How good is XT-5 AF compared to the very best?

DelnT said:

I think this topic has been covered a lot. So I will try to cover only what I do and how I feel.

Tend to stick to two subjects 'Street Photography' and lots of trees and water as I live between Netherlands and UK so 'Wet Landscape'
With Street you tend to either zone focus / set focus as a point and wait so Single Focus or Manual. I find that good with the lenses I have. However you also tend to grab fast shots which you have to be fast for also (SO Continuous low bursts and continuous focus. I find it fine on all the above. Especially since latest few firmware updates.
With my wet nature I am either single focus or manual and its slow (I like long exposures etc... so judging focus is not really relevant.

I have compared with Cannon and Nikon and found both OK too. They have a slight edge but nothing to care about unless maybe you are 100% a birder or shoot formula 1 cars.

I'm with Morris on this working at being familiar with your camera will do more for you than any brand of particular camera.

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kelly15 said:

RobRoy22 said:

kelly15 said:

1. Shangri La wrote:

Morris0 said:

LOL, here we go again! The focus is as good as the photographer!

Some focus on the subject, others focus on complaining. Each get's what they want.

Morris

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Henri Cartier-Bresson can take better photos with a phone camera than I can with a FF system, but that doesn't mean there's no technical differences between phone camera and FF. And it's the gear difference that I'm asking about.

What is so difficult to understand??

And in case you can't remember, this is a gear forum, where people discuss about something called >>>> gear.

Since when gear discussion became complain?

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You asked only about AF, a topic which has been covered in enormous detail already. What’s difficult to understand is why you expect new or different opinions, evidence etc to what has been shared extensively right here. And you must be aware that with the latest generation bodies and firmware, many Fuji shooters are satisfied, or more than satisfied with the results they are able achieve. Those who have experience will maintain Sony is still ahead in absolute AF capability. Nothing new in what I’ve just put. It’s even implied in your question. Can anyone objectively assign a % Vs ‘the very best’? I think not.

However, while AF performance is important to many, though not all photographers, other factors are also very important to overall satisfaction. And many people are also happy with Fuji colours, film simulations, ergonomics, etc. I wouldn’t chose a camera or camera system on AF alone, just like I wouldn’t chose a car on one parameter alone e.g. fuel economy, or outright acceleration.

You asked a question on a much discussed and debated topic and are evidently annoyed at one particular response, in this case from a contributor whose own work demonstrates the results which can be achieved. Many others post images which point to the same, and share how to get the best results for their chosen subjects. And it is quite often mentioned that the skill of the photographer is important. But if lowly amateurs like myself who shoot infrequently can achieve a high percentage of keepers (based on AF performance alone), I would say Fuji AF is quite good enough, also combined with other aspects of the X-T5 which make it enjoyable to use.

Hope you are able to make your choices of equipment on whatever criteria you most value. But remember that the images you take are very much down to how you use it.

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The first page of Fujifilm thread indicates the subject if the the discussion. If anyone is not interested or bored with the argument the easiest way is to scroll ahead not loosing time to reply. Others may be interested and I do not understand why they should not be considered. Isn’t it better to ignore instead of teaching what to do?

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Nielk Mike said:

Shangri La said:

Morris0 said:

LOL, here we go again! The focus is as good as the photographer!

Some focus on the subject, others focus on complaining. Each get's what they want.

Morris

Click to expand...

I knew this kind of smart answer would come. Henri Cartier-Bresson can take better photos with a phone camera than I can with a FF system, but that doesn't mean there's no technical differences between phone camera and FF. And it's the gear difference that I'm asking about.

What is so difficult to understand??

And in case you can't remember, this is a gear forum, where people discuss about something called >>>> gear.

Since when gear discussion became complaint?

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His reply was off-topic, your question is valid, though not easy to answer.

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Nielk Mike said:

DelnT said:

I think this topic has been covered a lot. So I will try to cover only what I do and how I feel.

Tend to stick to two subjects 'Street Photography' and lots of trees and water as I live between Netherlands and UK so 'Wet Landscape'
With Street you tend to either zone focus / set focus as a point and wait so Single Focus or Manual. I find that good with the lenses I have. However you also tend to grab fast shots which you have to be fast for also (SO Continuous low bursts and continuous focus. I find it fine on all the above. Especially since latest few firmware updates.
With my wet nature I am either single focus or manual and its slow (I like long exposures etc... so judging focus is not really relevant.

I have compared with Cannon and Nikon and found both OK too. They have a slight edge but nothing to care about unless maybe you are 100% a birder or shoot formula 1 cars.

I'm with Morris on this working at being familiar with your camera will do more for you than any brand of particular camera.

Click to expand...

I am very familiar with my Fuji's, and I am very familiar with my Sony's - when I need fast and reliable AF, I take the Sony's.

