I've read several posts here and watched a few YouTube videos that some posts link to, and I can say that none of them actually include all of the information one needs for focus bracketing. So, I spent over an hour trying to get it to work on my X-T4, and finally got it. Here's what you need to do, without any missing steps.
The details here are for the X-T4. Probably other X cameras that have focus bracketing are similar.
First, this is just bracketing: Shooting a sequence of images. Merging them into a single all-in-focus image -- focus stacking -- isn't done by the camera, as far as I can tell. I use Lightroom + Photoshop for that, but there's lots of other software out there. Here I'm just discussing focus bracketing, so it's all in-camera.
Second, this is automatic focus bracketing. You can certainly just take a sequence of images by clicking the shutter repeatedly, changing the focus point each time.
1. This is kind of bracketing, so set your drive dial to BKT. On my X-T4, that's under the ISO on the left top of the camera. (This is the step I was missing.)
2. There are several kinds of bracketing (AE, ISO, FOCUS, etc.) so you need to set the camera to FOCUS BKT. On the SHOOTING SETTING menu, choose DRIVE SETTING and then BKT SETTING and then BKT SELECT. This is the first option, not to be confused with the FOCUS BKT option at the end of the list.
3. On the BKT SELECT menu, choose FOCUS BKT. This makes the drive dial BKT setting do focus bracketing rather than any other kind of bracketing.
4. Now, back on the BKT SETTING menu, choose the last option, labeled FOCUS BKT. (This is labeled the same as FOCUS BKT on the BKT SELECT menu, but it is not the same thing.) You'll see two options: MANUAL and AUTO. What confused me is that all that's MANUAL is choosing the settings. In the end, if the drive dial is on BKT, it's still automatic focus bracketing -- the camera takes the images with a single shutter press.
5. If you choose MANUAL, you can set the FRAMES, STEP, and INTERVAL. The various videos are pretty good at telling you what to set these for, so I won't go into it here. For a recent landscape shot, I choose 30 for FRAMES, 4 for STEP, and 2s for INTERVAL. (That doesn't mean 30 images, since the camera stops when it focuses at infinity.) Your focus bracketing settings are now set, so just back out of the menus. Press the shutter to take a sequence of bracketed images. It might take 3, or 5, or 8, or whatever it needs.
6. If you choose AUTO, you get to set only the INTERVAL. Then you go to a display that let's you choose the A and B focus settings: The closest and farthest points in your bracket. There are a few ways to choose a focus, such as my touching the screen or turning the focus dial. When you have A, press OK and choose B. Then press DISP/BACK and the camera will automatically deal with FRAMES and STEP. With the focus bracketing settings set, you can press the shutter to take the bracketed images.
7. Ingest the images to your computer, and use them to create a focus-stacked image using whatever method your post-processing software provides for.
From the posts here, I think that people get hung up with AUTO in choosing A and B. After choosing B, they press OK instead of DISP/BACK and just go back to choosing A again. I'm also guessing that, like me, people don't turn the drive dial to BKT, which means that all the focus bracket settings are ineffective, since the camera isn't bracketing. This I think explains the posts where the person is saying that the camera took only one shot.
I hope this helps!
The details here are for the X-T4. Probably other X cameras that have focus bracketing are similar.
First, this is just bracketing: Shooting a sequence of images. Merging them into a single all-in-focus image -- focus stacking -- isn't done by the camera, as far as I can tell. I use Lightroom + Photoshop for that, but there's lots of other software out there. Here I'm just discussing focus bracketing, so it's all in-camera.
Second, this is automatic focus bracketing. You can certainly just take a sequence of images by clicking the shutter repeatedly, changing the focus point each time.
1. This is kind of bracketing, so set your drive dial to BKT. On my X-T4, that's under the ISO on the left top of the camera. (This is the step I was missing.)
2. There are several kinds of bracketing (AE, ISO, FOCUS, etc.) so you need to set the camera to FOCUS BKT. On the SHOOTING SETTING menu, choose DRIVE SETTING and then BKT SETTING and then BKT SELECT. This is the first option, not to be confused with the FOCUS BKT option at the end of the list.
3. On the BKT SELECT menu, choose FOCUS BKT. This makes the drive dial BKT setting do focus bracketing rather than any other kind of bracketing.
4. Now, back on the BKT SETTING menu, choose the last option, labeled FOCUS BKT. (This is labeled the same as FOCUS BKT on the BKT SELECT menu, but it is not the same thing.) You'll see two options: MANUAL and AUTO. What confused me is that all that's MANUAL is choosing the settings. In the end, if the drive dial is on BKT, it's still automatic focus bracketing -- the camera takes the images with a single shutter press.
5. If you choose MANUAL, you can set the FRAMES, STEP, and INTERVAL. The various videos are pretty good at telling you what to set these for, so I won't go into it here. For a recent landscape shot, I choose 30 for FRAMES, 4 for STEP, and 2s for INTERVAL. (That doesn't mean 30 images, since the camera stops when it focuses at infinity.) Your focus bracketing settings are now set, so just back out of the menus. Press the shutter to take a sequence of bracketed images. It might take 3, or 5, or 8, or whatever it needs.
6. If you choose AUTO, you get to set only the INTERVAL. Then you go to a display that let's you choose the A and B focus settings: The closest and farthest points in your bracket. There are a few ways to choose a focus, such as my touching the screen or turning the focus dial. When you have A, press OK and choose B. Then press DISP/BACK and the camera will automatically deal with FRAMES and STEP. With the focus bracketing settings set, you can press the shutter to take the bracketed images.
7. Ingest the images to your computer, and use them to create a focus-stacked image using whatever method your post-processing software provides for.
From the posts here, I think that people get hung up with AUTO in choosing A and B. After choosing B, they press OK instead of DISP/BACK and just go back to choosing A again. I'm also guessing that, like me, people don't turn the drive dial to BKT, which means that all the focus bracket settings are ineffective, since the camera isn't bracketing. This I think explains the posts where the person is saying that the camera took only one shot.
I hope this helps!
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Unfortunately, Fujifilm's menu nagivation for the focus bracketing is not exactly self explanatory.