[QUOTE] That is a nice way to go, I made that change on my D700. The other thing needed to make this work was the default setting of "don't take a pic unless it's in focus" which is infuriating for much of my shooting.[/QUOTE] Yes, it is a nice feature. I was surprised at how little time it took to become accustomed to using the AE-L/AF-L button. Having to use the shutter button to pre-focus gives up a lot. Would pressing the D700's AE-L/AF-L button while focusing (using the AF-ON button instead of the shutter button) as described on page 78 help? The manual says that this will lock both the focus and exposure. If I understand what you're trying to accomplish, the D700 would benefit from having a feature from my Fuji S9600. When a selector switch places the S9600 in manual focus mode, pressing a button in the center of the switch causes the camera to focus and then immediately revert to manual focus mode.