Going to feel stupid for asking..but... AF question

[MiracleB]

Okay!

So, I do not normally shoot intentional still life.

Today I am attempting to shoot a collection of crystal clusters I mined in Arkansas. 

I have a light box set up, all the proper staging - but I am having issues with shooting the clusters.

I have the full set of focus points active, but when I go in to shoot no matter what I do the camera chooses to focus on one or two points to one side of the cluster leaving the rest of the cluster fuzzy. No amount of re-focusing or moving seems to help.

I need every focus point active 100% of the time (unless I choose to change it).

Is there a way to force every single focus point to be active 100% of the time... a setting I am missing??

There is probably a very obvious answer to this, but I am having a very blonde morning.

Many thanks in advance.

[MiracleB]

With at least 100 clusters and another 100 single points to document, exposure stacking would indeed be a tremendous amount of effort to get all of them. If it can be avoided, that would be best, lol... Robert is right about that!

If there is no better option I shall reserve it for the prettiest of the collection.

[ebiggs1]

"If there is no better option I shall reserve it for the prettiest of the collection."

I doubt you need more than 3.  In that example of the barn, which has an extreme amount of f-stop range, it took only 3.  It is automatic and really is painless.  No matter what Bob from Boston claims. I swear it is easy.  Besides, if you are not post processing you don't truly want the best image possible. 

I use Lightroom mostly but there are others, some are free.  It is just a few mouse clicks as it is automatic in LR as well.

On my camera I tell it to bracket a shot.  It takes three shutter button releases. You can leave it in P mode if you want to. After the camera automatically reverts back to single shot.  I import in LR.  Tell LR to stack the three shots and 'bingo' there it is.

All the LR adjustments are now available for any other magic your heart desires.

The decision is yours.