"DudeBoyz" writes:
In look at my camera, I see these four Auto-Focus modes
available:

- Face Detect
- iESP
- SPOT
- AREA

I find that I prefer to use SPOT, because it is often hard to get
the auto-focus to target on the specific object you want it to
focus on if there is much else around it.

AREA is sort of like SPOT, but I prefer to do an auto-focus with
SPOT and then frame the picture while holding the shutter button
half-way down, finally pressing the shutter button all the way
down.

Yes, that's how I work too. I want to control what the camera focuses
on. Most of the other modes are intended for single-aim snapshooting:
you frame the picture the way you want, and the camera takes a bunch of
autofocus readings (one at each place there is a sensor) and "magically"
selects which one to use for adjuting the lens (often, the magic
algorithm is "take the closest point you found").

I was wondering if the preference for SPOT on my part is heavily
in the minority, or if other folks still prefer to not give up
the farm and go fully-auto.

I think full-auto is for people who don't want to worry about operating
the camera (e.g. you loan it to your grandmother for a few shots), or
when you expect you will not have time to do anything else.

I *can* see selecting a single focus point that is not in the centre, if
you know you want to track a moving object but you don't want that
object to be framed in the centre of the image.

Dave