Why does my XT-4 still attempt to focus despite being in manual mode?

Erik Baumgartner wrote:

JNR wrote:

AndyH44 wrote:

It's in the manual....

[SHUTTER AF]

Choose whether the camera focuses when the shutter button is pressed halfway.

[AF-S]OptionDescription

[ON]Focus locks when the shutter button is pressed halfway.

[OFF]No focus operation is performed when the shutter button is pressed halfway.

This, combined with what Erik is stating about stop-down depth of field, is most of the answer to the question.

Many of us who rely mostly on the MF setting will opt for Shutter AF [OFF] setting, and then assign one of the back buttons (or rear command wheel) to AF ON: called back button focus - or BBF. This is especially helpful with Fuji bodies because, frankly, the squishy and imprecise feel of the shutter release button (slightly improved on the X-T5 but still not very good) tend to cause a lot of misfocusing problems.

Shutter AF is disabled automatically in MF mode, so no reason to disable it if you prefer it for other modes (which I very much do). I do have my rear command dial set up for AF On for instant BBF in M mode to quickly get focus in the ballpark.

Way back when I switched to BBF I found that it was quite an adjustment for a few days, and then it became natural to me. For me, muscle memory is a challenge if I'm shooting in multiple ways, so I try to keep everything set up mostly the same way for all situations. So, I'm shooting BBF in all situations.

On the X-T5 - which for me is quite the step up regarding ergonomics compared to the X-T2/20 - the AF ON button is very well placed (a bit better than rear command dial), but I still have that dial assigned to AF ON so I don't have to think about it going from one camera to the other.