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AnnJS wrote:
I have been perfectly satisfied with the way that AF works in the D5 but I have no experience with a D500.
I find the new AF to be responsive, fast and accurate and have never understood the reason for the fuss about it.
The new 3D Tracking mode is truly remarkable and the Dynamic Area modes just require the photographer to be able to hold, or replace, the primary point over the object within the time-limit which may require a little practice.
The large number of superb action and wildlife photographs which I have seen posted in various Forums indicate that plenty of D5 users have mastered focusing on these cameras.
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ilkka_nissila wrote:
I agree, Ann.
The D5's 9-point dynamic gives a great balance of control while providing assistance to alleviate the effects of camera shake and slightly imperfect tracking of the subject on the part of the photographer. This mode is missing from the D500. I think it would be easy for Nikon to fix the omission in a firmware update to the D500 and my guess is that it would be found very useful if provided.
As for the dynamic area algorithm itself, I think it follows the manual and technical guide more to the letter now in the D5 than in the older cameras such as the D810.
I think use of 9-point dynamic and 25-point dynamic for subjects which are large in the frame and group area and auto area AF for subjects which are small in the frame and near complex backgrounds should work well for most. One just needs to be aware that the new dynamic does not give a preference to closer subjects and this can then be exploited to advantage. And it doesn't track the subject within the dynamic area (never did). As Nikon's response says, 3D tracking is the mode where the subject is identified based on color and tracked within the frame. And it works really well in many cases (though subject being occluded by another or face turning away can lead to slipping of the tracking to another subject). Tracking can be restarted easily enough. Note that the focus point shown in 3D tracking is the closest of the user selectable points to the active point, not one of the invisible points which nevertheless take part in tracking (making it very precise). It does require some (color) contrast between the subject and background to work well.
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ilkka_nissila wrote:
D5's 9-point dynamic has allowed me to get as good rates as 99% of shots in focus with the 105/1.4 at f/1.4 of samba dancers in daylight. Compare with typical rate of about 50-70% in focus with the same lens using the D810 in single point mode. In fact even single point in the D810 has such a large receptive field that focus on the eye is difficult to achieve when the dancers move. Linear points are more likely to focus on the decorations on the forehead and cheeks rather than facial detail and it can be hard to hold the primary point on the eye without ever slipping to the forehead or the decorations surrounding the head, sometimes even covering parts of it.
This is an example of a situation where the eye is surrounded by details with high contrast and colour, many of which are closer to the camera than the eye, and any kind of closest-point priority would work against the photographer in such situations. What I do is I try to keep the primary point on the eye and if anything I let it slip on the cheek but not on the decorations. The D5 seems to "get" perfectly what I'm trying to do in this case. With the D810 I get a high frequency of shots focused on decorations closer to the camera. It just doesn't support the level of precision needed for this type of work. Of course, I could shoot at f/4 or f/5.6 and be done with it. But I don't want to, and now I don't have to....Show more →
I don't think anyone is saying the AF system on the D5 /D500 isn't fantastic - it really is. It's by far superior to anything I've ever used (in fact, I too really like the D9 option on the D5). The point of this thread was to see if the behavior has changed - and it has.
The problem is that while the new system works better for some people, it's actually a step back for many others. After all, just because something works well for one photographer, it doesn't necessarily follow that it's going to be the same for everyone. The sticking point is that for many photographers, the old system worked really well and the new system isn't delivering the expected performance due to the change. It really depends on your subject and shooting style. For me personally, it's a wash but I certainly don't dismiss the complaints from people who don't like the new system.
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