Hi,

I wondered if all you lucky people who have D700s have tried the tripod mode for focusing. I'm particularly interested in its practical use in landscape & macro photography - in theory, at least, it would seem to be great to be able to choose to focus anywhere in the frame. I wondered whether out in the field it is readily usable (or does bright outside light make it difficult?) & whether it works for macro with or without manual focusing. For macro I invariably use manual focus, partly because I can then select what to focus on in the frame & also to avoid the lens having to hunt. Is it feasible to use auto-focus for macro shots in tripod mode? Alternatively, can you get good results using manual focus in tripod mode?

Thanks

Bridget

Live view works excellently on a tripod (bar the mirror lock up issue), in low light the 'iso' is increased and the screen is still bright but noisy and precise manual focus is amazing since you can zoom in to 100% - You can see any movement at all of the focus ring affect the picture.

Autofocus in live view is terrible, it uses contrast detection (just like digicams) and the few times I've used it has (slowly) focused on the wrong thing. On a tripod is there really any need for autofocus anyway? For macro I tend to shoot many frames at different focus points manaully and blend them using helicon focus.

Hi,

thanks for the reply. It sounds as though live view is good for manual focus, but lousy for autofocus. I assume that the mirror lock up issue is that you can't do that as well as live view, unless you lock the focus & then switch live view off.

Bridget