gdanmitchell wrote: shinyobject wroteI am a bit sad that the AF can’t reliably achieve the same and I do think that if I am going to go into manual focus more often with this lens, something like the Voigtländer 50/1.2 with its purpose-built manual focus controls might come out on par in terms of pros and cons. On the other hand, as she grows up, I’m not sure I’d be able to keep up with her! We’ll have to see.I’m shocked that you can’t get good enough AF in photos of your daughter. I wonder how your camera’s AF is set up and/or whether there is some other challenge related to technique, lighting, etc. (And if the issue is Fujifilm’s AF — which I doubt, read on — then maybe a different brand would make sense rather than giving up AF on Fujifilm.)
There’s a lot of nonsense on the web about Fujifilm AF. The truth, to generalize, is that it works just fine, though the best AF from Sony, Nikon, Canon can be faster and more consistent with more challenging subjects. (No, your daughter is extremely unlikely to be in that category.)
What does that mean in the real world?
For example, if you are photographing moving wildlife (thnk birds, which can be quite challenging even with the best gear) the increment of improvement over Fujifilm from the other brands can be meaningful, particularly in challenging light. Shooting active sports might be another example.
On the other hand, if you are shooting more typical subjects (landscapes, people posing for photos, vacation photos, family events, etc.) Fujifilm AF is typically just fine — plenty fast and plenty accurate.
Some people who are prone to hyperbole will try to frame the difference between Fujifilm and that others as “Sony/Canon/Nikon are great! Fujifilm sucks!” That’s inaccurate and misleading.
More accurate would be something like, “Fujifilm AF is good and effective, but Sony/Nikon/Canon are still a bit ahead.”
Heck, I do street photography, some of it at night, with Fujifilm and the AF works fine....Show more →
Oh, the AF works fine with my 35/2 and 23/2 and I agree that for day-to-day it is fine for most things. But I was not getting the results I wanted with wide open portraits with my 56/1.2, in terms of accurately focusing on the eye and iris in particular, until I used manual focus. Perhaps the newer cameras are better. My point about keeping up with my daughter was actually in regards to my ability to keep manually focusing. Nobody here is saying that Fujifilm sucks.
Operating from my phone, I can’t easily quote other posts — but yes, I’m confident in my ability to take family snaps with Fuji going forward. Only a shoddy workman blames his tools! (But he might choose manual focus from time to time.) Indeed, the XT-3 is lovely to use.
And to correct a small point: I believe non-chipped lenses do in fact work with some but not all of Nikon’s new manual focus aids. Would be nice to see Fuji adopt some similar features: even though focus peaking and magnification works for me, it’d be nice not to have to automatically reposition the magnification point, as that is a bit of a faff.
Thank you all for your comments again. As we’ve gone some distance from the original point of why one might purchase Voigtländer lenses for Fuji, here’s a point I was musing last night: would Fuji introduce a range of MF-only lenses aimed at enthusiasts? If they were smaller, faster, and lighter than their AF range, they might find a new market niche. (I do think it’s unlikely, but right now I’m into the idea!)
shinyobject wrote: gdanmitchell wroteshinyobject wroteI am a bit sad that the AF can’t reliably achieve the same and I do think that if I am going to go into manual focus more often with this lens, something like the Voigtländer 50/1.2 with its purpose-built manual focus controls might come out on par in terms of pros and cons. On the other hand, as she grows up, I’m not sure I’d be able to keep up with her! We’ll have to see.I’m shocked that you can’t get good enough AF in photos of your daughter. I wonder how your camera’s AF is set up and/or whether there is some other challenge related to technique, lighting, etc. (And if the issue is Fujifilm’s AF — which I doubt, read on — then maybe a different brand would make sense rather than giving up AF on Fujifilm.)
There’s a lot of nonsense on the web about Fujifilm AF. The truth, to generalize, is that it works just fine, though the best AF from Sony, Nikon, Canon can be faster and more consistent with more challenging subjects. (No, your daughter is extremely unlikely to be in that category.)
What does that mean in the real world?
For example, if you are photographing moving wildlife (thnk birds, which can be quite challenging even with the best gear) the increment of improvement over Fujifilm from the other brands can be meaningful, particularly in challenging light. Shooting active sports might be another example.
On the other hand, if you are shooting more typical subjects (landscapes, people posing for photos, vacation photos, family events, etc.) Fujifilm AF is typically just fine — plenty fast and plenty accurate.
Some people who are prone to hyperbole will try to frame the difference between Fujifilm and that others as “Sony/Canon/Nikon are great! Fujifilm sucks!” That’s inaccurate and misleading.
More accurate would be something like, “Fujifilm AF is good and effective, but Sony/Nikon/Canon are still a bit ahead.”
Heck, I do street photography, some of it at night, with Fujifilm and the AF works fine.Oh, the AF works fine with my 35/2 and 23/2 and I agree that for day-to-day it is fine for most things. But I was not getting the results I wanted with wide open portraits with my 56/1.2, in terms of accurately focusing on the eye and iris in particular, until I used manual focus. Perhaps the newer cameras are better. My point about keeping up with my daughter was actually in regards to my ability to keep manually focusing. Nobody here is saying that Fujifilm sucks.
Operating from my phone, I can’t easily quote other posts — but yes, I’m confident in my ability to take family snaps with Fuji going forward. Only a shoddy workman blames his tools! (But he might choose manual focus from time to time.) Indeed, the XT-3 is lovely to use.
And to correct a small point: I believe non-chipped lenses do in fact work with some but not all of Nikon’s new manual focus aids. Would be nice to see Fuji adopt some similar features: even though focus peaking and magnification works for me, it’d be nice not to have to automatically reposition the magnification point, as that is a bit of a faff.
Thank you all for your comments again. As we’ve gone some distance from the original point of why one might purchase Voigtländer lenses for Fuji, here’s a point I was musing last night: would Fuji introduce a range of MF-only lenses aimed at enthusiasts? If they were smaller, faster, and lighter than their AF range, they might find a new market niche. (I do think it’s unlikely, but right now I’m into the idea!) ...Show more →
Have you tried manually focusing that 56mm lens at f/1.2? If you are going to go with manual focus, first see how that works wiht the lens you have.
Also, the DOF at f/1.2 at 56mm on a APS-C system is extremely thin. For example if you are in single mode AF and you half depress the shutter to get focus and a fraction of a second later release the shutter, you and/or your subject (like a 2 year old!) can unconsciously move enough to be OOF. Note that this will be even more true with manual focus which doesn’t have any options to respond more quickly. (E.g. “continuous” AF mode.)
Unless you are doing some kind of portrait sitting, you’ll almost certainly be better off not relying on f/1.2 for that. You can get good subject/background separation at f/1.4 or f/2 or even f/2.8 at that FL, especially if you put just a bit of distance between your subject and your background.
The 56/1.2 uses a focus-by-wire system that has very pronounced stepping in MF. There is nothing to be gained by trying it in MF and judging a purpose-built Voigtlander by that standard.
The joy of Voigts is you get used to the hard stops and eventually barely have to check focus, as you just know where focus will be.
I have a small number of M-mounts lenses I use on my Fujis. I miss having the EXIF info and the X-Voigts seem to be better than the 21/4 and 35/2.5. Am going to try the 18/2.8 and 27/2.