Which AF method? Rear or shutter button?

Rear button for me all the time, and AF-C most of the time. I just find I get much better results this way.

Cheers

Shutter button here. I tried the rear button for a while, but kept (I'm embarrassed to admit) forgetting to focus! Now I have the rear button set to cancel AF, so I can actually take a picture when doing focus/recompose (if the red dot is on something which isn;t in focus, the shutter won't fire - I think this may be because I have catch in focus enabled but not sure.

I may try the rear button again, but the position isn't the most accessible it could have been.

Always the rear button for me, I find it far more flexible and less prone to focus errors when re-composing. The only downside is that I get confused when switching between K-5 and K-x as the buttons are in different places! I can live with that though.

Regards
David

Rear button for me. Enforced choice as I have a tremor - my hands won't do half a press on the shutter - its all or nothing! But I think I'd go with rear button even if I had the choice. I like to compose my shots using the centre focus point and then recompose and keep shooting for a few shots and I wouldn't be able to do that with the half shutter press.

I have no doubt that for quick focus and single shot then the shutter half press would work best for most people.

I'd imagine that the best option is to become proficient with both methods and use the best option depending on the circumstances at the time.

Thank you all for your comments. Majority seem to favour rear button, but I also like the 'one button' argument from John R.

On balance though I think I'll keep on with the rear button, but add AF-C, which I hadn't considered.

Now, just need to get them to re-run the Olympic torch past my house...

And if you want the equivalent of AF-S then just ease off with the thumb once you get the green hexagon focus confirmation

Rear button hear it took some getting used to though.

I'm in the smaller group of shutter only for a few reasons.

Firstly, as John says, why press two buttons.

Secondly, I use the rear wheel to control the aperture so having to 'find' the rear buttons is a pain.

Thirdly, pressing or just holding any button at the rear of the camera when taking a shot it counter-intuitive. For me, when I'm shooting I am pulling the camera towards me. I don't mind having buttons on the front (to check the horizon) but pushing the camera away with my thumb just seems plain wrong.

Fourthly, the shutter button is always in the same place, regardless of which camera I'm using.

And finally, I'm too old to change! Focus, keep button half-pressed, compose, shoot, job done.

Another vote for the rear button.

Depends what I'm doing

rear button/AF-C for wildlife and sport
shutter button/AF-S for walkabout and portrait
manual focus for macro and landscape

Shutter button all the time. Then my trigger finger is always ready. I can't think why I would want to use the rear button; it's clumsy, slow & there is the likely confusion with the LV button.

Thanks all for your continued input.

What's coming over for me is that there is clearly a more 'horses for courses' argument as to which mode to use and to decide in advance.

What prompted this was being caught out when an Olympic torch bearer got off a bus right in front of me and I was suddenly scrambling for a shot.

I knew the torch relay would be coming past my road, and when, and had assumed I would be 'tracking' the relay approaching towards me so could shoot at a pre-chosen point, but suddenly there was the bus, the door opened, and out she stepped!

Would have been a great shot if in focus

Shutter button for me. Why use 2 buttons when it can all be done with one. After reading this thread I've had a look at all the available settings for AF. And just because I like all the buttons to do something I've set the af button to cancel AF. Cant think of a single use for it other than for showing MF in the viewfinder

I didn't even know this was an option. I thought the af button was for liveview and shutter button half press was the proper way.

I know this is an old thread but I just read something about it so did a search.

I've got say, recently been using the rear AF button and my in flight bird shots have improved 200%