Have you experienced this autofocus issue when using Nikon Z9/Z8 + FTZ II Adapter + AF-S super telephoto lenses (300/400/500/600) ... specifically "G-Series" ... but also interested if "FL / E-Series" has the same issue?
Additional notes: I have the lens focus limiter set to the full range, VR turned on, and the camera in AF-C mode.
Here's the scenario...
1. You're photographing a distant subject at the far end of the lens' distance scale.
2. You then want to capture something a lot closer, so you point your lens at the nearby subject and press the AF-ON button to acquire focus at the short end of the lens' distance scale.
3. Rather than achieving the near-range AF on the 1st attempt, the lens appears to freeze / nothing happens. So you press & release the AF-ON button 1-2x more, it eventually gets the idea, and ultimately focuses on the close subject.
Is this any potential warning sign the AF-S motor is about to die?
1. You're photographing a distant subject at the far end of the lens' distance scale.
2. You then want to capture something a lot closer, so you point your lens at the nearby subject and press the AF-ON button to acquire focus at the short end of the lens' distance scale.
3. Rather than achieving the near-range AF on the 1st attempt, the lens appears to freeze / nothing happens. So you press & release the AF-ON button 1-2x more, it eventually gets the idea, and ultimately focuses on the close subject.
That's typical of all Nikon telephoto lenses on the Z8/Z9, regardless of whether they're F or Z mount. It's also typical of virtually all other telephoto lenses on all other brands of mirrorless cameras, except Panasonic.
It's a common phenomena with mirrorless cameras. The on-sensor PDAF can only measure focus errors that are not overly large.
Not an indication of lens motor failure.
jmreese wrote:
Have you experienced this autofocus issue when using Nikon Z9/Z8 + FTZ II Adapter + AF-S super telephoto lenses (300/400/500/600) ... specifically "G-Series" ... but also interested if "FL / E-Series" has the same issue?
Additional notes: I have the lens focus limiter set to the full range, VR turned on, and the camera in AF-C mode.
Here's the scenario...
1. You're photographing a distant subject at the far end of the lens' distance scale.
2. You then want to capture something a lot closer, so you point your lens at the nearby subject and press the AF-ON button to acquire focus at the short end of the lens' distance scale.
3. Rather than achieving the near-range AF on the 1st attempt, the lens appears to freeze / nothing happens. So you press & release the AF-ON button 1-2x more, it eventually gets the idea, and ultimately focuses on the close subject.
Is this any potential warning sign the AF-S motor is about to die?
It’s far more reliable to MF large distances to get “close” to where you want to AF on, to get the lens in the neighborhood of the desired focal plane.
I switched from D6 to Z9 when it was first launched and used it with 600/4e FL a bit till 400/2.8s TC came out. In general, no issue with AF and it was certainly not a stepdown from D6 except for a few situations.
The scenario that you mention, D6 was better at moving focus point behind the subject toward the subject. With early firmware on Z9, focus once grab the background, tend to stuck there. This is not lens specific though, happened with both 600/4e FL and 400/2.8s TC. With more recent firmware, Z9 improved significantly in this respect. Sometimes it is still an issue especially if you have very busy background with lots of things to focus on. The camera has much easier time grabbing on the subject if focus point is in front rather than behind subject with busy background. If I shoot bird in flight with busy background, after finishing a sequence while waiting for the next sequence, I usually just point camera to the ground to bring focus point back to 4-5m range or whatever to make sure that focus point is closer to me than where the subject would appear. Or you can use focus recall and set it to one of the button on the lens as well.
