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up vote 7 down vote favorite
1

My camera has these settings for autofocus, and I don't know what they mean. I suspect "A" is "Auto", and "C" is "continuous", but I have no idea what "S" is.

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What is the make and model of your camera? – Matt Grum Jul 28 '11 at 17:58
@Matt: It's a Nikon D7000 but I believe I have seen similar markings on a friend's Canon before. – Billy ONeal Jul 28 '11 at 17:59
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See also: photo.stackexchange.com/q/496/21 – Rowland Shaw♦ Jul 28 '11 at 19:07
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@Rowland: No, I'm not talking about AF-S lenses, I'm talking about the autofocus mode. (It's unfortunate the names overlap) – Billy ONeal Jul 28 '11 at 19:59
It's often best to include enough information in the question to make it unambiguous -- I see Craig has now edited it to include that; it would also be good in the future to give an indication as to what your camera is; many of the abbreviations used are specific to a particular manufacturer (for example, @vlad259 tries to cover both options) – Rowland Shaw♦ Jul 29 '11 at 7:32

3 Answers

up vote 16 down vote accepted

This link explains it well. Paraphrasing the article:

  • AF-C (AF-continuous or servo mode) is used for photographing moving subjects.
  • AF-S means single shot and is used for subject that is stationary.
  • AF-A is where the camera decides whether the subject is moving or not and tries to alternate between the servo and single shot mode accordingly.
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Thanks very much, very helpful – user9017 Mar 16 '12 at 20:12
up vote 4 down vote

There is another important difference between AF-S and AF-C. With AF-S, you cannot take a shot without focus being locked (green light being on). With AF-C you will take a shot anytime the shutter release is pressed. So with AF-C, while it will attempt to track focus on a moving subject, you can take shots at any time whether or not the AF has focus lock.

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At least on the D7000, this is configurable. The default behavior of AF-S is to wait for a lock because it is intended to shoot stationary subjects. But you can override this and force the camera to take the shot anyway by holding the AF-LOCK button (or you can change how this works completely). – Billy ONeal Dec 31 '12 at 7:14
up vote 2 down vote

Sometimes 'Servo' - continuous autofocus and sometimes 'Single' - one shot.

Try it by focusing on a moving subject and see what it does...

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