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Shangri La said:

I know Fuji's AF has 'vastly improved' and probably is 'good enough for me', but I wanted to know how good XT-5's AF is compared to the industry best e.g. Sony? 80% as good? What about X-S20, X-H2 and X-H2S?

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inlawbiker said:

Shangri La said:

I know Fuji's AF has 'vastly improved' and probably is 'good enough for me', but I wanted to know how good XT-5's AF is compared to the industry best e.g. Sony? 80% as good? What about X-S20, X-H2 and X-H2S?

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I think you asked a fair question that may have ruffled some delicate feathers because you used the "S" word. Personally, I was wondering the same thing and read a lot of forum posts. I found that there's no clear answer. So I tried the cameras myself (X-T5, and a7C, a6400). I'll try to answer but it's still difficult to do even with first hand experience.

For Fuji, the autofocus works well in the traditional way. Once you learn the system it can be very reliable. (Better than my Panasonic stuff, which is aging). There are some surprises from time to time that can always be explained by "user error." I mean, the system works once you figure it out. It really is user error until you master the system. The better your skill the more keepers you'll get. Fuji's anyway very intuitive and fun to use.

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inlawbiker said:

The best explanation I found is by a guy named Manny Ortiz. He has a YouTube video on why he uses Fuji as his personal fun system and mostly full-frame for work, even with Fuji's quirks. (see around 8:30 -

). This little review matches my experience well.

G.

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inlawbiker said:

Shangri La said:

I know Fuji's AF has 'vastly improved' and probably is 'good enough for me', but I wanted to know how good XT-5's AF is compared to the industry best e.g. Sony? 80% as good? What about X-S20, X-H2 and X-H2S?

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und is by a guy named Manny Ortiz. He has a YouTube video on why he uses Fuji as his personal fun system and mostly full-frame for work, even with Fuji's quirks. (see around 8:30 -

). This little review matches my experience well.

G.

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BackToNature1 said:

inlawbiker said:

The best explanation I found is by a guy named Manny Ortiz. He has a YouTube video on why he uses Fuji as his personal fun system and mostly full-frame for work, even with Fuji's quirks. (see around 8:30 -

). This little review matches my experience well.

G.

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Manny is all over the place, almost like Tony & Chelsea Northrup. Last I heard, Manny dropped the Sony A1 as his main camera and instead is using the Sony a7rV. But he could switch tomorrow. So I don't know how is really matching most folks.

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BackToNature1 said:

BackToNature1 said:

inlawbiker said:

The best explanation I found is by a guy named Manny Ortiz. He has a YouTube video on why he uses Fuji as his personal fun system and mostly full-frame for work, even with Fuji's quirks. (see around 8:30 -

). This little review matches my experience well.

G.

Click to expand...

Manny is all over the place, almost like Tony & Chelsea Northrup. Last I heard, Manny dropped the Sony A1 as his main camera and instead is using the Sony a7rV. But he could switch tomorrow. So I don't know how is really matching most folks.

Click to expand...

May 1, 2023,

"Manny Ortiz, After 10,000 photos with the Sony A7RV--- I'M SWITCHING!"

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inlawbiker said:

BackToNature1 said:

BackToNature1 said:

inlawbiker said:

The best explanation I found is by a guy named Manny Ortiz. He has a YouTube video on why he uses Fuji as his personal fun system and mostly full-frame for work, even with Fuji's quirks. (see around 8:30 -

). This little review matches my experience well.

G.

Click to expand...

Manny is all over the place, almost like Tony & Chelsea Northrup. Last I heard, Manny dropped the Sony A1 as his main camera and instead is using the Sony a7rV. But he could switch tomorrow. So I don't know how is really matching most folks.

Click to expand...

May 1, 2023,

"Manny Ortiz, After 10,000 photos with the Sony A7RV--- I'M SWITCHING!"

Click to expand...

I don't know jack about Manny, but the video I posted is a good observation of the X-T5 in my opinion.

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Eric Jacobs said:

Fuji for whatever reason has chosen to have the camera autofocus with the lens stopped down to the lens aperture selected by the user as opposed to the lens's widest aperture. This has the camera focus with less light and with greater depth of field which may reduce the accuracy of focus. The problem is more pronounced on wide angle lenses. Other manufacturers like Sony have the autofocus occur with the lens wide open, only stopping down when the photo is taken. At least, this is what I've been able to learn by reviewing threads on this forum and reading other sources of info.

With my X-H2s, I can see this occurring by simply looking into the lens and watching the aperture blades when I half-press the shutter button. The only way to get the Fuji to autofocus with the lens wide open is to uncouple focus from the shutter button, to use back button focus (AF-On) and to select manual focus. The back button focus will override the manual focus to allow the camera to autofocus. When I do this, I can see the aperture blades fully opened when autofocusing.

