What's your low-light autofocus strategy?

[chylld]

In low light with my D40 + 18-270 I find my camera 'hunts' for focus a lot, i.e. it goes back and forth, back and forth, repeatedly overshooting the mark, even with the centre AF sensor right over a clear edge.

My personal strategy to get around this is to keep 1 finger lightly on the focus ring (to help stop it overshooting) and to make 3-5 repeated brief half-presses of the shutter button to sort of "crawl" the focus to the right spot.

I'm wondering what everyone else does in low light when the AF struggles? (Besides switch to MF obviously)

 

[Stanicmi]

honestly, the d90 hasnt struggled for me... i usually hold down the shutter halfway as i track my subject

 

[Aleksey]

My low-light autofocus strategy? F1.8 !!!! F2.8 at least. AF-S, SB-400. Monopod/tripod or VR.

 

[chylld]

My low-light autofocus strategy? F1.8 !!!! F2.8 at least. AF-S, SB-400. Monopod/tripod or VR.

50mm f/1.8, is that the AF-D? wouldn't that not autofocus on your d40x?

 

[Alias]

laser pointer mounted on the hot shoe and pointed at the subject, the camera will then pick this up and focus. Failing that infinity focus and a long exposure if its a stationary object, oh or the focus assist light.

 

[chylld]

laser pointer mounted on the hot shoe and pointed at the subject, the camera will then pick this up and focus. Failing that infinity focus and a long exposure if its a stationary object, oh or the focus assist light.

Not allowed to use laser pointers anymore in Australia And my lens blocks my AF assist light.

Infinity focus and long exposure for a stationary object... if it's stationary focus usually isn't a problem because it probably won't move in the next 10 seconds I need to AF with my lens. Organic subjects are the problem...

 

[Luke_Miller]

Not allowed to use laser pointers anymore in Australia And my lens blocks my AF assist light.

You could use the AF assist in a Nikon flash or the SU-800. If you turn off the flash output the AF assist function still works.

 

[Aleksey]

You have to turn the focus ring by hand on 50 f1.8 and D40x body, but the green dot is working and it is very accurate on my camera. By AF-S I meant single-servo AF. It works better in low light. Sorry for confusion.

 

[chylld]

You could use the AF assist in a Nikon flash or the SU-800. If you turn off the flash output the AF assist function still works.

agree, the SB600 is also a good candidate for this purpose. however i don't always have my speedlight on my camera, and i want the base setup (just body + lens) to be able to AF on its own.

 

[aznracer2003]

I quickly manual focus to get the subject approximately in focus, them press the shutter half way to fully auto focus, it locks on 95 percent of the time.

 

[chylld]

i switched lens to a nikon 18-200, MILES better than the tamron 18-270 and no AF problems whatsoever!! manual override is a plus but have never needed it.

at the same time i got myself an sb-600, which is very impressive to say the least! the af assist even lets me focus on a blank wall, and in pitch black darkness the AF still achieves a lock in under half a second. thanks for the recommendation!