I’m going to go out on a limb here (and potentially open myself up to having been wrong in the past) but I have seen some issues with Fujifilm zoom lenses (not necessarily just wide angle) where AF’ed images can exhibit unexpected softness like what MIke describes — though I can’t say whether his “to infinity and beyond” analysis is exactly what is happening.
Here’s what I’ve been trying to sort out:
when using my Fujifilm primes (14mm, 23mm, 27mm, 35mm, 50mm, 80mm, 90mm) I get consistently accurate AF performance at all distances. However… using my Fujifilm zoom lenses (16-55mm v1, 50-140mm, 100-400mm I get more images OOF at distance than I should and more than I get with my Canon zooms of my FF system. It has even happened while I was testing for this which the camera in the tripod, using a remote release, and EFCS. And, to be sure, in these cases it was not case of operator error or of focusing too close in the frame — I checked for that.
I think, but I’m not certain yet (yes, I’ve been testing) that the issue crops up mostly when there are subjects at distance, and not with closer subjects. This has perplexed me. In fact, when I’ve tested the lenses I’ve gotten very sharp images with AF at less-than-big distances while getting softer images at greater distances. (I first noticed this when photographing birds with the 100-400 and assumed that it might be related to less optimal tracking of moving objects, but I’ve seen it with stationary subjects at distance, too.)
I’m going to do some more testing to see if I can nail down what is happening.
My experience does not correlate precisely with what Mike reports. For example, he and I had a go-around a year or more (two years?) when he reported this “beyond infinity”issue with wide angle Fujifilm primes. I had never seen it with such lenses and I went to some lengths to try to replicate it but never saw it in that situation. I decided with great confidence that the issue does not exist for me with a range of Fujifilm’s primes.
I’m going to go out on a limb here (and potentially open myself up to having been wrong in the past) but I have seen some issues with Fujifilm zoom lenses (not necessarily just wide angle) where AF’ed images can exhibit unexpected softness like what MIke describes — though I can’t say whether his “to infinity and beyond” analysis is exactly what is happening.
Here’s what I’ve been trying to sort out:
when using my Fujifilm primes (14mm, 23mm, 27mm, 35mm, 50mm, 80mm, 90mm) I get consistently accurate AF performance at all distances. However… using my Fujifilm zoom lenses (16-55mm v1, 50-140mm, 100-400mm I get more images OOF at distance than I should and more than I get with my Canon zooms of my FF system. It has even happened while I was testing for this which the camera in the tripod, using a remote release, and EFCS.
I think, but I’m not certain yet (yes, I’ve been testing) that the issue crops up mostly when there are subjects at distance, and not with closer subjects. This has perplexed me. In fact, when I’ve tested the lenses I’ve gotten very sharp images with AF at less-than-big distances while getting softer images at greater distances. (I first noticed this when photographing birds with the 100-400 and assumed that it might be related to less optimal tracking of moving objects, but I’ve seen it with stationary subjects at distance, too.)
I’m going to do some more testing to see if I can nail down what is happening.
My experience does not correlate precisely with what Mike reports. For example, he and I had a go-around a year or more (two years?) when he reported this “beyond infinity”issue with wide angle Fujifilm primes. I had never seen it with such lenses and I went to some lengths to try to replicate it but never saw it in that situation. I decided with great confidence that the issue does not exist for me with a range of Fujifilm’s primes.
I’m going to go out on a limb here (and potentially open myself up to having been wrong in the past) but I have seen some issues with Fujifilm zoom lenses (not necessarily just wide angle) where AF’ed images can exhibit unexpected softness like what MIke describes — though I can’t say whether his “to infinity and beyond” analysis is exactly what is happening.
Here’s what I’ve been trying to sort out:
when using my Fujifilm primes (14mm, 23mm, 27mm, 35mm, 50mm, 80mm, 90mm) I get consistently accurate AF performance at all distances. However… using my Fujifilm zoom lenses (16-55mm v1, 50-140mm, 100-400mm I get more images OOF at distance than I should and more than I get with my Canon zooms of my FF system.
I think, but I’m not certain yet (yes, I’ve been testing) that the issue crops up mostly when there are subjects at distance, and not with closer subjects. This has perplexed me. In fact, when I’ve tested the lenses I’ve gotten very sharp images with AF at less-than-big distances while getting softer images at greater distances. (I first noticed this when photographing birds with the 100-400 and assumed that it might be related to less optimal tracking of moving objects, but I’ve seen it with stationary subjects at distance, too.)
I’m going to do some more testing to see if I can nail down what is happening.
My experience does not correlate precisely with what Mike reports. For example, he and I had a go-around a year or more (two years?) when he reported this “beyond infinity”issue with wide angle Fujifilm primes. I had never seen it with such lenses and I went to some lengths to try to replicate it but never saw it in that situation. I decided with great confidence that the issue does not exist for me with a range of Fujifilm’s primes.
