Some years back I read about and heard about BBF and how wonderful it was. All the cool kids did it, you know. So I set up my camera for it and did the back button thing for a long time. It was fine. It worked. I was able to coordinate my thumb and forefinger fine. But as time went by it seemed that although it was fine and worked, it did not do anything "better" for me and my style of underwater shooting. I began to wonder if it really made sense to use two fingers on two different buttons to accomplish what one finger on one button could do just fine. It also was not the most comfortable on some vertical shots. Maybe it depends on the camera or housing? I switched to using he shutter release button (well, the Nauticam lever) for both focus and shutter release. I am probably not allowed to have lunch at the cool kid's table anymore, but otherwise, I don't feel I am missing anything and I now have an additional, conveniently located button that I can program to do something else.

Again, this is for me and for my style of underwater photography. I am not saying one way is wrong or right. Vive la différence.

guys ( @Architeuthis @Clifton ) , I am able bodied right hand male with Nauticam housing. So I am not talking about left handed big hands small hands... I am talking about situations where I keep my camera extended in one (right) hand and using external monitor (forget viewfinder or built in monitor for these situations) I am framing and executing the shot. Now think through how you hold your Nauticam housing and where your back button lever is and imagine holding the grip, using back button lever and executing shutter at the same time. Not going to happen. And besides since camera is moving respective to subject all the time one has to rely on C-AF anyway. Then all BBF issue is a moot point. At least in my humble opinion.

Edited Thursday at 07:41 PM1 day by RomiK

4 hours ago, RomiK said:

has to rely on C-AF anyway. Then all BBF issue is a moot point. At least in my humble opinion.

I use Sony C-AF (with tracking) all the time underwater, and mostly BBF.

I could be mistaken, but I sense that BBF makes it quicker to acquire focus in tricky situations.

On land I rarely use BBF, because the Sony ergs are not so good for that.

In the end, it's whatever maximises your keepers.

8 hours ago, RomiK said:

guys ( @Architeuthis @Clifton ) , I am able bodied right hand male with Nauticam housing. So I am not talking about left handed big hands small hands... I am talking about situations where I keep my camera extended in one (right) hand and using external monitor (forget viewfinder or built in monitor for these situations) I am framing and executing the shot. Now think through how you hold your Nauticam housing and where your back button lever is and imagine holding the grip, using back button lever and executing shutter at the same time. Not going to happen. And besides since camera is moving respective to subject all the time one has to rely on C-AF anyway. Then all BBF issue is a moot point. At least in my humble opinion.

Every one is different , but I do similar regularly but using a 45 ° viewfinder, I just picked up my housing now and I can do it but it's difficult because of the weight and leverage from just using one hand, but I regularly use one hand UW with the left hand stabilising me against surge and/or current and the housing being close to neutral means i don't have the weight trying to pull the housing out of my grip, it's mainly for macro work, but I work similarly for wide angle work depending on whether I am hovering in mid water or doing something more like CFWA work close in where I can use my left to to stabilise myself.

Out of curiosity what is your left hand doing that you are operating one handed?

2 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

Every one is different , but I do similar regularly but using a 45 ° viewfinder, I just picked up my housing now and I can do it but it's difficult because of the weight and leverage from just using one hand, but I regularly use one hand UW with the left hand stabilising me against surge and/or current and the housing being close to neutral means i don't have the weight trying to pull the housing out of my grip, it's mainly for macro work, but I work similarly for wide angle work depending on whether I am hovering in mid water or doing something more like CFWA work close in where I can use my left to to stabilise myself.

Out of curiosity what is your left hand doing that you are operating one handed?

Stationary in current - holding me

wedged between the rocks - keeping distance

swimming in parallel - guiding me

:-)

It all depends on shooting style. If someone (like Mustard) is using viewfinder exclusively then he is not getting into these situations because if there is no viewfinder position there is no framing and no shot. Then of course they can swear by BBF as they would rarely get into one hand or extended hands awkward angle situations. But for me I find myself doing gymnastics or sprinting underwater and so using BBF is impractical. Like try to catch up with this guy and frame the shot using viewfinder... and no he was not coming to me to check me out 😆

Edited yesterday at 07:03 AM1 day by RomiK