Fujifilm Autofocus DOES NOT WORK properly Locked

Nikonian_19 wrote:

Fujifilm Autofocus/ OutOfFocus 😉 "X-posed"

This article will tackle Fujifilms current AF-S inconsistency. I expect and hope people who have equally experienced issues with their Fuji autofocus will participate and help to escalate this matter.

My current X-mount camera is the X-Pro3, of which I tried 4 different, brand new units!!
The cameras I had before were the X100F and X100V, which showed similar issues.
The Pro3 firmware is running the latest update 1.31, I also tried with previous firmware versions.

Lenses used/tested have been:

18mm 1.4 LM
23mm f2
27mm 2.8 WR
35mm f2
35mm 1.4
33mm 1.4 LM

Problem description:

30-50% of my shots come out soft due to missed focus. The amount of focus miscalculation varies. Sometimes I see a clear front focus, sometimes I cannot make out at all where the focus ended up. Objects photographed are static.

Problem occurrance:

During strong daylight with moderate to high amount of contrasts;
Barely ever in low-light situations or night

Settings used:

AF-S Single Point AF
MF with back button focus was tried too (even if it would focus correctly by doing so, this should not be the default way of focusing with an AF camera.)
OVF and EVF, both show same inconsistency and general behaviour
AF+MF: off
Focus priority for shutter release
NO recomposition after focusing, to avoid field curvature interference
All focus box sizes tested when using EVF

CURIOUS OBSERVATION:

The camera cannot calculate focus distance correctly on a consistent basis. When having supposedly acquired focus you can keep focusing on the same exact spot and the camera will change the focus distance. I did a test and got 3 different focus distances out of 3 repeated focus activations (see pictures below). The focus distance scale credibility has been confirmed by examining identical pictures taken at differently calculated focus distances.
This alone shows that something is not right with the focusing system and getting a correctly focused image is a game of luck.

I am not the only one with this issue, so hereby I hope to gather all Fuji users who care about the correct functionality of their gear and analyse their pictures at pixel level, in order to expose Fujifilms autofocus as faulty. This is not acceptable and should not be tolerated by anyone.

Closing notes: I mainly use Nikon F and Z, as well as Fuji GFX50 and never had focusing issues. I do not suffer from Parkinson, so any user-error gents might try to throw at me can be disregarded.

All AF cameras of any manufacturer focus by either half pressing the shutter, or alternatively use the AF Back-button. Therefore we should avoid further suggestions of what might be wrong with certain settings in Fuji cameras. The cameras are meant to be simple and intuitive in use and are also marketed that way. If the usual way does not work and provides inconsistent results, something is wrong and we should approach Fujifilm with this.

Thank you for reading and hopefully contributing with your own unsatisfying AF experiences!

Weird - how did you run the test? Is this on a tripod and the shutter half pressed three times in a row? Why is the rear screen out of focus in the last two shots?

do you have SOOC examples so that we can see all your settings?

i don’t have an X-Pro3 but this definitely wouldn’t happen with X-T or X-S cameras.