I guess that for me it depend on how I'm working. For action or grab shots I focus first, compose if I have time, then shoot. Most of my stuff isn't moving though and for these shots the question is always which region I want in focus rather than which point, this means I always have to compose before I photograph as otherwise I don't know what regions there are (OK I have to focus enough first that I can see properly in the viewfinder).
Perhaps it's my bad eyes but I have always tried to use the split image focusing aid as I can't seem to get sufficient accuracy focusing just on a matt screen (this is on MX and LX) - if I stop down to have some DOF to help me it's no problem but at max aperture the matt screen just doesn't, too me, reveal focusing errors as critically as the final print. On the istD there is only a matt screen (for now) but it's the first autofocus camera I have owned and the matt screen hasn't had much use so far :-) From: "Bruce Dayton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I almost always compose and then focus. But then I don't use focus > aids very often and have always preferred a plain matte screen in my > cameras. >
