Try This Focus Trick On Your OM-1

A friend of mine who also has a OM-1 and shoots hard to track sports made a discovery the other day. He'd been struggling with hits of focus that were accurate using 15fps in burst shooting of his son who is very active in sports. He had him, from about 50 feet away run towards him and while doing so gyrated twisted and turned and had his head both towards and away from him in the process. Previously and with prior firmware (prior to the new 1.3) he noted he'd miss more than a few shots. Out of desperation he turned both the Eye/Face Human detection on but ADDED the C-AF-TR mode which worked in tandem (I didn't know nor think about this before). The TR mode has been blasted prior for being useless. Well what happened was he now got over 90% of his attempted shots like this in this setting perfectly IN focus. He was astounded and repeated it and it was identical in both instances. I saw a Youtube by a British guy who reported he'd also noted the C-AF with TR mode in place also was MUCH better then it was ever before.

So I figured it was time I gave it a try. I played with the TR mode before and indeed found it near worthless as it lost the subject very easily when moved about. I place it in the C-AF AND TR mode adding the Human Eye/Face detection and tried it with my wife in a poorly lit which before when I tried to track and shoot, all the shots were out of focus/blurry. This was in Aperture Priority mode by the way and I didn't up the shutter speeds. Well wouldn't ya know it, I took 4 shots in a row with these conditions and noted that the TR portion allowed for my blinking little green boxes (I have my setting to show these) to remain tracking right on her upper body and mostly the back of her head when she turned away from me. As soon as she began turning back to face me barely on the side of her face it nailed her eye with a small white box completing the larger box on her face. This is near exactly as a test I did while trying out a Sony A7R5 with their new AI. (I sent the Sony back by the way). I tried this 4 times and each time it never lost her head and then nailed focus on her eyes and face. No accident to be sure. Without the TR in effect, it was NOT as effective by a considerable margin as NONE of the shots were in focus. WITH the TR in effect along with the C-AF and EYE-FACE detection it was nailing it 100% and this was in rather poor light. So I encourage you folks to give this a try and see if it doesn't turbocharge your focus abilities as well. I can't wait to try this on birds soon.

finnan haddie wrote:

You might have missed this video, which explains
OM System OM-1 – Autofocus System Expert Guide and In-Depth Knowledge
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8uBowwXqlKw

Geez my bad. How did I not get this. I watched several of his videos and even subscribed but didn't see that maneuver he mentioned that describes my examples perfectly. This is what the Sony A7R5 now does but who would have thunk, the OM-1 does it as well.

finnan haddie wrote:

You might have missed this video, which explains
OM System OM-1 – Autofocus System Expert Guide and In-Depth Knowledge
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8uBowwXqlKw

He is super specific, clear and, well, always correct. I consider him the "Jack Reacher" of YouTubers. OMS need to pay him to do their stuff.

I had watched it before, but missed the Face and Eye Detect with CAF + TR recommendation. Now, and thanks to ProDude as well, I have some testing to do. Mr Reacher doesn't recommend it for Subject AI (the Tracking part), only for Face and Eye Detect. It has been mentioned often before, and my experience, that BIF with Bird Subject AI and  Tracking also selected is a disaster, or certainly a noticably lower hit rate than CAF and Subject Mode only. However, Mr Reacher says that if Tracking is also added with Face and Eye Detect, then if a Face is lost for example, CAF + TR takes over, then Face and Eye Detect will kick in again if the Face or Eye is visible again... so two bites at the pie. Whereas, with say Bird AI with Tracking also selected, if the subject is temporarily lost, then Subject AI is lost for good and only the CAF +Tracking continues... unless the AF is reactivated via another shutter button press for example. We know CAF + Tracking on its own is poor, so with say BIF, you wouldn't want to lose Subject Detection as then you are stuck in CAF + Tracking only (until AF reactivation and reactivation thus of the Subject Mode AI). However, it now seems with Face and Eye Detect, CAF + Tracking only, is only in play if the Face or eye is lost, and then Face and Eye Detect comes back into play automatically if it can... brilliant.

