Does anyone use AF-S anymore?

I know exactly the feeling you are talking about, and I hate it. In AF-C, the camera keeps twitching and grumbling and reevaluating while you are trying to think. Shut up, camera.

Try sticking to the center focus point and using the focus and recompose technique for a while, just as an experiment. It is very peaceful, and very fast after you have practiced with it for a while. As long as you aren't working with very thin depths of field, it still works just fine.

yardcoyote said:

Try sticking to the center focus point and using the focus and recompose technique for a while, just as an experiment. It is very peaceful, and very fast after you have practiced with it for a while. As long as you aren't working with very thin depths of field, it still works just fine.

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That's a good idea, I'm going to try this, sounds quite relaxed to me. Which photometry mode are you using? I'm basically using "Multi" all the time and I wonder how locking the expose and then re-framing influences the photometry compared to framing first and then moving the focus point.

yardcoyote said:

I know exactly the feeling you are talking about, and I hate it. In AF-C, the camera keeps twitching and grumbling and reevaluating while you are trying to think. Shut up, camera.

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Have you tried lowering the sensitivity?

sagischwarz said:

Alan Hewitt Photo said:

sagischwarz said:

I don't have a use case for AF-C, my subjects are almost never moving. It just does not feel right to me to leave it up to the camera to change the focus point on a whim. I also don't like the feeling that the camera is "still working" after I have half pressed the shutter button.

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You can still use single point and focus wherever you want it to focus in AF-C. The camera won't change this.

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Sorry, you are of course right. It does not change where the focus point is, I used a wrong wording. What I meant is that the camera is continuously re-evaluating and possibly changing the focus level (focus plane?). English is not my first language.

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There is another reason: the focus area in AF-S can be a lot smaller. That allpws to select the focus point more accurately.

I use AF-S a lot. I don't like BBFing, so if I use an AF lens, I prefer to use AF-S to M.

But lately, what I'm in love is with mechanical MF lenses (I love my Voigtlanders). For static subjects help me a lot to pause and think in composition, what has to be in focus and what not and is very satisfying.

And no, I'm not that old nor old school either. I'm under 40 and haven't used an only MF camera never.

On Sony and Canon system I only use AF-C. But with Fuji I do not get the same level of reliability, so i default to AF-S ...

Hi,

I use AFS almost exclusively. My subjects are almost always static. I'll switch to MF to zone focus or deal with subjects that fool AF. Eg the bird-in-a-cage problem. Works for me.

Cheers, Rod

I do

AFC according to all Fuji X series manual should be used for moving targets

Animals/birds/ etc .. tracking needs AFC however (it does work also in AFS surprisingly)

I use AF-S almost exlusively as well. On my old Canon DSLR I also shot in AF-S using the focus and recompose method, but now I use the AF joystick to select the focus point, which I find to be more accurate.

In both cases I have used BBF, but on my DSLR it was set up to shoot in “infinite” bursts if I held the button, which I found more practical than on my Fuji, which switches to manual focus mode if I turn the focus ring. Does anyone know how I can get a set up like I had on the Canon?

MaartenSFS said:

I use AF-S almost exlusively as well. On my old Canon DSLR I also shot in AF-S using the focus and recompose method, but now I use the AF joystick to select the focus point, which I find to be more accurate.

In both cases I have used BBF, but on my DSLR it was set up to shoot in “infinite” bursts if I held the button, which I found more practical than on my Fuji, which switches to manual focus mode if I turn the focus ring. Does anyone know how I can get a set up like I had on the Canon?

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If you want AF-S without it switching to manual on turning the focus ring you will find AF+MF in the AF/MF Setting menu - turn it off

or switch to AF-C

AF-S. Its all i use. Even for fast action like bikes etc. Never missed yet.

Either spot or center weighted, depending on the situation.

Erik Baumgartner said:

Fuegi said:

Hey guys,

Over the years, my camera workflow has evolved. At this point in time, I'm wondering if anyone has a good use case for AF-S on their Fuji bodies. Starting with the XT3, AF performance has improved drastically and we have our entire sensor covered with AF points. If you configured back button focus (BBF) and used that when in manual mode, what use case do you have to ever be in AF-S?

In my current setup, I live in AF-C and switch over to Manual focus mode when AF-C is having issues (birds with tons of branches around). If I need to quickly rely on autofocus, I press the back button I configured for autofocus and I'm on my merry way.

What use case am I missing here to ever use AF-S again?

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To my way of thinking, it’s more like …Why would anyone want to primarily use anything but AF-S?

I occasionally use manual focus with magnification for critical focusing on a single detail, or with peaking for optimizing focus for landscapes, but otherwise I use AF-S for almost everything.

I find AF-S (on the shutter button) to deliver far snappier and more accurate results than AF-C for just about anything I shoot (including moving subjects). I haven't shot with the very newest cameras yet (which seem to have some very effective focus tracking options), but I'm not missing focus much now with good old X-T2, X-T20, and X100V.

I do use AF-C occasionally, but far less often than AF-S or M.

Except for in M mode (which I use quite often), i find BBF to be especially poorly implemented on Fuji cameras and never use it.

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Completely agree!

Didn't even know you could do that. I shoot primarily static subjects, and rarely those in moderate and predictable motion which I can stop with a fast shutter and keep in focus with a smaller aperture, so I have no need for AF-C at all except in very rare circumstances. In those cases, I'm just playing around anyway, and I turn it on, blast away and take my chances.

Fuegi said:

Hey guys,

Over the years, my camera workflow has evolved. At this point in time, I'm wondering if anyone has a good use case for AF-S on their Fuji bodies. Starting with the XT3, AF performance has improved drastically and we have our entire sensor covered with AF points. If you configured back button focus (BBF) and used that when in manual mode, what use case do you have to ever be in AF-S?

