AF Point in manual focus mode?

J

JaredSMark

Active member
I'm using a 60D and I'm a little confused. I've never used the camera for photos, just video. I've set it to M mode so I can set exposure manually and I've also got my lens in MF/manual focus mode. I was under the impression that with manual focus engaged, changing the focus point wouldn't matter. It's letting me change it though, I didn't think it would give me that option. Is it set up to where the focus point can be changed in MF mode but without any difference or changing anything?

The last-selected AF point flashes red when pressing the shutter halfway in MF mode. And also, if I make sure all 9 points are showing up on the top of the camera when you press the AF point button, when I get my shot ready and press the shutter halfway, it seems to select some AF points for me automatically depending on what I've got in my shot.

Maybe I'm not understanding what the AF point thing is supposed to do, unless all of this only functions when I've got my camera set to auto focus mode, and in MF mode it's just.... there even though it's useless in MF mode.
 
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You can turn on all the AF points - that's when you see all of them lit up (activated).

But once an exposure is made, it's really rare that all the AF points happened to point to something that the camera thinks is perfectly in the focus. So, if you check an image after it was made and if you configure the camera (or Canon software) to show the AF points, you typically only see some of them, which are those activated and actually used.

There may be situations where you might need to turn on all the AF points manually. But how can the camera know where YOU want the camera to focus? So, I would suggest that you never turn on all the AF points unless you know exactly what you are doing.
 
But my original question is more like, why are the AF points even functioning considering that I'm in manual focus mode? I didn't think it would allow me to see any of that.
 
Unless the camera is broken, all its AF points are functional. Your options are only to choose which mode to choose to activate the points.

If a Canon camera can communicate with a manual focus lens, it will try to use its activated AF point(s) to confirm the actual focus if the AF point(s) happen to correspond to the actual focus. This is written in the camera manual.
 
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