NX500 - Disappointed by AF performance

ChuckTa wrote:

andre95 wrote:

Raw Jaw wrote:

Thank goodness it was the camera and not you.

No need to be offended?

I consider myself a beginner, and don't know the technical details. You suggested that using Continuous AF was the big mistake, and that I should read the handbook. The handbook did not clarify why Cont AF performs so much worse (this, BTW, is just speculation, we don't know whether single-AF would have been the solution, but of course I'll try).

So, all I did was ask, and I do it again: Can you explain to me why Cont AF performs so much worse?

I mean, some scenes didn't change much overall (like blowing out the candles), but still a lot happened. So I just took one picture after the other. Approx. 30% are utter rubbish, i.e. focussed on something completely different than the AF-square or is totally blurred (see the attached example, before releasing the shutter, there was a green square just covering the face of the central child). The next two images focussed on the red box in the background (at least something), and the next image was nicely focussed on the face of the girl (the way I wanted it, and the way I would have thought because indicated by the green square on the face).

Honestly, how can I avoid this? I take a series of pictures under virtually identical conditions, and some shots go wrong by so much?

If I can do better, then I really want to. But for this I need to understand what went wrong.

Best wishes,

Andre

Nothing is in focus with that shot. I am surprise the shutter even fired. So I am not sure what is happening there but at iso800, 1/250, f2, the lighting is not dark at all. I was shooting moving kids in and indoor playhouse inside a maze and I can get focus in very dark condition with the 16-50 pz. It can focus with iso5000, f3.5, 1/50 (but a bit of blur for the moving kid). I was quite impressed on fast the focus was (with latest firmware 1.11). I was using continue AF, multi-point focus. I imagine zone focus might be better your situation.

I am guess the shutter fired before acquiring focus. The 30mm pancake is not exact fast but your lighting condition is not exact dark, even for that lens.

Good point.  Nothing is in focus.  I now wonder if this is a hardware issue.  IDK the left curtain near the door is coming in clear for me.  Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm thinking that might be in focus.