SCoombs wrote: Eric214 wrote: ericbowles wrote: Eric214 wrote: ericbowles wrote:
The other key option is to use the "Cycle AF Area Modes" setting. I have assigned that function to the Video Shutter Release in still photography mode. It is near the shutter and allows me to quickly cycle through the 4 AF area modes I use most often. Be sure at least one of those modes does not have subject recognition - because occasionally subject recognition makes AF difficult or you want to focus on something instead of the subject.
I have heard of this about deactivating SD with the Z9. I have yet to ever have a problem with SD since the release of the Z9. As far as wanting to focus on something else, that's why I have Auto Area AF mode on the shutter as well as the AF ON back button. As the default AF mode (what's assigned to the shutter button), you get the white passive AF box that tracks with arrows and you can dictate what it focuses on and if you want to focus on a non subject, that is what single point is for.
A good example is photographing engagement photos (or a bride at a wedding). 95% of the photos are going to have a person as the subject. But a few photos will likely include the engagement ring and hand instead of the face of the person wearing it - and possibly the shot with the hand and ring in focus and the bride out of focus in the background. Using SD, you would simply cycle to Dynamic or Single AF area and be able to focus on the ring, then repeat the process to return to a mode with SD. You could also use "Store By Orientation" if you had Dynamic or Single last used with one of the orientations.
The version of this for wildlife is when you need to pre-focus on a tree or the opening of a burrow while you wait for the subject to appear. Sometimes you just need a way to temporarily exit SD and return to it because it does not recognize the subject as an animal.
That may be true for a portrait photographer, but I am a wildlife photographer and I have heard people recommending to disable eye tracking/subject detection off for this genre as well. And I am out an average of about 4 days a week and never once had SD fail me other than a few random frames missing focus. Never had to pre focus like you mention either. I guess everyone has their issues though.
I was primarily a wildlife shooter who is now starting to get into portraiture, but for wildlife I definitely found having a button to deactivate subject detection to be critical on the Z8.
Maybe it will be different in 2.0 where AAAF seems to be the most reliable option, but to this point I've been one of those guys who has as a fallback, not the single point AF, but the 1x1 custom box so that it acts like a single point AF with the benefit of subject detection. This was often invaluable when the camera interpreted some non-subject ad the subject - for instance a tree stump. I had this happen a LOT. When it did, I'd hit a button to swap to 1x1 custom area so I could very specifically tell the camera to focus on the real subject BUT have it still aim for the eye with subject detection. It got me off of random stumps and branches and onto my subject very often.
The problem was that - and maybe in 2.0 this won't be as common - oftentimes even then when I had the 1x1 on the subject it would interpret the animal's back or chest or leg or some other random part as it's head/eye, and so I'd need to turn off subject detection to make that 1x1 box act truly like single point and focus only where it was placed and not on whatever the subject detection wanted to focus on.
Frankly even if I find 2.0 to be nearly flawless I don't see why I'd want to abandon this approach in favor of using single point as my backup or "emergency" mode. Using a custom 1x1 is a perfect in between that lets you get the benefit of single point AF WHILE keeping the power of subject detection, which can be very useful. Getting rid of that in favor of regular single point would only amount to reducing the granularity of my options, so that I could only have a large area with SD or a single point without. The flexibility of having both is very powerful.
It may all he irrelevant anyways as I recall reading that SD now affects single point anyways. I haven't checked this yet, but if it's true then I absolutely want to be able to toggle subject detection off when trying to use "old fashioned" mode single point.
I have not ever found a reason to turn off eye/subject detection since Day 1 of the Z9's release, well 2nd shipment and FW 1.10 and have only ever used AF modes with eye tracking and disabled all Dynamic AF modes. Single point has not had subject detection. I still don't see that Single point reacts with SD. I started using and teaching the Hybrid mode before anyone else (Feb 2022) as I have been teaching Z9 setups and techniques ever since then as well. I have single point set for the center press of the sub selector but I don't even think I have used it 1% of the time.
