SL2-S autofocus performance in low light high ISO conditions?

[petereprice]

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Hi all - I’m considering using a SL2-S for a party shoot I’m doing over the weekend. I’ll be mainly shooting candids of the attendees however it will be in low light conditions.  I know that the sensor does well in low light but when using AF I’m concerned I could run into serious difficulty.  I’m either using a Leica 50mm f2 Summicron-SL ASPH (not APO), the Sigma 50mm f1.4 DG DN or the Panasonic 50mm f1.8.

How is autofocus performance in low light high ISO situations with SL2-S?

[LocalHero1953]

How low is your low light? As a guide, what ISO would you have to shoot to get the desired exposure?

I regularly use the SL2-S for theatre photography up to ISO 25,000. If I can get a good exposure at that ISO then AFs works, including face/eye recognition, although it gets slower to lock on as the light drops. My Auto ISO is set to a maximum of 25,000; as the light drops lower, I get darker images that are often recoverable, but AF is a struggle. 

The 24-90SL, 90-280SL zooms, and the Apo-Summicrons perform better than the Summilux-SL 50. I don't have any of the lenses you mention.

Edited February 7, 2024 by LocalHero1953

[jonnyboy]

It's okay-ish. I shoot a lot of concerts and live gig, the autofocus can be a bit tricky when subjects moving. If you see you missing the shots just switch to manual focus.
I'm using Sigma lenses I don't know if the Leica ones offers a better performance in terms of AF - I doubt it.

[Cronilux]

Compared to my Sony A7III and A7IV, the SL2-S focuses really bad in low light. If that’s your main shooting purpose, then I would definitely not get an SL2-S.

[PavelS]

On 2/7/2024 at 10:06 PM, Cronilux said:

Compared to my Sony A7III and A7IV, the SL2-S focuses really bad in low light. If that’s your main shooting purpose, then I would definitely not get an SL2-S.

+1

The AF-C tracking is poor even in good light it does not stick reliably to the area you have selected and Eye Focus makes the issue even worse if you have more than one person in the frame.

Personally I was really unhappy during event shoots because of the AF poor performance. With the AF-C I did not get the AF confirmation it just keep hunting and it was hunting slow. So I switched to AF-S but the AF lock was slow and people were moving... At the end of the evening I got some shots but there was much more waste and so much more effort and frustration comparing the same scenario with A7 IV or Canon R6 I used to have before.

In really low light scenario with SL2-S body the Lumix S50/1.8 lens performed better than Sigma DN DG 85/1.4 (which is slower focusing lens even in good light). Interestingly, now when I use Lumix S5IIX body in similar low light scenario I find the Lumix S lenses having slight "hesitance" or "lag" compared to Sigma DN DG 50/1.4 or even SL Vario-Elmarit 24-70/2.8.

[petereprice]

3 hours ago, PavelS said:

Interestingly, now when I use Lumix S5IIX body in similar low light scenario I find the Lumix S lenses having slight "hesitance" or "lag" compared to Sigma DN DG 50/1.4 or even SL Vario-Elmarit 24-70/2.8.

 

This I find interesting.  How do you find the Panasonic S5 IIX autofocus performance compared to the SL2-S?  It seems like based on your feedback still not quite there?  I only ask because I imagine Leica will be implementing the same or similar phase detect AF in their upcoming SL3 camera.  Curious if you have any further feedback on the Panasonic compared to your past experience with SL2-S and even Sony.

Edited February 11, 2024 by petereprice

[PavelS]

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3 minutes ago, petereprice said:

This I find interesting.  How do you find the Panasonic S5 IIX autofocus performance compared to the SL2-S?  It seems like based on your feedback still not quite there?  I only ask because I imagine Leica will be implementing the same or similar phase detect AF in their upcoming SL3 camera.  Curious if you have any further feedback on the Panasonic compared to your past experience with SL2-S and even Sony.

The S5IIX AF performance is somewhat better compared to the SL2-s but as you wrote it is still not quite there when compared to A7 IV or newer Sony bodies and even far behind the original Canon R6. BUT - everyone is using the AF differently and have different expectations from it. I am spoiled by the mentioned cameras which I have used for event photography and have used Eye Focus or Tracking (with the tiny little focusing point) in AF-C mode. I never needed to use AF-S doing event photography because the tracking or/and Eye focus just were that reliable. This is not the case of S5IIX, where I often need to switch to AF-S to get access to that hair cross focusing point which is not available in AF-C (!!!). If I remember it well, SL2-S did have that option but it made no difference because the ability to stick to some area (mostly face or eye) and keep being glued to it in AF-C mode was beyond ability of the AF.

ISO performance  and image details of S5IIX are very similar to the SL2-S with main difference being the colours. Leica is very distinctive and have its own style more or less across all their models. S5IIX colours are more "neutral" (which is not a bad thing). In fact I do prefer it for portraits.

I certainly hope the SL3 will have much improved AF compared to the S5IIX. There is one year difference in between those two and Panasonic should also be introducing their own top model replacing the S1 as I understand so there should be improvements in the AF performance. In fact I hope that this will have direct impact on the S5IIX in form of new firmware taking advantage from the latest development.