So why can't OMS make other Subject AI Modes work the same way, is the question I immediately have. And why isn't Face and Eye Detect already in the AI Subject part of the menu. Who wouldn't want the best of Tracking and Subject Mode AI automatically working at it's combined best possible all the time?

glassoholic wrote:

finnan haddie wrote:

You might have missed this video, which explains
OM System OM-1 – Autofocus System Expert Guide and In-Depth Knowledge
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8uBowwXqlKw

He is super specific, clear and, well, always correct. I consider him the "Jack Reacher" of YouTubers. OMS need to pay him to do their stuff.

I had watched it before, but missed the Face and Eye Detect with CAF + TR recommendation. Now, and thanks to ProDude as well, I have some testing to do. Mr Reacher doesn't recommend it for Subject AI (the Tracking part), only for Face and Eye Detect. It has been mentioned often before, and my experience, that BIF with Bird Subject AI and Tracking also selected is a disaster, or certainly a noticably lower hit rate than CAF and Subject Mode only. However, Mr Reacher says that if Tracking is also added with Face and Eye Detect, then if a Face is lost for example, CAF + TR takes over, then Face and Eye Detect will kick in again if the Face or Eye is visible again... so two bites at the pie. Whereas, with say Bird AI with Tracking also selected, if the subject is temporarily lost, then Subject AI is lost for good and only the CAF +Tracking continues... unless the AF is reactivated via another shutter button press for example. We know CAF + Tracking on its own is poor, so with say BIF, you wouldn't want to lose Subject Detection as then you are stuck in CAF + Tracking only (until AF reactivation and reactivation thus of the Subject Mode AI). However, it now seems with Face and Eye Detect, CAF + Tracking only, is only in play if the Face or eye is lost, and then Face and Eye Detect comes back into play automatically if it can... brilliant.

So why can't OMS make other Subject AI Modes work the same way, is the question I immediately have. And why isn't Face and Eye Detect already in the AI Subject part of the menu. Who wouldn't want the best of Tracking and Subject Mode AI automatically working at it's combined best possible all the time?

I can see how, and do feel that the C-AF coupled with the TR AND the Face/Eye Human detection (NOT the other subject detection mode) seems to be a good marriage. They complement each other just like you'd want. The TR keeps things on the head area using it's algorithm to hang onto the color, shape etc. while as soon as a person turns their face a bit more towards you the eye and face pick up. It happens to be much like the new Sony A7R5 works having worked with that as well. I was jealous of that until using this new combo on the OM-1 which is now just as sticky for faces for me. I'm pretty sure the 1.3 firmware update assisted this process as well as they claimed to beef up the processes of the C-AF. I'm sure looking forward to future updates and dialing it all in to more perfection.

ProDude wrote:

glassoholic wrote:

finnan haddie wrote:

You might have missed this video, which explains
OM System OM-1 – Autofocus System Expert Guide and In-Depth Knowledge
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8uBowwXqlKw

He is super specific, clear and, well, always correct. I consider him the "Jack Reacher" of YouTubers. OMS need to pay him to do their stuff.

I had watched it before, but missed the Face and Eye Detect with CAF + TR recommendation. Now, and thanks to ProDude as well, I have some testing to do. Mr Reacher doesn't recommend it for Subject AI (the Tracking part), only for Face and Eye Detect. It has been mentioned often before, and my experience, that BIF with Bird Subject AI and Tracking also selected is a disaster, or certainly a noticably lower hit rate than CAF and Subject Mode only. However, Mr Reacher says that if Tracking is also added with Face and Eye Detect, then if a Face is lost for example, CAF + TR takes over, then Face and Eye Detect will kick in again if the Face or Eye is visible again... so two bites at the pie. Whereas, with say Bird AI with Tracking also selected, if the subject is temporarily lost, then Subject AI is lost for good and only the CAF +Tracking continues... unless the AF is reactivated via another shutter button press for example. We know CAF + Tracking on its own is poor, so with say BIF, you wouldn't want to lose Subject Detection as then you are stuck in CAF + Tracking only (until AF reactivation and reactivation thus of the Subject Mode AI). However, it now seems with Face and Eye Detect, CAF + Tracking only, is only in play if the Face or eye is lost, and then Face and Eye Detect comes back into play automatically if it can... brilliant.