There is actually a setting in the Sony A7R V which allows you to override the Sony default to force the AF to occur at a stopped down aperture. I saw a reputable YouTuber demonstrate this. The only reason to do this is to eliminate the very slight sound that the aperture blades make when they open to focus and close to take the photo. I doubt that many people enable this setting.

EDIT: While I was posting this, there were some posts mentioning a couple of YouTubers. The guy I was referring to has a channel called The Mathphotographer. He's very knowledgeable about Leica and Sony cameras and maybe others. He went through all of the settings of the Sony A7R V in detail, which is how I happened to learn about this autofocus setting.

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Eric Jacobs said:

Fuji for whatever reason has chosen to have the camera autofocus with the lens stopped down to the lens aperture selected by the user as opposed to the lens's widest aperture. This has the camera focus with less light and with greater depth of field which may reduce the accuracy of focus. The problem is more pronounced on wide angle lenses. Other manufacturers like Sony have the autofocus occur with the lens wide open, only stopping down when the photo is taken. At least, this is what I've been able to learn by reviewing threads on this forum and reading other sources of info.

With my X-H2s, I can see this occurring by simply looking into the lens and watching the aperture blades when I half-press the shutter button. The only way to get the Fuji to autofocus with the lens wide open is to uncouple focus from the shutter button, to use back button focus (AF-On) and to select manual focus. The back button focus will override the manual focus to allow the camera to autofocus. When I do this, I can see the aperture blades fully opened when autofocusing.

There is actually a setting in the Sony A7R V which allows you to override the Sony default to force the AF to occur at a stopped down aperture. I saw a reputable YouTuber demonstrate this. The only reason to do this is to eliminate the very slight sound that the aperture blades make when they open to focus and close to take the photo. I doubt that many people enable this setting.

EDIT: While I was posting this, there were some posts mentioning a couple of YouTubers. The guy I was referring to has a channel called The Mathphotographer. He's very knowledgeable about Leica and Sony cameras and maybe others. He went through all of the settings of the Sony A7R V in detail, which is how I happened to learn about this autofocus setting.

Click to expand...

DJ STU-C said:

Eric Jacobs said:

Fuji for whatever reason has chosen to have the camera autofocus with the lens stopped down to the lens aperture selected by the user as opposed to the lens's widest aperture. This has the camera focus with less light and with greater depth of field which may reduce the accuracy of focus. The problem is more pronounced on wide angle lenses. Other manufacturers like Sony have the autofocus occur with the lens wide open, only stopping down when the photo is taken. At least, this is what I've been able to learn by reviewing threads on this forum and reading other sources of info.

With my X-H2s, I can see this occurring by simply looking into the lens and watching the aperture blades when I half-press the shutter button. The only way to get the Fuji to autofocus with the lens wide open is to uncouple focus from the shutter button, to use back button focus (AF-On) and to select manual focus. The back button focus will override the manual focus to allow the camera to autofocus. When I do this, I can see the aperture blades fully opened when autofocusing.

There is actually a setting in the Sony A7R V which allows you to override the Sony default to force the AF to occur at a stopped down aperture. I saw a reputable YouTuber demonstrate this. The only reason to do this is to eliminate the very slight sound that the aperture blades make when they open to focus and close to take the photo. I doubt that many people enable this setting.

EDIT: While I was posting this, there were some posts mentioning a couple of YouTubers. The guy I was referring to has a channel called The Mathphotographer. He's very knowledgeable about Leica and Sony cameras and maybe others. He went through all of the settings of the Sony A7R V in detail, which is how I happened to learn about this autofocus setting.

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Does having the aperture blades open before shooting impact the accuracy of live picture preview? Say you have live preview on then surely the aperture blades being closed is giving an accurate preview of the shot you’re about to get? Which is essentially the big advantage of mirrorless.

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Eric Jacobs said:

DJ STU-C said:

Eric Jacobs said:

Fuji for whatever reason has chosen to have the camera autofocus with the lens stopped down to the lens aperture selected by the user as opposed to the lens's widest aperture. This has the camera focus with less light and with greater depth of field which may reduce the accuracy of focus. The problem is more pronounced on wide angle lenses. Other manufacturers like Sony have the autofocus occur with the lens wide open, only stopping down when the photo is taken. At least, this is what I've been able to learn by reviewing threads on this forum and reading other sources of info.

With my X-H2s, I can see this occurring by simply looking into the lens and watching the aperture blades when I half-press the shutter button. The only way to get the Fuji to autofocus with the lens wide open is to uncouple focus from the shutter button, to use back button focus (AF-On) and to select manual focus. The back button focus will override the manual focus to allow the camera to autofocus. When I do this, I can see the aperture blades fully opened when autofocusing.

There is actually a setting in the Sony A7R V which allows you to override the Sony default to force the AF to occur at a stopped down aperture. I saw a reputable YouTuber demonstrate this. The only reason to do this is to eliminate the very slight sound that the aperture blades make when they open to focus and close to take the photo. I doubt that many people enable this setting.

