Originally posted by amp Are you talking about shooting sports?
He is talking about shooting weddings.
Outside of the staged portraits, there are significant AF challenges with weddings. A good example would be the brides entrance as she walks up the aisle. Lighting is often a bit dim and there are no options for repeat of a missed shot. You must nail focus and will have only a few seconds total for all attempts. Oh, and there are extra points awarded for not making a spectacle of yourself in the process.
At my daughter's wedding a year ago, the pro shooting the outside wedding used a FF Canon with (IIRC) a 70-200 for the ceremony itself and switched to cropped sensor with a short zoom for the reception. I did fine with my K-3 at the rehearsal the day before and at the reception, but am not sure it would have worked day of for the actual "trip down the aisle".*
Having said all of this, I know of high-end pros that routinely shoot weddings with manual focus medium format film** (
) and have no problems getting the critical shots...no AF, no SR, no machine-gunning...
Steve
* As I remember the day, I always chuckle. I was walking her across the meadow towards the last rank of chairs and she wanted to hurry. I saw that the photog was not "set" and whispered to her to slow down or she was not going to get any photos.
** Here in the Portland area, many brides insist upon at least partial use of B&W film