Manual Focus

Although the autofocus capabilities of modern digital cameras at times seem to border on the miraculous in their features, such as deciding where to focus, focusing in low light, detecting faces, and tracking moving subjects, there are times when manual focus is your best option for getting the picture made the way you want it. For example, when shooting through glass, shooting a complex scene with many possible focus points, or shooting extreme close-ups (macro photography), there may be no viable substitute for adjusting the focus by hand.

Here’s a brief reminder of the basic procedure for using manual focus, after which I’ll discuss a couple of specific options that can help you achieve sharp focus manually in particular situations. In focusing manually with the Sony Alpha SLT-A77, you first have to consider what lens you are using. If you’re using a standard kit lens such as the Sony 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 SAM DT zoom lens, you will see an AF/MF switch on the lens itself. In order to use manual focus mode in that case, you have to set the switch on the lens to MF; if you leave it set to AF and set the switch on the camera to MF, the camera will still autofocus with the lens. In other words, when the lens has an AF/MF switch, always use the switch on the lens to change focus mod....