Steve Perry
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 p.7 #18 · UPDATE - Nikon D5/D500 Dynamic AF Issue | |
T-O Shooter wrote:
I joined FM specifically for this thread. I reported the screwy D25 5 months ago on DPR. I shoot mainly BIF, and I have no problem tracking birds. But the D500 would focus on the background that should not have been picked up. I wondered if it could be as I read elsewhere, that with D25 you were picking up crosstype sensors that were outside the main intended focus point, but being crosstype they were strong enough to take over focus. So I was wishing for a D9 setting. Now it seems obvious that that was not the issue. As others have said, much appreciated that you put all the work into this.
I think that fellows are all googly eyed over group, only because D25 and Dwhatever just doesn't work. I shoot D9 on my D810, on my 750 when I had it and on my D4 ( no choice ) D4 recently updated to D4s. For example, fellows are using group in situations where group is not the best choice, assuming all available options work. If you have a BIF parallel to you, group is just as likely to grab a wing as the head, as the wing is closer to the camera. This applies to any subject where the intended subject has something on it that's closer to the camera than your intended focus point, but is covered by the 5 pt group pattern.
Also, Steve, I'm not sure why you would suggest that this is design intended by Nikon, not explained to the user that it is different, and left for the end user to figure out and work around? Just seems like a screwup by Nikon to me. ...Show more →
Initially, I thought it was broken, but now I think - maybe - it's just different.
The reason I thought it was broken was because it didn't appear to be handing off the AF point as the old system did. Anytime I looked at the AF point that was used in View NX-i (or on the camera) it would show only the primary point, never anything else. With the D810, it would show that it selected and used a different point (as seen in the photos at the beginning of this thread). So, it looked like it was never handing off the AF point and it made me think there may be something wrong.
However, thanks to Snapsy, we've had a breakthrough and have been able to look deeper into the EXIF and found that the camera is actually switching AF points. Nikon seems like it's just showing the selected AF point, much the way it does with Group (i.e. with Group, it only shows you where the Group was, not which specific AF points it used, however, if you dig into the EXIF far enough, you can see the specific AF point used at capture).
So, at least we know something is going on at this point. I have a pretty good idea of how the system works now, but I have a few more things to try to verify. I'd love to share but if I'm wrong I'd make a bad situation worse. So, give me a few days and I'll try to wrap this up. 
Right now, I am comfortable in saying that it IS different. It's disappointing that there's been no documentation from Nikon that I (or anyone else it seems) have been able to uncover. So, broken or not, I still can't say for sure, an improvement or not, for most people, I have to say not.
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