Oh, Frank, I see you completely out of tthis world... :-))
AF in SLR has done a leap ahead of what has been thought about AF a decade ago.
Most of contemporary SLRs (even the most consumer one) are featured by very sophisticated and responsive AF capable of locking and tracking fast sports.
Some of pro AF SLR are specifically tuned for really fast and resposive AF, featured by multi AF points you're able to choiose from and several AF modes to cover pretty much every situation, but in most demanding low-light conditions (in which case you would be also struggling focusing manually).

I know, careful manual focusing skill is oneof the most highly valuable for the photographer (and there might be the cases where very careful manual focusing may outperform AF in precision due to natural AF pinpoint tolerance), but rankly, I can hardly think abot such cases. May be I became too lazy to swithc over to manual, but I leant AF and specific AF issues of the camera (as well my previous Minoltas), so can only think about manual in really low-light or low-contrast situations where AF would struggle more then would my eye.

Regards, Alex

Thanks for the education, Alex. I have buddies with high end digital still cameras, along with all the great---new---lenses. What I noticed is that for the most part, they take some nice shots. What I also noticed is that they take some not so nice shots because of the auto everything. But..., if they want to capture the moment, and fast, well, let's just say that they leave me behind in the dust! Ahh, I recall my early days of shooting 100 ASA B&W print and 25 ASA color slides; and then later came my my Super8. The pain, the pain of it all.... :-)

Well, Frank, you know even the most sophisticated camera system will not cover for photographer's absense of skills.
Often people have enough cash to fork otu for the "latest and gratest" paying lots of cash to latest, most capable SLRs and digital SLRs, but proudly holding the stuff hanging on thei neck take nothing but mediocre snapshots worth of cheapest P&S. On the other hand, I know amateurs that used to own old manual stuff and I was never capable of producing such wonderful images even with my advanced camera and high quality optics.

Its not the cam, but the person behind one... :-)

Regards, Alex