Photography

I use manual focus 99.9% of the time. As a matter of fact I'm on vacation now for five months and I have 4 manual focus lenses with me and nothing else. 28mm,50mm,135mm and 200. The 200 I leave in the room as it is something I don't use often.

The autofocus on any entry-level lens (which is all I have even after almost 20 years of shooting) isn't reliable, so I've learned to shoot manual and focus quickly. If I eventually earn enough to pick up a mirrorless or something, those cameras basically shoot for you.

I almost never use manual focus. My Nikon gear is better than my eyes even with good glasses.

Quite often I shoot in single point focus mode and move the point where I want it.

I rarely miss focus.

I use manual focus quite a bit! Helps that I still shoot old manual focus film cameras, but I spend a lot of time with vintage lenses on my mirrorless. Focus peaking, my friend.

For any stills like posed portraits getting the eyes sharp, focusing on stars, focusing on the hyperfocal point in a landscape, etc. Live view, move cursor where focus point needs to be, 100% zoom in Live View (I have a button bound for this), manual focus until sharp, shutter (I use back button focus so shutter press doesn't re-focus)

When I don't want focus to move

Modern AF is so good that it is almost too good. My cameras have so many AF options that, sometimes, it is just easier to manually focus to the focus point that I want rather than clicking through the menu to switch the AF mode to the one that will work for me at the time.

I genuinely enjoy manual focus for most things, but at first I HATED manually focusing through an EVF. Once I got used to focus peaking (and its limitations) and zooming in for critical focus it became a breeze.

If you have a DSLR then you will have a more difficult time. Sure, there are guys out there on the web that will claim they can hit critical focus every time on a DSLR, but the fact of the matter is that the focusing screens on modern DSLRs are NOT designed for manual focusing and are really a subpar tool for the job. Unless you can find a split prism screen for your DSLR most of us mortals are probably better off sticking with AF.

What’s AF?

Seriously, I use auto focus for personal shooting and manual for pro but my reason is that I shoot product prototypes that later get replaced with cgi so I have to shoot multiple images of the same shot to get clean plates without product and without talent for later compositing.

If I shot people primarily, maybe I wouldn’t use manual focus much or at all.

Does back-button and repositioning myself for macro count? Otherwise, usually only when I'm shooting with my FM2.

Product, still life

Always.

Sinne the AF has become so good: seldom.

but i use manual focus: when the lens doesn‘t have AF (doh), Stars (Nightsky), sometimes in makro, sometimes landscape (long exposure of water, shots for panorama stitching)

I use a rangefinder camera a lot. It’s manual focus. I also use a stack of vintage lenses that are all manual focus and aperture.

I use manual focus whenever I use a tripod, which is 90% of the time.

Manual focus is the best easy for macro photography. I normally struggle with manual focus too and before I got a macro lens, I never thought I'd be able to rely on manual.

If I'm shooting something stationary and using a tripod, I manually focus using the magnification function on the screen

I switch to manual focus when I'm shooting products mostly.
Over a long session focus can get a bit wonky depending on the products. Flat garment photography can make focus a bit finiky. So I'll use something with high contrast to lock in the focus then keep it there for the entire session.

Will use it occasionally when shooting birds if they are in a busy (i.e. lots of sticks/reeds) environment.

I almost exclusively shoot manual focus. Turn on your cameras peaking and set focus assist to zoom in to make sure you're focusing on what you want and take your time.

Astrophotography

Kids these days 😂

Kidding.

Amateur photographer here, and my camera doesn't have the best autofocus, so I let it try and I adjust manually.

I use manual focus 100% of the time. I know autofocus is good but I learned photo with a fully manual SLR and for whatever reason it’s just my preferred method. That said, because I’m manually focusing and I only use single shot versus continuous, I take a much smaller amount of photos per hour compared to many of my peers. This is either good or bad depending on how the session went.

When i want to slow down a bit, i just use a vintage lens with a mirrorless body, for example if i want to shoot some great portraits id go for fujifilm xh1 (vertical grip) paired with zeiss planar t 85 f1.4 for nikon f. Amazing combo.

Focus Bracketing for Landscape and Macro, Zone focusing.

As for focus assistance, a lot of mirrorless cameras have magnification and focus peaking that should help.

For me MF is pretty fun with a rangefinder.

Whenever possible. Autofocus is for selfies and porn.

Macro photography

Shooting film: manual focus. Shooting digital: usually autofocus.

I use manual focus as much as practical. Certainly whenever I am doing close or macro shots. Or shots where I don’t feel like fighting the camera to get what I want.

But the issue is that manufacturers don’t want to using manual focus. They give you the possibility, pretending to be magnanimous, but then they remove the things that made it easy back before 1985. Most modern lenses don’t really have easy to use focus rings, and the camera viewfinders make it by default difficult to judge focus. And on mine, if the camera is set to use AF, if I turn it off by an override button, it will turn it on again after a time. Annoying.

That said, I use focus peaking, set pretty high, to help.

When I do astrophotography i nearly always use manual focus.

