Good morning all. I found out my wife thinks I don't give her enough privacy.
At least that's what she says in her diary.
We're off to see that new Marvel film tomorrow night, 'Aluminum Man'.
As a superhero, he's different. Iron Man stops the bad guys, apparently Aluminum Man just foils their plans.
This week I want to talk about Back Button Focus, that I have set now on all my Pentaxes.
When the finger is at times focusing half way down and at others taking the shot, it's possible to make mistakes, when taking a sequence of a couple of shots as a runner approaches a bend, couple more as they hit the bend and pass someone, then a couple more as they run towards you. The wrong fingering and you may never recover.
With Back Button Focus, the tasks are now completely separated. The thumb operates the focus only, and the shutter by the index finger only.
Even if you shoot single shots of stationary subjects with focus and recompose to get the proportions you like in the image, the camera will not fight you as you centre it, it won't annoyingly try to reacquire. If you keep your thumb off, it's like the focus has been locked into what you previously decided.
In recent bodies, you go to the menus and in Button Customization, then AF/AE-L, then choose Enable AF2.
If you're like me, you'll find it takes a while to get used to, then you never want to go back, and shooting with someone else's camera, you'll have to restrain yourself going into their settings and changing them.
To finish with, there's the story of the big city lawyer who went duck hunting.
He shot a bird, but it fell into a field on the other side of a fence.
As he climbed over, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.
The lawyer responded: "I shot a duck and it fell in this field and I'm going to retrieve it."
The old farmer replied: "This is my property and you're not coming over here."
"Look, I'm one of the best trial lawyers in the country, and if you don't let me get that duck, I'll sue and take everything you own."
The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently you don't know how disputes are resolved in the outback. We settle small disagreements like this with the Three Kick Rule."
The lawyer asked: "What's the Three Kick Rule?"
"Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, I go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on, back and forth until someone gives up."
The lawyer quickly thought he could easily take on the old codger, and agreed to abide by the local custom.
The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the barrister. His first kick planted the tip of his steel toed work boot into his groin and dropped him to his knees.
His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth. He was on all fours when the third kick to his rear sent him tumbling.
Summoning every bit of his will and remaining strength, he very slowly managed to get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he said, "Okay, you old fart. Now it's my turn."
The old farmer smiled and said: "Nah, I give up. You can have the duck."
Next Week in Beginners Tips: Conjunction
Find the rest of the series here:
Clackers' Beginners Tips (Collected) - PentaxForums.com
Last edited by clackers; 05-31-2023 at 06:53 PM.