SL3 & AFc, examples and recommendations

[kennikins]

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On 3/13/2024 at 1:23 PM, MGN said:

I ran the same test with my dogs & a frisbee with the same settings on the SL3 and a 90 APO at f/2.0, with only about a 5% success rate.  When the pups walked across the yard (not toward me), a majority were in focus — the BETA animal tracking put a box around them and did a fairly good job of “sticking” to them.  But not when the pups came toward me (which is the toughest tracking for cameras, I know.)  They weren’t running, but walking/prancing steadily, so there shouldn't have been any trouble autofocusing.  Im relatively new to the SL system, but have been shooting about 20,000 action photos a year for decades.  I nail near 100% with the Canon R3 (and 1DX3 as a backup.)  I tried every combination of fps, bits, focus points, etc, that I could come up with, and there wasn’t a magical solution.  I even wondered if the camera itself is a dud version.  I’d welcome any ideas to test/improve.

Note:  The SL3 is otherwise brilliant, so this is not a complaint, rather an acknowledgment that there are different tools for different types of photos.  Nonetheless, I'd like to have AFc as an option even if not for sports.

There is another method which I have set up but not yet tried in the field…….1) Set the focus to manual (I know it sounds mad!!)…..2) in customise controls select  joystick then 3) set manual mode to AFc……4) then set the AF mode to tracking….now when you point the camera at the subject press and hold in the joystick button …..you should now have AF lock (sort of!) and if the subject moves the focus should stick as long as you hold it in……I tried it on the television and it works…..will test this soon in the field and update…….!! Ken.

 

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[kennikins]

4 minutes ago, kennikins said:

There is another method which I have set up but not yet tried in the field…….1) Set the focus to manual (I know it sounds mad!!)…..2) in customise controls select  joystick then 3) set manual mode to AFc……4) then set the AF mode to tracking….now when you point the camera at the subject press and hold in the joystick button …..you should now have AF lock (sort of!) and if the subject moves the focus should stick as long as you hold it in……I tried it on the television and it works…..will test this soon in the field and update…….!! Ken.

 

I found this trick here (it is for the SL2 but also works on SL3)….

 

 

Edited June 10, 2024 by kennikins