What's the deal with the X-T5 autofocus?

Morris0 wrote:

I think the question you should first ask is "What is the deal with these Youtubers that struggle to take sharp photos when other do?"

I shot with the X-T3, a camera that some of these same photographers struggled with for 3 years. As a nature and wildlife photographer specializing in avian I do a lot of birds in flight and that is a very demanding type of photography. The X-T3 delivered wonderful images for me time and time again and I still use it as a backup to my X-H2s. As I could get 90% or more of my flight photos in focus I don't understand how a camera that these same photographers say is better than my X-T3 can't do at least as well as me on simpler subjects.

There are a few event photographers on this forum and possibly one of them will chime in.

Morris

I tend to agree with Morris.

However, I wonder if the AF-C issue is the difference between what one might describe as the traditional single green box approach versus the newer eye/face/animal/etc approach.

Last weekend with my XT5 set to AF-C, focus priority, 7fps, single AF Mode, Custom Setting set to 6 (0, 1, Front) photographing our daughter's dog running towards me every image was sharp (used a 50/f2). Ok, hardily a challenge as the dog is small so his speed was not that fast. I placed the green box on the dog’s face, kept it there and it was fine.

It is worth noting the role of the green box. It is, according to Page 55 of the manual, to confirm that “the camera is able to focus.” That is different from focus being accurate, although there is a reasonable presumption in the mind of the photographer that able to focus and focus accuracy are the same thing (I am sure they are on other brands). This is also the first time I have come across the term false positive, and I can see how intensely frustrating this is.

Is it that these more complex algorithms are not quite there yet in Fuji-land, but which could be with more research, development and firmware updates. If that is the case, they should have been completed before its release otherwise a perception that focus is an issue will be reputationally damaging. The genie is almost out of the bottle and if there is a false positive issue to resolve, then Fuji had better fix it very quickly.