So why can't OMS make other Subject AI Modes work the same way, is the question I immediately have. And why isn't Face and Eye Detect already in the AI Subject part of the menu. Who wouldn't want the best of Tracking and Subject Mode AI automatically working at it's combined best possible all the time?

I can see how, and do feel that the C-AF coupled with the TR AND the Face/Eye Human detection (NOT the other subject detection mode) seems to be a good marriage. They complement each other just like you'd want. The TR keeps things on the head area using it's algorithm to hang onto the color, shape etc. while as soon as a person turns their face a bit more towards you the eye and face pick up. It happens to be much like the new Sony A7R5 works having worked with that as well. I was jealous of that until using this new combo on the OM-1 which is now just as sticky for faces for me. I'm pretty sure the 1.3 firmware update assisted this process as well as they claimed to beef up the processes of the C-AF. I'm sure looking forward to future updates and dialing it all in to more perfection.

Yes... I was critical of OM-1 Face and Eye Detect for anything other than half length to head and shoulders portraits. Now I'm keen to try something like football and see how it goes. DPR just did a "final review" for the OM1 and I just processed that I watched them use Face and Eye Detect (pretty sure they did) for the weave, Bob and run test, and it was good.

Is this similar to what you are seeing?

The 75/1.8 is not the quickest lens to focus but still keeps up.  This sequence is 35 frames.  4 are slightly soft but still usable.

If you view the sequence in OW you can see the green square at (near) the focus area.  Even with head turned completely the camera continues to focus on her head.

Thanks! Bookmarked for future experimenting--always open to new avenues.

Cheers,

Rick

mikero wrote:

Very interesting, and thanks for posting. Can you please tell me if you were using all focus points, or a subset?

Thanks.

Mike

In the case of a human I tend to go with a Medium box if I'm trying to track in the manner discussed. For animals it's FULL box size and no tracking is used just the Subject Detection

MEDISN wrote:

Is this similar to what you are seeing?

The 75/1.8 is not the quickest lens to focus but still keeps up. This sequence is 35 frames. 4 are slightly soft but still usable.

If you view the sequence in OW you can see the green square at (near) the focus area. Even with head turned completely the camera continues to focus on her head.

I don't have nor use that lens. When doing people tracking I'd be using a 12-100 f4 Pro or 40-150 f2.8 Pro lens typically.

ProDude wrote:

MEDISN wrote:

Is this similar to what you are seeing?

The 75/1.8 is not the quickest lens to focus but still keeps up. This sequence is 35 frames. 4 are slightly soft but still usable.

If you view the sequence in OW you can see the green square at (near) the focus area. Even with head turned completely the camera continues to focus on her head.

I don't have nor use that lens. When doing people tracking I'd be using a 12-100 f4 Pro or 40-150 f2.8 Pro lens typically.

The performance is not limited to this specific lens. I am more interested in the AF behavior of a running subject when the face is not visible. Is this similar to what you are seeing with the OM-1 FW 1.3 based on your original post (better or worse)?

Thanks very much PD for this post.

I too had found Tracking almost useless most of the time. Will certainly give it a try.

Will try on my OM1 as it never worked for me on M1 II, III or M1x.

AikenMooney wrote:

Thanks very much PD for this post.

I too had found Tracking almost useless most of the time. Will certainly give it a try.

Will try on my OM1 as it never worked for me on M1 II, III or M1x.

Make SURE you are using the latest ver. 1.3 firmware too.