Focusing with shooting aperture allows you too preview DOF and bokeh it was quite handy today for landscape in bright daylight, but what about times when light is less available ?? what about the focus hunting ??
what would you prefer ?
I prefer focusing wide open if I'm doing it manually. I don't mind if it stops down after I've focused. For AF, I don't mind as long as it's fast and accurate. I think this is the answer for pretty much everyone. Nobody would say "I want it to focus stopped down as long as possible even if it gives me focus hunting and inaccurate focus".
I used similar techique when I learned photogrpahy - and then only on limited situations. still prthres landscape and macro
At sertain moment I learned my cammera/format and lenses, and I dont used even for landscape and macro.
anyway in most stuaton you are forced to shoot in AF Av e.g. - shooting sport wedding portrait,urban
Wouldn't it be preferable if we could choose via custom function how would we want camera to focus ?
Yeah but we don't.
Also, most of the time it doesn't really matter at all. Most mirrorless models are smart enough to open up the aperture when they need to, be it for low light or accurate focusing.
'Personally, I always focus wide open, whether AF or MF, check if that is what I want to achieve and possibly adjust accordingly, and may check DoF by closing down, f.w. for macro, tilt-shifty and landscapes mostly.
Whether that is mirrorless or dslr, doesn't matter in my book.
Other than that, I am a slow shooter, even when shooting sports. I don;t do pray and spray. And because of that, I've never found any problems with the way a mirrorless camera focuses - actually, mirrorless is more accurate than dslrs are from my experience.
BTW, if I wanted to, I could shoot sports at 20 fps, but I am just not interested. In the past I shot with film, no winder, and I honestly do not think I need one, whether digital or otherwise. However, that is just my preference.
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....
I don't want to say anything against shooting wide open, it's standard on DSLR. But at least in Fuji's AF-C mode the lens is always in working aperture and only wide open if I choose a wide aperture.
Personally I don't care much if the camera autofocuses wide open or not as long as the picture is sharp. There's also a chance of focus shift of a lens when stopped down which could cost the advantage of more precise focusing. However I never tried if focus shift is so bad that it would ruin the wide open focus after stopping down.
