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I haven't used live view much, but need to use to for a self service "photo booth" for an event, where I am using the HDMI output so that guests are able to see the composition of the shot and pose.

I have the camera, a Nikon D7100, set to face focus mode. From the view on the screen it appears to work well and shows green rectangles around faces (which I believe means in focus).

However when the shutter button is pressed (either on the camera, or with remote control) the camera takes a second to refocus before taking the photo.

Is there any setting that can be changed to just use the focus currently seen in live view, and avoid the time penalty to refocus?

Edit: I am using a Nikon d7100 with a AF-S Nikkor 35mm 1:1.8g prime, I don't have the final setup yet but tests have been done in a bright room (I do note that the live view won't continuously autofocus unless there is a certain brightness)

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    \$\begingroup\$ @chulster There is a [nikon-d7100] tag attached to the question. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Commented Apr 27, 2019 at 19:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ Have you tried setting "shutter release priority" to 'release' instead of 'focus'? I don't know about the D7100, but many cameras have such an option buried in the menu somewhere. \$\endgroup\$
    – Michael C
    Commented Apr 27, 2019 at 19:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ Out of curiosity, what lens are you using? And what is the lighting like for your photobooth? Do you use continuous illumination, or a flash, or is there plenty of natural or existing lighting? \$\endgroup\$
    – scottbb ♦
    Commented Apr 27, 2019 at 19:49
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    \$\begingroup\$ @scottb detail added to question. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hugoagogo
    Commented Apr 27, 2019 at 22:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ Have you tried 'back button focus'? Then you can use different buttons for focusing and taking the shot. \$\endgroup\$
    – Orbit
    Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 7:12

2 Answers 2

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I'm not sure about the settings issue but you certainly can use manual mode. If your f stop gives you enough depth of field, you can just leave the focus and shoot to your hearts content from person to person.

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It sounds like the camera is set to focus on a half press of the shutter release.

You can override this by setting the Fn or AE-L/AF-L buttons as "AF-ON". In this case, according to page 253 and 256 of the manual available here :

"Pressing the [Fn or AE-L/AF-L] button initiates autofocus.The shutter-release button can not be used to focus."

This may not help if you have something else you want to assign to these buttons, in which case there's always - as jmPhotography suggests - manual focus.

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