Are Focus Assist Lights even needed any more?

3 years 8 months ago #692012 by Remy Hedrick
Considering the ISO advancements and other technology, are focus assist lights even needed on cameras still?  


Photo Comments
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3 years 8 months ago - 3 years 8 months ago #692018 by Nikon Shooter
Hey Remy,

ISO is related to the exposure and is in no way to be associated
with anything AF.

AF systems work best when contrast is detected in a scene. Low
light offers little contrast for the AF to lock onto… support may be
needed through some assist light.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
Photo Comments
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3 years 8 months ago #692020 by CharleyL
20 years ago I used a red laser gun sight with a modified hot shoe base that I could attach to my camera whenever the lighting wasn't sufficient for the camera auto focus system to work properly. It was easy to remove the red dot in the photo via Photoshop later. Before using it I always explained what I was doing to avoid anyone thinking that I was pointing a gun at them. It's funny that only this past year I re-discovered this gun sight laser in the bottom of a pocket of my camera bag. I haven't used it in many years.

Today the auto focus systems in cameras are considerably more sensitive, so this is much less of a problem. Many of today's off camera flash transmitters contain laser pattern generators to assist the camera focus. On my Godox X2T-c and X Pro-c transmitters, this laser pattern can be turned on and off via a switch.  When on, it produces a cross grid pattern during camera auto focus, but only during the focusing and is automatically switched off before the photo is taken. It's only on briefly during auto focus and as a cross hatch pattern, it doesn't look like someone is pointing a gun, so I've never had anyone even slightly concerned about it, so this is much better than using a laser gun sight.

Charley


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