gdanmitchell
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Steve Spencer wrote:
I think the point that some of us are wondering is why does it matter if Fujifilm cameras *can sometimes* move the focus point past the point for infinity focus when using AF? In practice for many of us this would never affect our shooting. We rarely would ever set focus for the infinity point and if we did we would check it carefully to make sure that the camera didn't focus past the infinity point. This issue is simply a non-issue for our shooting.
Personally, I don't doubt that sometimes the camera or the user might set focus past the infinity focus point. I also think that if that is true it matters exactly zero for my use of the cameras....Show more →
That was essentially my position with the original posts in this long series from Mike, starting well over a year ago. His claim, as I recall it, was that if you used Fujifilm wide angle prime lenses and shot apertures around, say, f/8 the lens would “focus past infinity” and do so inconsistently.
My initial response was that it would not really matter because a) I had shot such lenses in this way for years and never seen a problem and b) if the AF point was a bit too distant at f/8, it was likely taht there would be no visible effect in the photograph anyway.
The discussion continued, so I did a bunch of test shots using moderately wide Fujifilm lenses in this way, going so far as to shoot subjects with the potential to “mislead” the AF system… but I could not replicate the supposed problem.
My conclusion regarding that original claim: I could never see the problem despite trying to induce it.
In fact, I get very sharp photographs from my Fujifilm primes, typically for street and travel photography. These include 14mm, 23mm, 27mm, 35mm, 50mm, 80mm nad 90mm Fujifilm primes.
However, I do see some issues with Fujifilm zoom lenses that could (but not necessarily) be explained by focusing beyond the infinitely setting on these lenses. It is something that has concerned me for a while now, so I’m interested in looking into it more carefully. (I have the earlier 16-55 f/2.8, 50-150mm f/2.8, and the variable aperture 100-400mm lens.)
As I mentioned earlier, I see sharpness issues with my Fujifilm zoom lenenses that I’ve been unable to sort out. I know how to make sharp photographs with such lenses, and I don’t have the issue with my comparable Canon FF cameras and lenses. In some situations I get excellent sharpness from these lenses — typically with subjects at closer-than-“infinity” distances — but in other cases I don’t. (I initially starIted to see the issue when I was investigating whether I could use Fujifilm in place of my Canon gear for bird photography.)
I hope to try some carefully controlled experiments to see if I can nail down what is happening. (I did some quick experiments a month or two ago, with the camera on the tripod, EFCS, and a remote release… and I wasn’t getting the expected accurate results, but I need to try it again in a more methodical way.
Because I disagreed — strongly — with Mike’s earlier contentions about Fujifilm wide angle primes and tested to confirm my experience, it feels a bit awkward to entertain the possibility (and at this point it is no more than that) that there could be something to this, but I need to consider it now. I’m having issues that DO matter in my use of the cameras and lenses, and I need to consider various possible explanations.
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Everything was just.. a bit soft. I was pretty disappointed too because it was the first time I had a chance to photograph a Night Heron. 
