Re: Z8 extremely unreliable/inconsistent AF in mildly low light
SCoombs wrote:
This is an issue I've been fighting with and trying to get a better handle on for a while: in even just slightly lower light, I have found the Z8's subject detection to become extremely unreliable, especially in AF-C.
To be clear, by "slightly lower light" I'm not talking about anything extreme, but something like "there's bright sunlight streaming in through my bay windows and I have someone standing 15 feet away where the sun isn't reaching so I need ISO 2000 at f4 and 1/200" sort of low light.
Also to be clear, by "extremely unreliable" I don't mean that subject detection doesn't work, but that it detects the subject and puts the focus point on the eye and it is green but my in-focus hit rate is <33%.
I've messed around with this a lot and found the following to be true:
1) With any kind of non-subject detect mode the in-focus rate goes up a ton. It's still not perfect in this sort of light, but for instance using single point or one of the dynamic areas in AF-C works far, far more reliably.
2) When going to AF-S, the non-subject detect modes get even better.
3) If I turn on the green AF-assist light in AF-S, it nails things pretty much 100% of the time.
4) I've tried the "adjust settings for ease of viewing" and it sort of improves things, but not much.
5) Starlight mode sort of works in much darker lighting to bring things up to the level of this "sort-of-low light" scenario but still just leaves me with the 33% hit rate instead of not functioning at all.
6) When the subject detect misses in this sort of light (so about 2/3 of the time) it seems to miss by back-focusing a LOT. For instance, it's very, very common if someone is turned at a 45 degree angle that when subject detect is focusing on the front eye and misses, I find the back eye to be very nicely in focus.
Is this really as good as it gets with this system right now? I have seen plenty of people really extol how amazing they find the AF to work in lower light, so I'm hoping there's something I'm missing here. Any help?
I'm surprised people actually expect an AF system to be this precise.
The following settings will solve the issue you have Coombs.......
I've got my Z8 set to AF-ON and fn2 button assigned to Single Point AF.
Place the AF square on the child's eye and press/release the fn2 button.
If you wish, you can recompose before shutter release.
The whole process takes less than 2 seconds *and the AF is precise*..... every shot.
Robert
Apr 26, 2024 at 06:27 AM
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