Nikon D7000 Experience User Manual page 13

Nikon D7000 Experience
worlds. If you are focusing and then recomposing, as you may often be doing, your
movement of the camera may fool it into thinking that the subject is moving and then
activate subject tracking AF-C mode, and your resulting focus may not be where you
intend it to be or may not be as accurate as it could have been with Single-Servo AF-S
mode. And in this hybrid AF-A Mode it may not be as quick to respond to a moving
subject as it would in Continuous-Servo AF-C mode. Typically you know if your subject
is still or moving so it is better to select one of the other two Autofocus Modes. Plus that
way you always know which AF Mode you are working in and can either lock focus
where you want it or begin tracking a subject without wondering what mode the camera
is in and if it will suddenly change. But there may be situations that call for this
combination mode such as a still bird or animal that may start moving unexpectedly, so
keep it in mind.
Manual Focus
Sometimes you may be taking several photos of the same subject from the same
distance, or for some other reason want to keep the same focus distance and not have
to keep re-focusing and re-composing. Or you may be taking multiple photos for a
panorama. In these situations, turn off the auto-focus on your lens by switching from AF
to M with the camera's Focus Mode Selector switch and with the A/M switch on the lens
itself. Just remember to switch them back when you are finished. You may also wish to
do this if you want to precisely manually focus with the focus ring on your lens. For
lenses with "full time manual focus" however, you don't need to switch to M in order to
manually override the autofocus with the lens focus ring. These lenses will have M/A
and M on the lens focus mode switch instead of A and M.
Rangefinder
Use the Rangefinder feature of the D7000 to assist with manual focus. With lenses
having a maximum aperture of f/5.6 or faster (such as f/4.0 or f/2.8) the focus indicator
in the Viewfinder can be used in conjunction with a selected single focus point (see
Autofocus Area Modes Section 5.3 immediately following) to confirm that a stationary
or still subject is in focus.
To use the Rangefinder switch the camera and lens to manual focus, select a single AF
point as you look through the Viewfinder, locate it over the subject, and press and hold
the Shutter-Release Button halfway. Rotate the focus ring on the lens until the focus
indicator - the dot at the bottom-left of the viewfinder - lights up. This indicates that the
subject is in focus.
5.3 Autofocus Area Modes
The Autofocus Area Modes (AF-Area Modes) are used to set if all the AF points are
active and automatically selected by the camera to focus on a subject, if just a single,
user-selected AF point is active, if a specific number of AF points surrounding your
selected AF point will be used to help maintain focus, or if all the AF points will work in
conjunction with a single user-selected point to track a moving subject across your
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