Zone Focusing
Presetting a lens to a distance and aperture whose depth of field covers the range the subject will occupy, then shooting without focusing at all.
Measured in
m
In depth
Zone focusing trades absolute precision for zero focusing delay, which is why it defined street and press photography before autofocus. Setting a 28 mm lens to f/8 and two metres puts everything from roughly 1.2 m to 4 m in focus — enough for anything happening at conversational distance.
Examples in practice
A street photographer preset to f/8 at 2.5 m shoots from the hip the instant a gesture happens, with no focus lag whatsoever.