p.1 #1 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
Hey all, I have been a Canon shooter my whole life, but I consistently experience slightly inaccurate focusing about 1/3rd of the time, no matter how many times I buy a different EOS 3, 1V, or a different lens.
So here's my question: Is The Nikon F6 superior in autofocus accuracy and is it time to switch sides after all these years?
p.1 #4 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
I find my F6 to be very accurate when used thoughtfully, but you can't treat it like a modern digital. Center focus and recompose works great for me, but it will struggle if there's nothing with contrast to focus on.
p.1 #5 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
aqueerphotog wrote:
So here's my question: Is The Nikon F6 superior in autofocus accuracy and is it time to switch sides after all these years?
I have never owned the F6 but I doubt it's realistic to expect high consistency from AF SLRs regardless of the manufacturer. There are a few reasons for this.
1. The AF sensor(s) in an SLR aren't located at the film plane but elsewhere (often integrated with a prism/mirror box). These sensors need calibration similar to rangefinders, per service manuals.
2. The focusing motors in earlier AF lenses were not as precise as the modern ones.
3. Most lenses have some kind of focus shift. An SLR always focuses wide-open, but when the aperture closes during the exposure the focus plane shifts. As a result, shooting an f/1.2 SLR lens at f/1.2 is often easier than at f/2.8.
4. Most lenses have uneven focus field curvature. Which means when you focus using the central AF point and then recompose, the focus plane shifts.
When you combine all 4 factors above, you end up with some degree of inconsistency. Late DSLRs with higher-resolution sensors tried to tackle these problems by letting user apply lens-specific AF adjustments, like the Canon 5D IV.
p.1 #6 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
old-gregg wrote:
I have never owned the F6 but I doubt it's realistic to expect high consistency from AF SLRs regardless of the manufacturer. There are a few reasons for this.
1. The AF sensor(s) in an SLR aren't located at the film plane but elsewhere (often integrated with a prism/mirror box). These sensors need calibration similar to rangefinders, per service manuals.
2. The focusing motors in earlier AF lenses were not as precise as the modern ones.
3. Most lenses have some kind of focus shift. An SLR always focuses wide-open, but when the aperture closes during the exposure the focus plane shifts. As a result, shooting an f/1.2 SLR lens at f/1.2 is often easier than at f/2.8.
4. Most lenses have uneven focus field curvature. Which means when you focus using the central AF point and then recompose, the focus plane shifts.
When you combine all 4 factors above, you end up with some degree of inconsistency. Late DSLRs with higher-resolution sensors tried to tackle these problems by letting user apply lens-specific AF adjustments, like the Canon 5D IV. ...Show more →
Thank you, that is really incredibly helpful. I think I needed someone to tell me that I have to lower my expectations of these cameras so that I can finally move on instead of constantly switching gear.
p.1 #7 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
None are particularly good by modern standards. The EOS 1v is bit better than the EOS 3 and faster in operation. The F6 is newer.
The real question is why you are using such old cameras and film at all? A modest camera like the R6 II or III will blow away any archaic film cameras and you can use your EF lenses with an adapter.
p.1 #8 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
EB-1 wrote:
None are particularly good by modern standards. The EOS 1v is bit better than the EOS 3 and faster in operation. The F6 is newer.
The real question is why you are using such old cameras and film at all? A modest camera like the R6 II or III will blow away any archaic film cameras and you can use your EF lenses with an adapter.
EBH
My 12 year old niece asked me for a cd player and cd’s for Christmas. Apparently it’s popular again. Kids who grew up in a digital world like to experience different thing. I’m in my 40’s and I shoot my F6 alongside my Z8 all the time, prefer the F6 images quite often too.
p.1 #9 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
oscartb wrote:
I find my F6 to be very accurate when used thoughtfully, but you can't treat it like a modern digital. Center focus and recompose works great for me, but it will struggle if there's nothing with contrast to focus on.
That’s what I do. At 1.4 it is still hit or miss, even if the subject remains dead center.
Using Nikkor 50 1.4D, 50 1.8G, 85 1.8G, Sigma Art 35 and 50.
What I have noticed is it seems to struggle most at mid-distances wide open. Near and infinity are ok.
p.1 #10 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
EB-1 wrote:
The real question is why you are using such old cameras and film at all? A modest camera like the R6 II or III will blow away any archaic film cameras and you can use your EF lenses with an adapter.
p.1 #11 · Nikon F6 Autofocus Performance versus Canon EOS 1V or 3?
I had the Nikon D2HS which has the same AF module as the F6. The problem I ran into was the rather spaced out sensors and one felt better off choosing a sensor point rather than letting the camera attempt the choice itself, even though the group dynamic AF on this was reasonably good compared to the primitive situation on the F5 and F100. The difference is, 45-point and higher AF sensors, done so well on Nikon's digital bodies from 2007 on, never made it into a Nikon film body like they did with the last of Canon's film bodies.
Focus shifting was a thing on some, but not all, Nikon SLR AF lenses. A lot of the early production of the 28/1.8 G had this problem for example. There are other quirks too, the 85/1.8 G lens, which is, to be fair, basically a very good lens, probably in the top ten percent of lenses in its class for SLR cameras overall, has a minor difference between, for example, being perfectly in focus on a black object versus perfectly in focus on a red object, and sometimes little focus errors at f1.8-2.5 result. And I suspect this phenomenon of being not quite perfectly achromatic is fairly widespread and more of a problem in older glass.
That being said, the F6 focus system is an improvement on the F100, which produced very solid results for me professionally including with sports, and was in turn better than the N90 and N8008 which did well for me most of the time. So there's an element of hair splitting here if we're not talking a pretty heavy emphasis on action photography. There's a decent article about the sensor on Nikonians here[url=https://www.nikonians.org/reviews/learn-the-basics-about-the-multi-cam-2000-autofocus-af-sensor-module]
