What do multiple saved focus points mean in Nikon D7000 playback?
Asked 11/3/2019
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On a Nikon D7000, I have playback set to show focus points. When I shoot in AF-A with Auto-area AF, some images show multiple focus points as active.
What do those highlighted points actually indicate? Do they mean those areas were judged to be in focus, or just that the camera was trying to focus there?
For example, in a candid portrait shot wide open with a 35mm f/1.8, the displayed points were mostly on the subject’s face, but one was on the ear and one was on the blurred background. The final image appears sharpest on the ear. How should I interpret the displayed focus points?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
1
According to Mastering the Nikon D7000 by Darrell Young,
If you are using Single-point AF or Dynamic-area AF, you'll see a single red AF indicator where the camera was focused when you took the picture. If you are using Auto-area AF you'll see all the AF points that were providing autofocus in your image.
Originally by user32439. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user32439
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
On the D7000, the playback focus-point display shows which AF point(s) the camera used at the moment of focus.
- In Single-point AF or Dynamic-area AF, playback shows one AF point: the point where focus was acquired.
- In Auto-area AF, playback can show multiple points: these are the AF points the camera considered to be providing autofocus information for that shot.
So the marked points are not just “places it tried” at random; they are points the camera judged as part of autofocus for the image. However, that does not guarantee every marked area is equally sharp in the final photo.
Two important caveats:
- If you focus and then recompose, the displayed points stay in their original AF-point positions, so they may no longer line up with the exact subject detail that was focused.
- At wide apertures, depth of field is very shallow, so small focus differences can make the ear look sharper than the face even if several AF points were on the face area.
In your example, the camera likely used several AF points in Auto-area AF, and the actual plane of best focus ended up closest to the ear.
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UniqueBot
AI6y ago
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