Wildlife Photography across the Water: Focus limiters

Thursday, 13 August 2009

Focus limiters

Certain lenses like macro and telephotos have a switch on the side that can limit the amount of distance that the lens can focus-why would you have these and in what situations would you use them?
Well firstly they will speed the AF up by only using the distance that you need to shoot in rather than the full- close in to far away, for instance if you using a Canon 500mmF4 I.S the focus limiter button has settings of 4.5m to infinity,4.5m to 10m and 10m to infinity,if you are shooting birds on a perch (branch) and the perch is say 6m away set the focus limiter button to 4.5m to 10m as you do not want or need the lens to focus either side of that, if you are shooting birds in flight then set it to 10m to infinity as the birds will not be closer than 10m and if you find that need to shoot both close and distant subjects then use the 4.5m to infinity, The 500F4 I.S has a minimum focusing distance of 4.5m so if anything is closer than that then you either cant focus,will have to move back or use extension tubes
My Nikon 600F4 VR has just 2 settings of 10m to infinity and FULL which will take me from the closest focusing distance of 5.5m to infinity, If again i shoot birds in flight i will set the switch to 10m to infinity, by not having to focus from 5.5m to 10m the AF will be faster and the lens less likely to hunt
Macro lenses are another type of lens that have focus limiters as one they are slower to focus than standard telephotos and you tend to work at certain distances,Look at my Sigma 180mm F3.5 macro below

you will see the switch has 3 settings 0.46-0.61,0.61-infinity and FULL which will be 0.46 {minimum focusing distance) to infinity,True macro lenses magnify to 1:1 which is at minimum focusing distance so if you are using AF with your macro lens and you want maximum magnification then set the limiter to 0.46-0.61 if however that makes the subject too big and you have to move back then use the middle setting and if your subject is farther than 0.61m then you will have to use the FULL setting
This may sound abit time consuming and fiddly but it will help you by having better/faster AF

Dave

4 comments:

Peter Edge14 August 2009 at 11:54
Dave, A quick question if I may . Do the minimum focussing distances quoted by the lens manufacturers refer to using autofocus or do they apply in manual focus as well? The reason I ask is that my 180mm macro canon seems to focus manually down to much closer that the 90 cm in the manual. The longer lenses 500mm or 300mm I haven't noticed that I can focus manually any closer than the official distances.
Pete
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Dave14 August 2009 at 15:28
Hi Pete
I the figures quoted are for AF, My 600 is quoted as having a minimum focusing distance of 5.5m which it does have using AF however in manual focus i can get it down to 5m,I find it strange that the Canon 180 macro has a minimum focus distance of 90cm when the Sigma is 41cm,What does it say on the focus limiter
Dave
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Dave14 August 2009 at 18:56
Sorry Pete that should have said 46cm, I have looked at B+H website for the Canon 180 and it says that the minimum focusing on the Canon is similar to the Sigma lens
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Peter Edge14 August 2009 at 19:43
Dave yep my mistake I think its around 18 inches with the autofocus.
Pete
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.