astonsenna
Offline
•
Upload & Sell: Off
|
| p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Nikon AF troubles - thinking of switching to Canon | |
So I'm not that invested into Z mount yet, and I've bought everything used, so there wouldn't be much of a net loss to switch, first concern addressed.
Current Nikon shooter, D5 DSLR and Z6 II and now a Z6 III (used, in return window for a bit still). I like the feel and shape of my Nikons and their grip and plastic materials, but that may be more down to familiarity than anything. I recently held an R3 and was just absolutely smitten. Also, there are some weird ergo quirks with Nikons and I think the menus are absolute trash, like where basic photo options could be in literally three or more different submenus.
Anyways, reason for switching is a relative lack of happiness with the Z cameras and how they actually perform in work environments. I do believe they produce the cleanest and overall best images short of a Leica or medium format, but after working multiple weddings using the Z6 II and waiting and betting on the Z6 III to fulfill my needs of what I want a camera to do, that hasn't materialized. I don't want the camera to do everything for me, nor do I need it to (i'm pretty confident in my abilities), but I just want it to do what I ask it to and I don't think I'm being irrational. I won't even talk about the Z6 II because how far behind it is.
But pining lots of hope on the Z6 III, it has the perfect spec sheet, but using native Z glass during a concert and set-up pretty properly with the right settings and AF modes, 3d tracking and small area box both with human and eye detect on, what I experienced was that if people were in groups and close to each other, sometimes overlapping, even if i put my predetermined area on the person I wanted ("Hey camera, look HERE"), the af would at times just jump to another person nearby, and even if i released af-on and tried again, it would repeat the feat. Like I'm telling you where to look, there's a person there, take a picture of that person. I could've switched to single point, but was more caught up trying to get it to cooperate and fighting it.
Further, I had multiple instances of getting confirmation of focus, i.e. the focus box being and staying on my intended target's eye, and then the focus is just off, usually front focused, an example would if they're turned sideways little, the shoulder is in focus and the face is soft (despite have the eye af box displaying). And I wasn't spraying and praying, keeping to single shot release and only clicking the shutter when I had focus showing where I wanted. But even then, the camera is either lying or just flat out missing on its own.
Like the Z6 III is a real step on from the Z6 II, and it gives you the impression at first that it's working wonderfully well, but lots of shots were missed that shouldn't be missed, and when presented a slightly trickier environment with multiple people, or moving people, it struggled , a lot at times. Even when a singer was up to his microphone, the 3D tracking focus box I placed on his face would bounce around from his eye to his face, to the microphone, to his hat, and back to the mic, all within a second. Also, If i was shooting f4 glass or even 2.8 glass, the depth of field might make it moot, but I don't want to shoot at 2.8, I like shooting candids and music at 1.8 or 1.4, and with less margin of error, that's where the nikon issues reveal themselves. I've had nikon people make excuses about not being in the right mode or expecting the camera to do everything, but no, that's not it at all. The camera is will show me an af box on my intended subject's eye a lot of the time, but then upon reviewing the photo after, it's just a complete miss, and I will have had more accuracy in a lot of my old shooting with a sigma art and D5 to be honest. Almost like the camera is lying and you really can't trust that it nails focus despite showing me focus.
So that's where I'm at. I also shoot lots of cars and racing, which is my main photography passion. I was hoping the Z6 III could replace my D5 even, and I know the Z9 or Z8 is an option, but the word is that the Z6 III isn't that far off of the Z9 in AF abilities, and there's enough reviews out there who talk about the Z9 and it's eyelash autofocus tendencies and lack of precision (supposed to be AMAZING for birds, but I don't shoot birds. ever.) And I like vertical grips, and the Z8 plus vertical grip is as big as my D5 (and significantly larger than a Z9 even). And Z9s are still $4,000+ used.
My main point of current consideration with Canon has come after handling the R3 for the first time ever, and it's easily the best feeling camera I've ever touched, and I like the the different shapes of the grip and controls for added tactility, even compared to the Z9, which is just kind of a simple round , almost single radius like in contrast, and the weight of the Z9 is impeding. Just really really loved the feel of the R3, best camera I've ever felt and held. Could pair with an R6 or R6 II as a backup or when two bodies are needed at events and weddings.
A big but, though, is a lack of a long, light and relatively fast super telephoto. The nikon 400 4.5 is a main swaying factor to keep me in Z. the RF 100-500 is just a little slow at 7.1 for blurring backgrounds behind race cars on track. though it does hold 5.6 to nearly 400mm for closer subjects. 500 F4 IS is too heavy and old to me, 500 F4 IS II an 200-400 are too expensive used still to me at about $4k, and same with the 400 do II. I don't know how a Tamron 150-600 G2 would do adapted and would almost feel bad about restricting what an R3 can do and is capable with an adapted third party lens.
But, and this is the big but, should I expect any difference in how the camera's AF behaves in similar shooting conditions? Nighttime concerts or wedding receptions, where without flash, exposures are commonly 1/250 f/1.8 and iso 8000? I just want something that I can trust, where if the camera shows me a box on their eye, or their face if further away, that that's where the camera is actually going to focus when taking the picture. Even at home testing my Z6 III on my cat the first day, focus box is on the eye, take the picture, review the picture, and focus is on his foot lol.
So how do Canons fare in crowded event shooting conditions, I think it's flexible or expanded spot with tracking is the mode I've seen before that looks to mimic a 3D tracking type of focus, to choose your target and let it track and if there's an eye, it grabs the eye. Are the Canons generally more accurate than what I describe and does it bounce around subjects? I know from reading I would probably use the auto af mode with tracking/eye detect but with using a manual initial point for telling the camera where to look.
This post took A LONG TIME to write out lol. But hoping it thoroughly explains concerns and thoughts, and doesn't make me sound like a noob. And this is my first time posting here, I'm just done with the DPR forum crowd and how antagonistic some can be there.
Thanks for any input and reading!
|
As an R6/R6II user, which is in the same market category as the Z6 cameras, with which I do a lot of people photography, I feel they're usually very adept at face/eye detection and tracking. But there are times when, just as you described, there are multiple people in the scene, you initiate subject tracking on one of them and the camera eventually decides on its own to switch to another person. Or it might key in on a person out of focus in the background while ignoring the clearer person you're aiming the manually set focus point at, from which you want it to initiate subject detection/tracking. I also feel that ethnicity/skin color have some influence on which person in a group the algorithm will select as the intended subject... facial hair can also sometimes cause problems. And a small annoyance at times is the tendency for the system to switch focus from the near eye to the far eye. Why it does this, I don't know, but when working shallow depth of field with the face partially in profile, it can really throw off the point of focus.