Besides the aperture and shutter speed, setting the focus is the third important step before pressing the shutter button. Aperture and shutter speed are simply calculated by the amount of light available. For focus, the distance to the subject is important. For a long time, the distance had to be estimated or found out with an aid such as a rangefinder.
Especially with subjects in motion, the distance can change quickly and you have to adjust your settings. It was for just such situations that Leica’s autofocus was introduced in the 1970s. Then in 1977, the Konica C35 AF was produced in large quantities and made the technology available to the masses. In today’s world, you’ll find few cameras that don’t offer automatic focus adjustment at the very least.
An overview of cameras that have been offered with a built-in autofocus system since 1977.