In my current setup, I live in AF-C and switch over to Manual focus mode when AF-C is having issues (birds with tons of branches around). If I need to quickly rely on autofocus, I press the back button I configured for autofocus and I'm on my merry way.

What use case am I missing here to ever use AF-S again?

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Only AF-S - anything else doesn't really work with my X-T3 or X-E3.

Yes, it is what I always use, that or the back button.

I'll second that. Don't photograph moving objects(unless you count a flower moving in the breeze) so AF-S is the simplest, and in my experience, most accurate AF.

Long live AF-S!

baobob said:

I do

AFC according to all Fuji X series manual should be used for moving targets

Animals/birds/ etc .. tracking needs AFC however (it does work also in AFS surprisingly)

Click to expand...

AF-S usually works very well on moving targets (and a lot better than AF-C in many cases), it only requires that you follow the desired focus point with the AF box (typically pre-positioned to where you want that focus point to be in the composition), and that you fully press the shutter button all the way down with no stop at a half-press first. With a full-press, the exposure will occur at the moment of focus acquisition, not a split second later - which is of primary importance if either you or your subject aren't completely motionless, and typically produces a reliably sharp result (even with the older/slower lenses). This only works in Single shot mode, but I'd rather have a single sharp photo than 10 blurry ones using an AF-C burst (which is often the case with an older lens/older camera combo)

Probably one of the worst-case AF scenarios is the old XF 56 wide open at f/1.2 (which some people can't seem to focus on the broad side of a barn), and a moving target.

Try this with AF-C and you're probably going to be disappointed, but with AF-S and a full-press of the shutter button it's actually pretty reliable - not perfect, but it works more often than not.

[ATTACH alt="A speeding Volvo (approx. 60 mph) with the old XF 56 wide open at f/1.2 on an (also aging) X-T20 using AF-S. The greatest photo ever? No, but that wasn't the point - this shot will fail miserably almost every time with AF-C, you might get lucky with an "OK" one in a burst of many, but usually not, not with this lens/camera combo, anyway."]3215935[/ATTACH]
A speeding Volvo (approx. 60 mph) with the old XF 56 wide open at f/1.2 on an (also aging) X-T20 using AF-S. The greatest photo ever? No, but that wasn't the point - this shot will fail miserably almost every time with AF-C, you might get lucky with an "OK" one in a burst of many, but usually not, not with this lens/camera combo, anyway.

I tried that but found that it did not work in the same way.

Fuegi said:

Hey guys,

Over the years, my camera workflow has evolved. At this point in time, I'm wondering if anyone has a good use case for AF-S on their Fuji bodies. Starting with the XT3, AF performance has improved drastically and we have our entire sensor covered with AF points. If you configured back button focus (BBF) and used that when in manual mode, what use case do you have to ever be in AF-S?

In my current setup, I live in AF-C and switch over to Manual focus mode when AF-C is having issues (birds with tons of branches around). If I need to quickly rely on autofocus, I press the back button I configured for autofocus and I'm on my merry way.

What use case am I missing here to ever use AF-S again?

Click to expand...

On my D800E, I replaced AFS with AFC with BBF and simply released the back button to get AFS. However, on the D800E - that procedure was equivalent to AFS so I never had to change my process. That was because the optical path and imaging path were different.

On mirrorless, this is not the case. While I can't recall the link, there was some discussion on this some time back. It has to do with the lens aperture used in AFS and AFC.

I normally use AFS for stationary and slow moving subjects since I focus and fire so it works for street scenes. If one wants to wait between focus and taking the image AFC would work better.

For stationary subjects - I often use my Voigtlander X lens and manual focus.

But at the end of the day - do some experimentation and find out what works best. I found the AF-On button on my D800E to be in the perfect spot for my hand so I used AF-On and released for AFS. On my H1 I found the AF-On button was in a cumbersome location for that approach so I didn't use it.

Wow, I didn't expect so many folks would be using AF-S as their main setting. Thank you for all the feedback.

I mainly shoot wildlife, my two year old, and street photography. It has been quite the journey of experimentation with autofocus when it comes to wildlife. AF-C hasn't been so kind to me. For example, when shooting a kingfisher flying across a lake (where I'm panning and have him in my 3x3 zone) yet focus isn't being acquired. Another infuriating moment is when I was on a tripod, shooting a big blue heron fishing. I would get beautiful static shots but just as I see they are about to plunge their head into the water, my AF-C would completely lose focus. I need eye tracking, but that is a topic for another day. I've tried using AF range limiters with limited success. Don't get me wrong, I get great shots, but I feel like I'm pushing my handholding/panning techniques to the extremes and not getting consistent results.

I've read in many of your comments that you feel AF-S provides for better AF performance over AF-C on that initial AF lock. Is there any way to objectively measure that? I do agree that for most photography a simple focus and recompose technique is much faster than fiddling with the AF joystick (when time is more of the essence).

A few minutes ago I tried one of your suggestions to use AF-S and quickly press the shutter button down to get a quick capture. Before doing so, I focused on something in the distance in order to see if the focus would snap back onto the high contrast object I setup in front. When focusing into the distance and quickly pressing the shutter button, I was able to get a sharp image of my object (it would quickly refocus). When pre-focusing at minimum focusing distance, the camera/lens was not able to get a sharp shot. I guess it could depend on how "fast" you are pressing the shutter button. My only concern with this technique is the camera shake that is introduced by NOT half-pressing and acquiring focus and then gently fully pressing the shutter.

My take away from all of this is to try AF-S again (especially with wildlife) but not birds in flight. I should be able to use the smallest AF point possible and using my SUPERB :-D hand holding skills to focus on the eye of the animal.