Today I was taking a photo through a screen that I’m going to use as a reference for a painting. Autofocus will only focus on the screen.

When I’m doing video or using an old lens that doesn’t have autofocus. Other than that, never.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. Autofocus is usually good enough to trust these days. I never used MF on my a6400. Older cameras like my a7ii though, I'll mf for low light cause the autofocus is ass

Only use it on my phone

I use MF most of the time. Only when the subject is moving do use AF. Like at the rodeo or a race.

I have a Sony so when I adjust focus the screen zooms in to assist get what the user wants in focus. I all enable the red outlines that help see what is in focus.

I find those features help me get precisely what I want in focus where as AF can be off.

i'm a beginner, so FYI. i use a Kodak PixPro AZ405.

so often i wish i had the ability to manually focus. it's probably my single biggest frustration. i really like the zoom (it's why i got the AZ405, 40x zoom seemed desireable), but i'm often trying to zoom on a single flower or leaf etc., and it just refuses to give me a nice detailed view of the subject. i want to wring it into focus so f'n bad.

Lenses made for manual focus are a world easier to use in manual than autofocus lenses. To answer your question, I do about 99% of my shooting in manual because many of my favorite lenses are manual focus only. You get used to it pretty quick, and the focus aids like focus peaking and focus assist are quite good these days.

Product photography

My most used lenses don't have autofocus. Yes, autofocus is great but it's also a tradeoff.
If you like to use fast lenses, autofocus adds a lot of size, weight and cost.

i shoot film only

Manual focus 100% of the time because I don't have a single AF camera at the moment. But if I have AF I use manual for difficult lighting scenarios or for slower paced scenes when I want to be more deliberate and thoughtful about the shot. Switched to all manual over the years because I generally like to take my time.

I put gaffer tap over the mf switch in all my lenses. Most cameras have an option for manual override so I have no reason to use straight manual focus.

Astrophotography.

Low light situations, Macro Photography, Action photography where you know where your main subject will be but are moving so cannot trust the auto focus to hit the right thing at the right moment.

There are plenty of uses for manual focus, just your average taking some photos here and there the auto focus generally covers it without concern but there are many cases where you may find manual focus a better option.

Old dude here.

I can understand the young shooter's situations because almost all of them have only used autofocus gear. It's something you have to practice at. Some lenses don't even have imprinted scales. Switch to using your camera to all manual.

The young shooters who are into film photography are the ones that are getting that experience. When they apply that knowledge and experience to their digital, those are the ones that excel the most.

I started back in the late 60's when film was the sensor and manual focus was the norm. I rarely, rarely use autofocus and auto settings on my digital gear. I don't even pixel-peep. In fact, I have gaffer's tape covering the rear screens.

After 4 decades of shooting transparency film, I still pretty much get what I want in two, maybe three, exposures. One learned exposure mighty well due to the unforgiving latitude of slide film. There was no "fix it in Post", you did that in-camera.

I still shoot digital photography like I've always shot film-based photography. Haven't the need to 'machinegun' exposures to get what I need or rely on autofocus as long as my vision hangs in there.

For video, I use my lens scales and maintain the distance from the subject as I record. After two seasons at NFL Films as a sideline Arri SR2 camera operator, I can still nail manual focus.

Set your camera to manual focus and practice, practice and practice.

I use manual focus on my Laowa macro (because it doesn't have AF). I also tend to use MF quite a bit in video for specific shots like a focus pull. For stills though, I am AF 98% of the time.

When in MF, I use focus peaking and magnification as tools to make sure I am locked to my subject.

DSLR are a weird low point in the manual focus timeliness. They don't have the split prism of historical SLR bodies, nor the focus guides, peaking, and magnification of mirrorless (unless you run in live view). I use manual focus all the time on both my mirrorless and my old SLR, because I have many manual lenses.

When it's necessary to fool new photographers into thinking they're doing it wrong for not going full manual everything.

When AF is unavailable, wrong, or will otherwise get in the way. AF might rack all the way across the range if your AF point goes from the subject to something it can't focus on like a featureless sky. Sports photographers might pre-focus to where the action will be instead of relying on AF tracking.

If what you're doing plus automation gets you the results you need, you're fine.

You didn't say what gear exactly you're using, but manual focus on a digital camera with live view using magnification is great for macro. Back-button focus is popular for separating AF from metering/shutter release.

Astrophotography/Nightscape photography.

Usually no other to use it except to maybe practice using it for "just in case".

I mostly use older lenses, cos of budget, and they are fun to use - So in my case it's probably atleast 75% of the time (I mostly use AF when im out with the family, so they can use the camera too).

With a mirrorless it's not difficult to manual focus, there's various aids like focus peaking etc. but it does require a bit of practice, like anything obviously.

i was shooting theough a fance at a f1 race and my autofocus kept trying to focus on the fence so i just kept it on manual

Astrophotography. I turn off AF, set the focus beforehand, during daylight hours, then use gaffer's tape to keep the focus ring from moving.