SL3 AF tips and tricks

[Dr. G]

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On 6/15/2024 at 4:13 PM, tom0511 said:

I dont mean shake. Maybe its a readout thing. 

Do you mean it shimmers similar to the effect in the movie "Predator?"

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[FlashGordonPhotography]

7 hours ago, geronimosan said:

Thanks, yes, have looked into the AF fine tuning settings. Have been testing out different tuning and AF metering combinations, and still have more testing to do, but so far no combination has yet yielded reliably good results.

I'm using the SL 90-280 and SL 24-90 lenses.

The 90-280 is half your problem. It’s a stunning optic but just not great in AFC, currently. I’m not sure if firmware can improve it. I would love it to be better as apart from the Canon 100-300 and Olympus 40-150, it’s unique and a brilliant focal length. Just the AFC can’t keep up.

Lenses like the Sigma 70-200 are MUCH faster and more reliable in AFC. The 100-400 is also an improvement over the 90-280 and I tend to use this lens more now but will switch to the Sigma if things start moving. I’d try some different lenses before dropping into a new system. You may be surprised. Having said that you’ll never get Z8 or A7R5 focus speeds. The SL3 is somewhere between the SL2-S and S5II focus wise.

The 24-90 is OK but the 24-70 is also a bit better. But I find the 24-90 to be adequate.

And as animals is clearly marked beta, we expect it to improve with firmware. Honestly the whole firmware is a bit beta on the SL3.

Gordon

[geronimosan]

Running more tests today yielded by far the best results using Pinpoint AF + AFC.  Went from <10% 4fps sequence hit rate with Animal Detection to >85% 4fps sequence hit rate with the Crosshairs.  It's old school AF "tracking" but it works pretty well.

I also bought an S5II, will give that a shot, no pun intended.  Curious to see how well its various AF tracking modes work and image quality/cropability compares to the SL3.

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[jaapv]

11 hours ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

The 90-280 is half your problem. It’s a stunning optic but just not great in AFC, currently. I’m not sure if firmware can improve it. I would love it to be better as apart from the Canon 100-300 and Olympus 40-150, it’s unique and a brilliant focal length. Just the AFC can’t keep up.

Lenses like the Sigma 70-200 are MUCH faster and more reliable in AFC. The 100-400 is also an improvement over the 90-280 and I tend to use this lens more now but will switch to the Sigma if things start moving. I’d try some different lenses before dropping into a new system. You may be surprised. Having said that you’ll never get Z8 or A7R5 focus speeds. The SL3 is somewhere between the SL2-S and S5II focus wise.

The 24-90 is OK but the 24-70 is also a bit better. But I find the 24-90 to be adequate.

And as animals is clearly marked beta, we expect it to improve with firmware. Honestly the whole firmware is a bit beta on the SL3.

Gordon

Second the remark on the 70-200. It even is a marked improvement on the 601. 

[Simone_DF]

23 hours ago, geronimosan said:

Thanks, I'll look more into the S52.  I hesitated initially due to its small resolution size - one of the main reasons I went with the SL3 was for the much larger resolution. Also am wondering how image quality of S52 with Leica SL lenses compares to that of SL3

For the resolution, I'm sure Panasonic will release a followup to the S1R, but who knows when! Regarding image quality, I can't complain so far. I suppose the biggest difference is that the SL doesn't have an anti-aliasing filter, whereas the S5 does, and if you pixel peep at >200% the SL will look slightly sharper. For the rest, turns out the L2 alliance works both ways, Leica has a lot to gain from Panasonic's tech, and Panasonic has a lot to gain from Leica's color science etcetera, which in turn is a massive win for the end users of both systems. I think that at this point is more of a matter of personal preferences, as both Leica and Panasonic's cameras offer some pros and cons. Yesterday I sold my SL2-S, I'll stick to the S5II for now, but I'll probably "side-grade" to the SL3-S next year, because there are some things that I prefer on the Leica side of things. This doesn't mean the S5II is by any means inferior, it's just a different, and excellent, camera.