Bill Silliker, Jr.

The Camera Hunter

The  Focus Is On Focus

 Not many years ago serious photographers shunned autofocus 35 mm cameras. But anyone who seeks to capture wildlife with a camera today should pay attention to recent advances in the autofocus systems offered by several manufacturers. 

Depending on how fancy a camera they want, they might also consider a second mortgage on the homestead, or at least to start saving serious money! The old adage that “you get what you pay for” surely applies to modern cameras. One can get by with a lot less than the best. More on the costs/quality tradeoff in a moment. First let’s look at why Maine camera hunter should consider moving up to one of the better autofocus systems.

Species Specific

Maine’s location and geography make for a unique mix of habitats that benefit a wide variety of species. We enjoy many species that present a challenge for those attempting to manually focus for telling shots. The list of these species includes ducks and geese, songbirds and herons, river otter and beaver, pine marten and fox, coyote and,   dare I say, perhaps a rare cougar or wolf? 

Show of hands: who wants the best chance at getting a sharply focused photograph if they ever encounter a wolf or cougar in the Maine woods? I rest my case.

Maine also offers some critters that simply don’t require autofocus to make a good image - most of the time. Moose come to mind first. Just as it’s not often much of a marksmanship challenge to drop a complacent moose with a rifle, it likewise doesn’t require the luxury of a modern autofocus camera to bag one on film. 

And then there’s the white-tailed deer. Anyone who really knows this species understands how a photographer can manually focus for great images when a whitetail freezes.

But try bagging a bald eagle flying towards the camera or a loon as it surfaces with a fish or a tern zooming along overhead, and you soon learn that the benefits  of a good autofocus system are species specific. 

Autofocus Hokus Pocus

Unconvinced? Maybe a discussion of the evolution of autofocus cameras will help. Minolta started the autofocus offerings in the late 1970’s. Other camera manufacturers began to follow suit. 

The initial offerings were lower priced models for the average consumer. That was partly because the technology wasn’t very good. Early autofocus cameras worked slowly and required placing the subject dead center in the frame. 

But that was okay. Most people just want to take good pictures without a hassle. And like the rest of the camera-does-everything gadgetry, autofocus improved the product for amateur users. Marketing cameras for amateurs is not exactly new. Years ago Kodak promoted its Brownie cameras and film by telling folks: ” You push the button, we do the rest.”

But professional sports, wildlife and other serious photographers of action showed minimal interest in the early autofocus systems. Why? First, they didn’t like the center only focusing. Most artistically designed photographs place the subject off center in the frame. They also found the slow response inadequate for focusing on fast moving subjects. 

Gradual improvements evolved with successive models. Competition among the manufacturers finally caught up to the professional user in the mid 1980’s. Canon made a serious change in its pro camera offerings. And Nikon put an autofocus system into one of its professional camera bodies, the F4.  

The F4 system was adequate for some subjects. Having owned a Nikon 8008 camera, an amateur model with the same autofocus system as the F4, I can say that it’s a dog compared to the Canon EOS series of autofocus cameras. In fact, because of better autofocus capability, a lot of pro Nikon shooters switched to Canon in the 1980’s. 

I was ready to myself after shooting alongside a friend clicking away with a Canon while my Nikon 8008 ground away trying to lock on to an approaching grizzly - not the time that you want your autofocus to fail!  And then in the mid 1990’s, Nikon came up with one better than Canon: the N90s. 

Nikon really jumped out ahead just a two years ago with the F5 body, the fastest autofocus camera on the planet. It can follow a target across the field of view, predicting where it’s going and maintaining focus exactly while shooting up to 8 frame per second! 

But Canon came back again. They released the EOS 3, a pro model that focuses across the view finder based on where the photographer’s eye is looking. Eye controlled auto-focus. What will they give us next?

Cost Tradeoffs

           The costs for the F5 or EOS 3 cameras approach $2000, just for the body. But similar technology has made some of the lower priced models by both Canon and Nikon into excellent tools for the camera hunter. Any of the Canon EOS bodies, or Nikon’s N90S, N70 and especially the newer F100 and N80 models provide a great autofocus tool for the camera hunter. Several are priced around $500 new. When combined with the right autofocus lens, any of these cameras makes a great tool

           I won’t recommend any specific camera. I’ll just tell you that if I wasn’t satisfied with my Nikon F5’s, I’d seriously look at Canon’s EOS 3. 

           Next time we’ll consider some lenses to go with these fancy cameras. Until then, catch your in the good light.

Bill Silliker, Jr. teaches wildlife & nature photography for L.L. Bean's Outdoor Discovery Schools and has done the photography for 5 books, several of which he also wrote. He is editor of the website www.wildlifewatcher.com as well as for his own website at www.camerahunter.com

© Copyright 2000 Bill Silliker, Jr. all rights reserved.