EDIT: While I was posting this, there were some posts mentioning a couple of YouTubers. The guy I was referring to has a channel called The Mathphotographer. He's very knowledgeable about Leica and Sony cameras and maybe others. He went through all of the settings of the Sony A7R V in detail, which is how I happened to learn about this autofocus setting.

Click to expand...

Does having the aperture blades open before shooting impact the accuracy of live picture preview? Say you have live preview on then surely the aperture blades being closed is giving an accurate preview of the shot you’re about to get? Which is essentially the big advantage of mirrorless.

Click to expand...

I don’t know, but that YouTuber’s demonstration didn’t seem to impact live view since he showed the test subject on the camera’s LCD monitor. Also, since Sony was a pioneer of mirrorless, I assume they wouldn’t implement a method that would adversely impact one of the advantages.

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kelly15 said:

Eric Jacobs said:

Fuji for whatever reason has chosen to have the camera autofocus with the lens stopped down to the lens aperture selected by the user as opposed to the lens's widest aperture. This has the camera focus with less light and with greater depth of field which may reduce the accuracy of focus. The problem is more pronounced on wide angle lenses. Other manufacturers like Sony have the autofocus occur with the lens wide open, only stopping down when the photo is taken. At least, this is what I've been able to learn by reviewing threads on this forum and reading other sources of info.

With my X-H2s, I can see this occurring by simply looking into the lens and watching the aperture blades when I half-press the shutter button. The only way to get the Fuji to autofocus with the lens wide open is to uncouple focus from the shutter button, to use back button focus (AF-On) and to select manual focus. The back button focus will override the manual focus to allow the camera to autofocus. When I do this, I can see the aperture blades fully opened when autofocusing.

There is actually a setting in the Sony A7R V which allows you to override the Sony default to force the AF to occur at a stopped down aperture. I saw a reputable YouTuber demonstrate this. The only reason to do this is to eliminate the very slight sound that the aperture blades make when they open to focus and close to take the photo. I doubt that many people enable this setting.

EDIT: While I was posting this, there were some posts mentioning a couple of YouTubers. The guy I was referring to has a channel called The Mathphotographer. He's very knowledgeable about Leica and Sony cameras and maybe others. He went through all of the settings of the Sony A7R V in detail, which is how I happened to learn about this autofocus setting.

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I fully agree with you. I also found that on xt5 the back button focus focuses at full aperture also in case the focus lever in set to S and C, not only M. Do you agree with this?

My personal opinion is that Fuji choose the stop down method because of focus shift phenomenon related to several Fuji lenses, mainly the oldest. But I could be wrong here.

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Eric Jacobs said:

That was a long time ago, and I can't imagine a manufacturer doing that in today's world of social media.

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Eric Jacobs said:

kelly15 said:

Eric Jacobs said:

Fuji for whatever reason has chosen to have the camera autofocus with the lens stopped down to the lens aperture selected by the user as opposed to the lens's widest aperture. This has the camera focus with less light and with greater depth of field which may reduce the accuracy of focus. The problem is more pronounced on wide angle lenses. Other manufacturers like Sony have the autofocus occur with the lens wide open, only stopping down when the photo is taken. At least, this is what I've been able to learn by reviewing threads on this forum and reading other sources of info.

With my X-H2s, I can see this occurring by simply looking into the lens and watching the aperture blades when I half-press the shutter button. The only way to get the Fuji to autofocus with the lens wide open is to uncouple focus from the shutter button, to use back button focus (AF-On) and to select manual focus. The back button focus will override the manual focus to allow the camera to autofocus. When I do this, I can see the aperture blades fully opened when autofocusing.

There is actually a setting in the Sony A7R V which allows you to override the Sony default to force the AF to occur at a stopped down aperture. I saw a reputable YouTuber demonstrate this. The only reason to do this is to eliminate the very slight sound that the aperture blades make when they open to focus and close to take the photo. I doubt that many people enable this setting.

EDIT: While I was posting this, there were some posts mentioning a couple of YouTubers. The guy I was referring to has a channel called The Mathphotographer. He's very knowledgeable about Leica and Sony cameras and maybe others. He went through all of the settings of the Sony A7R V in detail, which is how I happened to learn about this autofocus setting.

Click to expand...

I fully agree with you. I also found that on xt5 the back button focus focuses at full aperture also in case the focus lever in set to S and C, not only M. Do you agree with this?

My personal opinion is that Fuji choose the stop down method because of focus shift phenomenon related to several Fuji lenses, mainly the oldest. But I could be wrong here.

Click to expand...

I found that only setting manual focus and then using BBF forced the camera to focus wide open. You can experiment to see if you find otherwise. The problem with this workaround is that you can’t use automatic subject detection.

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