Fuji XT-1/ XT-10 Focusing Speed and Accuracy in Low Light Situation (Firmware 4)

[french02chris]

What is very interesting in my experience is that when I upgraded, I had also reset my settings to factory as a precaution. I then shot with all of my lenses and thought: the focus doesn't seem much faster than the 3.x update. However, I was able to focus by candlelight, which was new. THEN, I realized that hadn't turned on High Performance because of the factory reset. THAT made a huge difference. My 35, 56, 55-200 and 18-55 acted like new and improved lenses.

 

So my takeaway is that the 4.0 update not only improved everything on high performance, but it also brought the "non-high performance" performance up too.

I thought the same thing.....the focus did not change much in single point AF, and I am still trying to understand those Zone focus as well as Tracking focus to get the most of it ( so I am practicing those two to see how they work best)

As far as the eye recognition, I would say that it is a 50/50 chance that the focus does actually find the eye ( but I actually never use face recognition, so I don't care about the feature)

[jeremyclarke]

 I tried using AF-C with the Electronic Shutter and it obviously failed. With the Mechanical Shutter it worked as well as I'd hoped, much better than before. 

 

I know it was a decision Fuji made, but I consider this more a bug. Clearly they had to have the camera "ignore" either the ES setting or the AF-C setting since they are mutually incompatible, but WHY would they ignore the AF-C?

 

It would be much better if AF-C, a PHYSICAL BUTTON were always honored than ES (and especially ES+MS omgwtfbbq). They could even make it an option (which to prioritize), but the current default just makes it feel like the camera is unable to track focus, not that a setting is stopping it from even trying. 

 

That said you clearly knew the rules, so it is indeed user error

[Trenton Talbot]

Yes, that would be very in the spirit of original X series if manual controls had an absolute priority… but we are already in an awkward Nikon Df territory with 1/32000 shutter speed (and a way to set it), aren't we?

[jeremyclarke]

Unlike much of the optimistic sounding reports I've read using various lenses, my experience with my 55-200mm is that AF speed in decent light is no better and it now refuses to focus reliably at all in very low light where firmware 3.10 used to work quite impressively.  This is checked with a specific high contrast target in my yard using consistent dim lighting and comparing it to my Olympus EM10.

My XT1 used to outperform the EM10 in low light by a couple EV or more with ease.  Now it's struggling and failing at light levels as the EM10 still works at.

When it tries to focus now, the EVF now dims considerably and it hunts, trying to AF.  I get AF confirmation now when the target is grossly OOF, repeated attempts just drive it more OOF altho, occasionally, it wil be close to focused, maybe 1 in 4 or 5 attempts.

 

When using firmware 3.10, anything I could clearly see in the EVF with a vertical contrast feature it would focus on no problem.  Now it even seems to have a harder time in decent light and lower contrast subjects than it used to.

 

I do like all the extra AF groups and control options provided but I'm disappointed with the reduction in low light AF performance on this lens that I make a lot of use of in dim conditions.

 

I wish I could reload V3.10, it worked better for me.

Maybe v4.10 will fix these issues.

 

I wonder if you're using a setting that silently disables PDAF, because that would explain a lot of what you're experiencing since the contrast AF never worked as well as PDAF and the new PDAF works in even lower light than the old one. 

 

Are you sure you are in MS-only (not MS+ES), that Face Detection is disabled etc?

[flysurfer]

AF-C works perfectly with ES. 

 

Tracking in burst mode doesn't, but there is no "tracking in burst mode" button.

[jeremyclarke]

AF-C works perfectly with ES. 

 

Tracking in burst mode doesn't, but there is no "tracking in burst mode" button.

 

Not in CL and CH though right? When the drive dial is set to CH and the focus dial is set to AF-C (both physical dials) but the shutter is set to ES the outcome is that CH is honored but AF-C is ignored and focus is locked on the first shot. 

[flysurfer]

Not in CL and CH though right? When the drive dial is set to CH and the focus dial is set to AF-C (both physical dials) but the shutter is set to ES the outcome is that CH is honored but AF-C is ignored and focus is locked on the first shot. 

 

That's what I just said. No AF tracking in burst mode. The X-T10 clearly says this when the combo is set. The X-T1 doesn't. New UI vs. old UI.

[antonio]

for us, no pros,fuji cameras are amazing and perfects with their ligth weigth,easy to carry, beautiful collors,wounderful evf,but amateurs and photography are in heaven togheter,as there are no rush to stress

[vasanth]

Moving objects has been very difficult for me. I tried focusing but it goes in and out and end up not capturing at all.. You just can't tell the camera to click it. Any suggestions guys..

[FearTheXNoob]

After re-reading this topic: Are we sure it's gonna take 5-10 years until mirrorless catches up concerning low light AF? I'm sure it's possible to work around the limitation of the current generation Fuji cameras - but couldn't the next generation already bring us to DSLR performance?

[darknj]

 

 

[...]I'm sure it's possible to work around the limitation of the current generation Fuji cameras - but couldn't the next generation already bring us to DSLR performance?

We are getting there but there is still quite a lot of work ahead before we get there.

 

I know that Nikon is in the making/testing a FF mirror less body, if everything goes fine, it might see light in Q1 2016.

 

Could be the next hit or could a dead end like the Nikon Df...

 

But mirror less camera haven't been around for a long time, decade maybe? And we already have very impressive things, Fuji for one, Sony for their A7 line, Olympus also. Quite a lot of improvements have been made and plenty are still to come.

[normantj]

I have changed to full Fuji since the start of the year. Sure its not as fast as CaNikon, but it does the job well and I have no complaints about it. It does of course misses, but I learned to press and depress my shutter while I 3D track and Burst low at the same time to ensure my camera is still focusing on where I want it to be..

 

You just have to learn it's tricks..

 

I mean come'on, back in the days where CaNikon's AF was crappy (e.g nikon D200, or Canon 5D mk1), people still shot weddings with it and ended up well.

 

Im pretty sure Fuji's AF is better than a d200 or 5Dmk1...

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk