Z5 - Occasional shutter release priority problem

[Kon_boz]

I have the z5 2 weeks now and I noticed a strange issue that I am trying to figure out. I use the back button to focus and have the af mode always set on af-c with release priority. So I expect to be able to always take a picture regardless of focus. Yesterday I was taking pictures in live view and after switching to the evf I realized I couldn't take a picture if I didn't have focus. This doesn't always happen, if I turn on the camera and take pictures through the evf all is good. If I switch to live view and set touch focus the camera will ignore shutter release priority and it will continue to ignore it through the viewfinder. Could this be a setting I am missing?

 

[SoCalAngler]

I have the z5 2 weeks now and I noticed a strange issue that I am trying to figure out. I use the back button to focus and have the af mode always set on af-c with release priority. So I expect to be able to always take a picture regardless of focus. Yesterday I was taking pictures in live view and after switching to the evf I realized I couldn't take a picture if I didn't have focus. This doesn't always happen, if I turn on the camera and take pictures through the evf all is good. If I switch to live view and set touch focus the camera will ignore shutter release priority and it will continue to ignore it through the viewfinder. Could this be a setting I am missing?

Check Custom Setting a7.

You likely have this set to AF-ON if you have correctly set up for back button focus.

Notice that this setting has a sub-menu (indicated by the right arrow at far right when you highlight this section. If you select the sub-menu (by touching the AF-ON option on the LCD or pressing the right side of the direction pad) get two options - Enable and Disable.

With my Z5, if Disable is selected, the shutter won't trigger if I am looking through the EVF and the camera cannot acquire focus. But it only seems to do this if I use Touch AF on the LCD first, which may be a bug.

I pretty much always leave this set to Enable as I have yet to figure out a reason to set this to Disable unless utilizing trap autofocus while in AF-S focus mode, which I have tried rarely.

I also think Nikon's documentation of the permutations of affects that this setting has is rather thin.

--
If cameras and lenses can have autofocus then why can't I?

 

[jthomas39]

I have the z5 2 weeks now and I noticed a strange issue that I am trying to figure out. I use the back button to focus and have the af mode always set on af-c with release priority. So I expect to be able to always take a picture regardless of focus. Yesterday I was taking pictures in live view and after switching to the evf I realized I couldn't take a picture if I didn't have focus. This doesn't always happen, if I turn on the camera and take pictures through the evf all is good. If I switch to live view and set touch focus the camera will ignore shutter release priority and it will continue to ignore it through the viewfinder. Could this be a setting I am missing?

Check Custom Setting a7.

You likely have this set to AF-ON if you have correctly set up for back button focus.

Notice that this setting has a sub-menu (indicated by the right arrow at far right when you highlight this section. If you select the sub-menu (by touching the AF-ON option on the LCD or pressing the right side of the direction pad) get two options - Enable and Disable.

With my Z5, if Disable is selected, the shutter won't trigger if I am looking through the EVF and the camera cannot acquire focus.

I pretty much always leave this set to Enable as I have yet to figure out a reason to set this to Disable unless utilizing trap autofocus while in AF-S focus mode, which I have tried rarely.

I also think Nikon's documentation of the permutations of affects that this setting has is rather thin.

Oh. It's the same in the Z6. How confusing. I thought I knew most features of my Z6, but this was new and is still confusing, even after reading. It appears to be a workaround to allow "trap autofocus", where the camera is prefocused on a specific distance using AF-S, and won't take a photo until a subject passes through that zone and is in focus.

From the useful Thom Hogan's Z6 guide:

A7 Shutter Release Controls Focus {about the a7 right arrow setting with AF-On.)

What was Nikon thinking? This is a good way to accidentally set
your camera so that it takes out of focus images, or to make sure
that AF-ON doesn’t work the way you want it to, your choice ;~).
Many people miss the fact that AF-ON only has two options you need
to select.

 

[jthomas39]

That a7 "out of focus release" option is gone on the Z6 iii. Hogan's guide to the Z6 iii seems to be wrong, with the trap autofocus description copied from older manuals.

Maybe Nikon expects people to use precapture for these situations, instead of a trap focus.

 

[Kon_boz]

Thanks that was it, I figured it out a few minutes after I posted the question. It's weird though that it didn't happen every time only after I had switched to the live view

 

[SoCalAngler]

Thanks that was it, I figured it out a few minutes after I posted the question. It's weird though that it didn't happen every time only after I had switched to the live view

I may be misinterpreting a poorly documented function but I believe the behavior exhibited - that it doesn't seem to take effect until the Touch AF is used on the screen - is a bug.

It certainly isn't consistent.