Which AF mode you shoot in?

[Goldeneye]

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I bought the Q2 this month and have been playing around with it a bit, however, I am unable to settle to an AF Mode that I like. I bought it while vacationing with family and taking photos of wife and kids, I noticed it doesn’t fully focus on all faces, up to 3 people in question. 

My question is, which AF mode is best suited to ensure all the folks in the group have clear faces? I have been shooting with my Nikon D800 for over 11 years and didn’t have this problem. I do enjoy shooting with manual focus but if I’m handing over this camera to a person who needs to point and shoot and ensure that *all* subjects faces are clear, what mode it’ll be? Will “Face Detection” focus clearly on all people in the frame or I should use “Multi-Field”? I don’t like Multi-Field as it chooses the multiple focus points itself. “Spot”, naturally not since it a point focus.  Not exactly sure about “Field” as it shows single bracket in the middle, not “Tracking” either in this case.

Would love to hear your input. How do you use each mode? And which mode would you use to take a group photo ensuring all faces are crystal clear? 

1. Multi-Field

2. Spot

3. Field

4. Tracking

5. Face Detection 

thanks for the help!

[kirkmc]

I use field; spot is too small. I'm not worried about "crystal clear," and, if you are, don't shoot with the lens wide open. (I usually shoot at around f4, unless I want shallow depth of field.) 

[Alan Friedman]

I find the single point autofocus to be fast, very accurate and intuitive as it is the same method I would use if focusing manually. To portray a group of faces in sharp focus you will need to set an appropriate depth of field with your lens aperture as noted above.

[Dennis]

On my Q2M, I use Field focus point for everything. SInce AF-C is horrible on Q, I found a way to make it work with AF-S always on. 

[tharsh]

Auto ISO,  F 5.6 - f 8, shutter speed at 250

click away

Edited January 26, 2022 by tharsh

[Alan Friedman]

A few additional thoughts… 

Single spot will give the shooter the most control over the focal point of the image, followed by small field. The other modes gives the camera the reins, which may or may not give you the results you desire. Using single point with a wide open. aperture and close shooting distance will let you separate one eye from another, eyebrows as opposed to nose, etc. Select your point of focus, keep the shutter half pressed and then move the camera to compose your shot. (You can separate AF lock from exposure lock, if desired, in the customize control menu). This works much the way one would operate an M camera with rangefinder focusing. The single point focus is very selective. The contrast system will fail on a white wall, but will lock in on a smudge or paint spot on a white wall. I find the combination of spot focusing and the relatively wide FL at 28mm make for a versatile system. 
 

Have fun with your new camera… and happy anniversary!

[Le Chef]

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Try them all. It's easy to do and you will get a feel for what each form of focusing changes, does better or does worse than you were hoping. I'm sure Alan would add try manual focus, and maybe add focus peaking if you're not sure.

[Goldeneye]

8 hours ago, kirkmc said:

I use field; spot is too small. I'm not worried about "crystal clear," and, if you are, don't shoot with the lens wide open. (I usually shoot at around f4, unless I want shallow depth of field.) 

Interesting, so Q2 seem to not work well with more than one subjects with aperture wide open? I’ll try F2.8 on Q2 just to compare with my D800 24-70mm F2.8 lens. I almost always use F2.8 (fully open aperture) and autofocus mode on D800 while traveling with family and was able to focus on all 3 individuals in the picture with nice blurry background, kinda like iPhone’s Portrait mode, but much better. 

[Alan Friedman]

1 hour ago, Le Chef said:

Try them all. It's easy to do and you will get a feel for what each form of focusing changes, does better or does worse than you were hoping. I'm sure Alan would add try manual focus, and maybe add focus peaking if you're not sure.

Indeed... I've never seen as nice an iteration of manual focus with an AF lens as the Q2. It's very pleasant to use. For me, I have enough other options for mirrorless shooting with manual focus lenses - I think I will use the Q2 in AF most of the time (though have to see if I say the same in very low light situations).

15 minutes ago, Goldeneye said:

Interesting, so Q2 seem to not work well with more than one subjects with aperture wide open? I’ll try F2.8 on Q2 just to compare with my D800 24-70mm F2.8 lens. I almost always use F2.8 (fully open aperture) and autofocus mode on D800 while traveling with family and was able to focus on all 3 individuals in the picture with nice blurry background, kinda like iPhone’s Portrait mode, but much better. 

The distance to your subject will make a difference as well. Further away, f1.7 might be fine... or for  portraiture where you want to focus on one member in a group for creative effect. f2.8 will be much more forgiving in terms of depth of field for your group.

And sorry for the anniversary mix-up. I was confusing you with our Q2 owner in Wales. 

Edited January 26, 2022 by Alan Friedman

[marchyman]

6. manual

OK, OK, it's not an autofocus mode.  I also use a Q, not the Q2.  But still... manual focus with focus peaking works for many things.   If I use auto focus I tend to use spot with the spot in then center.   My other option is face detect, but my results are only so so.  The thing in common with my three choices is that I (more or less) determine the focus point, not the camera.  The down side is when focus is wrong I can only blame myself.  

