Nielk Mike wrote: Steve Spencer wrote: Nielk Mike wrote: Steve Spencer wrote: Nielk Mike wrote: Steve Spencer wrote: Nielk Mike wrote:
The image in this thread over at dpreview https://www.dpreview.com/forums/threads/is-this-photo-sharp.4826142/ is a fine example of an image where the camera set focus beyond infinity: Overall soft and nothing in critical focus. Yet: Over at dpreview the folks deny that focus beyond infinity is a Fuji issue - so they sprinkle the poor guy with advice on post processing. That's why I think being aware of the issue is important.
I don't think that we have any idea where that shot was focussed. The shooter acknowledged that they likely did not refocus the shot because it was cold and they were wearing gloves. It could simply be that the shot was focussed at a much further distance than optimal, but not past infinity. It seems likely that the shot suffers from not obtaining good focus, but the nature of the focus problems I don't think we can know. It might be the case that the camera set the focus beyond infinity, but I don't know how we could know that especially when the shooter noted they might not have obtained focus for the shot at all and simply took the shot without focussing.
There is an overall softness extending to infinity which is absolutely consistent with focus beyond infinity. Nothing is in critical focus. And it is not motion blur.
The point you are missing is the shooter acknowledged that he didn't obtain good focus in this shot and probably didn't focus at all. The softness is user error as acknowledged by the user. It says nothing about the camera or the focussing system. Every system can have focus errors due to user error. In practice I don't have trouble focussing my Fuji cameras, but occasionally I make mistakes like this user did. I haven't yet had the camera make a mistake that wasn't my fault. I suppose it could happen, but that was not the case for this shot.
He said he missed to "refocus" and not that he did not focus before. The overall softness is a typical sign of focus beyond infinity. If he had focused to a closer distance than the resulting OOF area would look very different.
If you read what he said, he actually said he wasn't sure what he did for focus and might not have focussed at all. It was cold and he was working fast and had gloves on. He did not obtain anything close to optimal focus and acknowledged that. It was user error and says nothing about the system. He knows he could have and should have obtained better focus.
I certainly have shots like that too. It happens. Obviously the solution is to be more careful about obtaining focus, but such a shot doesn't tell us anything about the system and how easy it would have been to get good focus if more care was exercised. I have had an occasional mistake like this with every system I have shot and with none of them (including Fuji) was it difficult to get the focus right on such a shot if I used the system properly. On this shot, it is not a system issue it was simply a user mistake, or so it appears.
Unless he was using BBF (which we don't know) half pressing the shutter button and aiming at the building (seems steady, no shake) triggers the AF. If AF was triggered on the house and results in overall softness like in this case, then it is a clear sign of focus beyond infinity.
That unless is important. He might well have been using BBF. The if is also an important if. What is clear from the post is he was not claiming that he tried to focus on the building. You are right that "if" he tried to focus on the building and he got the outcome he got, then it would indicate the system didn't work as he intended. But that was not his claim. He couldn't recall what he tried to focus on or even if he tried to focus at all. We simply don't know, and the shooter can't remember what he was trying to focus on in this shot, so we can't draw any inferences about whether the system worked or did not work in this instance. User error seems not only a plausible cause for the poor focus but a likely cause.
Jan 05, 2026 at 08:31 AM
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