Pre-AF on or off for SL2

[SJH]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Having been shooting out in the Caribbean over the last couple weeks I wondered what people’s thoughts are on this. Jono seems to say ‘off’ in his SL2 summary above but that seemed more like for battery/landscape work. Does having it on in people’s view improve the AF at the expense of battery life or does it in reality make little difference for most subjects?
 

Many thanks from a new SL2 user. 

[lx1713]

I've left it on permanently. To get a feel of the battery usage. No exhaustive testing. It does eat up batteries initially but I don't feel it's excessive. Perhaps 50 to 60% more batteries. So a 5 battery day may take me about 2-4 batteries more. You will want to test it to your satisfaction. I have 9 batteries from SL, SL2 and Q2 so it has been sufficient ..

Much improved AF performance with the pre-AF  is what makes me pick up the SL2 over an SL. I mainly use the SL for portraits these days. I feel the sheer ridiculousness of shooting 24 mp in studio and 47mp for location and event work. To make up for the extra work, I dropped using my Panasonic 70-200 😄

I have the handgrip for the SL and the face detect on my SL has been flawless so far even at f4. So I use the SL  for portraiture.

[caissa]

Usually off (by default). Only on if absolutely needed and if there is a bonus to be expected. For me this is only very rarely the case.

If you have an external battery bank and don’t mind using it, then you can leave it always on. (Careful, USB PD is required).  A large battery bank (Anker PD 26800) lasts as long as five batteries. Much cleverer than a handgrip.

Edited March 13, 2020 by caissa

[hoppyman]

I think that your style of photography ( what you shoot and what focus methods you use) and the number of batteries you own are considerations.

I just turned it off firstly because of battery life.  I have two and in comparison to a similar day with the S I am finding they deplete quite a bit more rapidly. For my people shooting  I haven’t felt any advantage it offered in focus speed was needed.
 

[SJH]

Thanks for your comments very interesting. 

[sillbeers15]

It make sense to keep it ‘on’ for AFC tracking application ie shooting moving subjects.

[Tailwagger]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

With pre-focus off, IS on, eye finder only, last weekend doing theater shooting I managed 560 shots over four hours on a single battery with a bar or so remaining. That said, the AF missed a few shots that perhaps would have been made with it on.  I'd agree that use is dependent on the situation, but my impression is that enabling it eats power far more rapidly.  By default, I leave it off.

[SJH]

Thanks All - I’ve adopted an approach of having a profile with it on (AFC, tracking, fast shutter etc) and then off for other more general purposes like landscape, architecture etc. 

[Jared]

9 hours ago, Tailwagger said:

With pre-focus off, IS on, eye finder only, last weekend doing theater shooting I managed 560 shots over four hours on a single battery with a bar or so remaining. That said, the AF missed a few shots that perhaps would have been made with it on.  I'd agree that use is dependent on the situation, but my impression is that enabling it eats power far more rapidly.  By default, I leave it off.

To give a comparison, with pre-focus ON, IBIS on, face detect and mostly AFC last weekend I got 350 shots or so before I was down to one bar.  AF was pretty good, but the tracking still missed a few.