know the F5 design well enough to answer this. (I don't have any Ni*on 
cameras, not even point&shoots.)  But my point is more generally that 
*something* may be out of whack in that F5.  


>There was an article that said MF is like 3x sharper than AF, I don't know how 
>they came to these numbers...

The article that Hans pointed out says it's two to one:

At 8:28 PM +0000 12/31/01, olympus-digest wrote:
>Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 18:24:20 +0100
>From: "Hans van Veluwen" <hcvanveluwen@xxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [OM] Which is sharper, autofocus or manual focus?
>
>: Also, would an out of whack mirror, affect auto-focus?  There was an article
>: that said MF is like 3x sharper than AF, I don't know how they came to these
>: numbers...
>
>That would be http://people.smu.edu/rmonagha/third/af.html
>
>hnz

I looked at this article.  The writer *really* hates autofocus.  But, given the 
low resolution of the Ko*ak film the wedding photographer used, I'm not sure 
that one would be able to tell MF from AF, given the actual lens resolutions 
quoted.  She probably used a low-end lens as well, given that she used 35mm for 
a wedding.

The article did say that Ni*on AF is particularly bad.


>But again, she was using it like a point and shoot....  I mean, if you
>believe the ads, that's what it is, isn't it?  AF?  A bigger point and
>shoot?

That's right, for sure.

I have been to a number of weddings over the years, and of course I looked at 
the photographers' gear with great interest.  They all used medium-format, half 
of them Hasselblads, the rest a collection of Pentax 645s and some Bronicas.  
Big Lumedyne and Quantum flashes with belt-mounted batterypacks were in 
evidence too.


Joe Gwinn


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