testing AF tracking on SL2

[Luca]

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I was curious to see ho AF tracking was working so I did some quick tests to assess best settings when I was on the Alps.

First I used to shoot some skiers; the subject was moving  diagonally to me; I was using children and pets at default settings.Locking of the subject was not  happening all the times. But when locked all shots were 100 on focus.

Then tried a different subject: cableways. They were moving obviously one up the other down and to me they were going right and left of the viewfinder.

With same settings as above locking was really difficult and even when it was ok tracking was easily lost after a few shots.When the 2 cableways were crossing tracking was moving from one cableway to the other.Then moved to runner option and decreased depth of sensitivity to -2.

Locking was ok most of the times and shots were all on focus; when the 2 cablesways were crossing focus was still on the first cablesway as expected.

I think it would be interesting to have a detailed test on AF tracking settings by some pro as to understand better this interesting feature and how best can work for us.

There a are 2 nice videos by Robert Sinha on AF but not specifically  on AF tracking.

 

[LocalHero1953]

Thanks - useful testing.

As a non-SL2 user, but occasional SL tracking user, particularly for dancers (which have analogous scenarios of crossing subjects), it would really irritate me to have to switch, on the fly, between different settings and parameters in order to make it work. I guess this is how technology evolves - eventually processing spreed and AI will eliminate these things. (I have no experience of other systems, though there are plenty of reports that they perform better.)

[frame-it]

1 hour ago, Luca said:

I was curious to see ho AF tracking was working so I did some quick tests to assess best settings when I was on the Alps.

First I used to shoot some skiers; the subject was moving  diagonally to me; I was using children and pets at default settings.Locking of the subject was not  happening all the times. But when locked all shots were 100 on focus.

Then tried a different subject: cableways. They were moving obviously one up the other down and to me they were going right and left of the viewfinder.

With same settings as above locking was really difficult and even when it was ok tracking was easily lost after a few shots.When the 2 cableways were crossing tracking was moving from one cableway to the other.Then moved to runner option and decreased depth of sensitivity to -2.

Locking was ok most of the times and shots were all on focus; when the 2 cablesways were crossing focus was still on the first cablesway as expected.

I think it would be interesting to have a detailed test on AF tracking settings by some pro as to understand better this interesting feature and how best can work for us.

There a are 2 nice videos by Robert Sinha on AF but not specifically  on AF tracking.

 

@sillbeers15 knows how to do it quite well..he got some very nice shots of planes in the air before

[rim_light]

3 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

As a non-SL2 user, but occasional SL tracking user, particularly for dancers (which have analogous scenarios of crossing subjects), it would really irritate me to have to switch, on the fly, between different settings and parameters in order to make it work. I guess this is how technology evolves - eventually processing spreed and AI will eliminate these things. (I have no experience of other systems, though there are plenty of reports that they perform better.)

In this scenario I recommend using the AF setting for teamsports, but with the field sensor. Works in similar scenarios very good and you don't have to change the settings.

[sillbeers15]

6 hours ago, Luca said:

I was curious to see ho AF tracking was working so I did some quick tests to assess best settings when I was on the Alps.

First I used to shoot some skiers; the subject was moving  diagonally to me; I was using children and pets at default settings.Locking of the subject was not  happening all the times. But when locked all shots were 100 on focus.

Then tried a different subject: cableways. They were moving obviously one up the other down and to me they were going right and left of the viewfinder.

With same settings as above locking was really difficult and even when it was ok tracking was easily lost after a few shots.When the 2 cableways were crossing tracking was moving from one cableway to the other.Then moved to runner option and decreased depth of sensitivity to -2.

Locking was ok most of the times and shots were all on focus; when the 2 cablesways were crossing focus was still on the first cablesway as expected.

I think it would be interesting to have a detailed test on AF tracking settings by some pro as to understand better this interesting feature and how best can work for us.

There a are 2 nice videos by Robert Sinha on AF but not specifically  on AF tracking.

 

You are dealing with 3 factors of success on AF tracking available on any AF camera:

1 Camera AF tracking limitation;

2 AF tracking setting to optimise situation;

3 User must be able to successfully start track subject (tracking box must turn green from white) and able to maintain subject within frame on continuous drive ‘medium’ for SL/2

Only factor 2 and 3 are familiarised by user can factor 1 be accessed. Unfortunately most users jump into conclusion of factor 1 without successfully mastering factor 2 &3. 
Mastering factor 2 & 3 will be rewarding to find how AF tracking can bring shots which MF cannot achieve.

Edited December 29, 2019 by sillbeers15

[Luca]

Thanks for your comments , I agree with you.

That is why for point 2) I hope to get some more tests/reviews with more details on AF tracking settings.

Point 3) it seems to me the most challenging one, not always it was easy to lock subject = getting green box ; also for this reason I think better settings would help in this.

 

[LocalHero1953]

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48 minutes ago, Luca said:

Thanks for your comments , I agree with you.

That is why for point 2) I hope to get some more tests/reviews with more details on AF tracking settings.

Point 3) it seems to me the most challenging one, not always it was easy to lock subject = getting green box ; also for this reason I think better settings would help in this.

 

Please report back!

[sillbeers15]

7 hours ago, Luca said:

Thanks for your comments , I agree with you.

That is why for point 2) I hope to get some more tests/reviews with more details on AF tracking settings.

Point 3) it seems to me the most challenging one, not always it was easy to lock subject = getting green box ; also for this reason I think better settings would help in this.

 

On point 3 the relative size of your tracking subject and the contrast of brightness vs background matters to determine success rate. Due to contrast detect AF, under strong backlighting situation it gets more tricky.

[Luca]

On 12/30/2019 at 1:48 AM, sillbeers15 said:

On point 3 the relative size of your tracking subject and the contrast of brightness vs background matters to determine success rate. Due to contrast detect AF, under strong backlighting situation it gets more tricky.

you are rights and most probably difficult in locking subject at the beginning was due to white snow ob the background in a sunny day also.

but apparently chaining settings locking the subject  improved a lot.so we need more tests on this.

[Luca]

On 12/29/2019 at 6:56 PM, LocalHero1953 said:

Please report back!

Now back to work I will try my best to add more tests, hope also to get tests done by others, to compare.