[Goldeneye]

Spot and field with appropriate depth of field. Got it. Thanks 😊

[kirkmc]

15 hours ago, Alan Friedman said:

 I've never seen as nice an iteration of manual focus with an AF lens as the Q2. It's very pleasant to use. 

Definitely. It's just just the right amount of drag, and the diameter of the lens is large enough to make manual focusing easy. On my Fujifilm camera, many of the primes are narrow, and it's hard to hold them correctly to do manual focus. With focus peaking on the Q2, it's really easy to manually focus, and to see where the focus plane is. I still sometimes long for the old split focusing things on film SLRs, but focus peaking is a great tool. 

[Goldeneye]

Yes I do like focus peaking function in manual focus yet I have noticed that we cannot solely rely on it as based on the algorithm it shows peaks for high contrast area - there’s nothing better than human eye, so I disabled it. 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Goldeneye

[Alan Friedman]

With EVF magnification, accurate focus is easily attained without focus peaking and a little less distracting to image composition for me. Since the Leica SL 601, I've gotten used to the precision of manual focus with magnification. I do find that I spend too much time fiddling with fine focus (it's a habit developed from many years using astronomical telescopes)... I am enjoying the Q2M spot auto-focus implementation. Though I'm sure I will come up against situations where it is wanting, it has been quick and accurate through the first few hundred exposures taken with my new camera. The 28mm focal length certainly helps.

[Goldeneye]

8 minutes ago, Alan Friedman said:

With EVF magnification, accurate focus is easily attained without focus peaking and a little less distracting to image composition for me. Since the Leica SL 601, I've gotten used to the precision of manual focus with magnification. I do find that I spend too much time fiddling with fine focus (it's a habit developed from many years using astronomical telescopes)... I am enjoying the Q2M spot auto-focus implementation. Though I'm sure I will come up against situations where it is wanting, it has been quick and accurate through the first few hundred exposures taken with my new camera. The 28mm focal length certainly helps.

Couldn’t agree more. The magnification helps a ton!

[Corius]

Can someone explain how the Q2 handles the AF with spot, and small/med/large field modes? It's not clear to me which you should select and when.

Intuitively I would have thought that spot gives greater certainty of focussing on the point of interest, so why would one choose one of the field modes? For example, is it to handle situations where there is less contrast?

Thanks for the help!

[Alan Friedman]

3 hours ago, Corius said:

Can someone explain how the Q2 handles the AF with spot, and small/med/large field modes? It's not clear to me which you should select and when.

Intuitively I would have thought that spot gives greater certainty of focussing on the point of interest, so why would one choose one of the field modes? For example, is it to handle situations where there is less contrast?

Thanks for the help!

From my sense of things rather than from exhaustive testing... 

Spot will give the user looking through the EVF the most control over the point of focus. Utilizing the field settings will yield more control to the camera - moreso the larger the field of sampling. The multi-field setting obviously gives the greatest nod to the camera's analysis of the field of view. 

Experimenting with a flat wall mounted subject will give some idea of the difference between spot and small field. I have an Ansel Adams calendar in my office with 2x2 white square and numeral to the lower right corner for each day of the month. From a distance of 1/2 meter, I can get the spot to land in the middle of the white square, where it struggles to attain a focus reading. The small field locks in pretty consistently pointed to the same area. However spot mode, with a very small movement towards the number achieves quick and accurate focus. So a slight pan to set the field of view once the focus is locked achieves the same result as small field... better if I am shooting the calendar obliquely and want only a single day to be in sharp focus. 

In three dimensions, you can envision a situation shooting a portrait at f1.7 where you might want to be sure that the focus is on an eye rather than the tip of a nose. Depending on your distance from the subject,  the small field might be too large to decide between these features.

You can move the spot or small square around the field of view if your subject will be consistently located well off center of field of view. This can help - especially if focus/then frame the shot makes a big change in the exposure. You can recenter the spot with a quick double tap on the LCD screen. I usually default to the spot sitting a little above center. 

For a landscape at f5.6 there is likely little practical difference between spot and small field. In fact, manual focus might work as well or better, depending on your comfort with settings and controls. And for the street photographer who will be shooting from the hip, not be looking through the EVF at all, well that is another story entirely. 

I have used the sureness of manual focus for most of my life with digital cameras and have acquired mostly manual focus lenses for my digital bodies. However, one of the beauties of the Q2M is it's closed system/single lens set-up. The system seems very well figured out for auto-focus and I intend to become comfortable with its results in almost all settings. The spot setting seems to allow me the most control, so I expect I will leave it there until I find a situation where it just doesn't work. 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Alan Friedman

[PhotoCruiser]

Maybe I am a old fashioned guy,
but I almost always shoot in spot or center weighted as I know then where the focus point is and I could rearrange it if needed.
For the same reason I usually don't use AF-C to make sure the focus point stay where I want it and if the object moves I just press the shutter half way again to refocus.

I only use AF-C in underwater macro photography as due the body and water movement its virtually impossible to keep the camera steady.
AF-C works under this give circumstances better but still too much wrong focus photos.

I never use (nor with my D800) multiple field focus or focus tracking as I don't need it and had too much out of focus photos, so I rather focus by my self.

Chris
 

[viramati]

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Edited January 28, 2022 by viramati

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