SL3 AF in dark?

[Jonathan Levin]

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I thought I asked this before but couldn't find the thread.

The camera has real difficulty focusing on subject in near dark conditions. Looking through viewfinder and it's totally dark. At an outdoor event last night and focus was having trouble picking up something to focus on. I think Nikon had a mode that had a focus assist "light" that helped with focus. Does the SL3 have that?  Maybe I need to bring a flashlight😁.

I was using a hand held flash. A bunch of my shots were pretty soft. Maybe manual focus and small aperture  is my friend in this case.

Sorry if this has been asked before.

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[LocalHero1953]

The SL3-S has. I have never used it, but it's always the first thing I switch off!

[Jonathan Levin]

I know there was that pption on the Nikon D800/850. I never used itt. Maybe an old miners helmet with a headlight would help.

[LocalHero1953]

12 minutes ago, Jonathan Levin said:

I know there was that pption on the Nikon D800/850. I never used itt. Maybe an old miners helmet with a headlight would help.

Have you checked the manual?

[frame-it]

3 hours ago, Jonathan Levin said:

 I think Nikon had a mode that had a focus assist "light" that helped with focus. Does the SL3 have that?  Maybe I need to bring a flashlight😁.

I was using a hand held flash. 

i though most AF assist beams from cameras were infrared?

[Jonathan Levin]

Page 122. I’ll have to try that.

[Jonathan Levin]

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Well this was disappointing.

I had a chance to try out the AF lamp assist and it is pretty useless or I’m doing something completely wrong.

First the lamp location on the camera. With a 24-90 lens on camera, the “beam” is obstructed by the lens. So in the viewfinder you only see illumination in the upper left portion of frame. In order for it to work, you have to move the focus square to that area. This is made worse if the lens shade is on.

This is not really workable but I was hoping. Maybe with a smaller lens like an M lens or a short in lenghth prime this could work. There probably isn’t anywhere on the SL3 that this assist could be placed for it to work properly. Maybe above the Leica name on housing?

Struck out on this one Leica🙁

 

[DenverSteve]

You need light to photograph regardless of film or digital.  You can't expect a camera to focus in the dark. 

[jaapv]

I dislike the death ray effect that these focus lights have. Although they are popularly labeled IR in my experience there is little Infra present, nor are they very effective with most cameras and certainly not by Leica. My favourite technique is to focus on stronger contrasts and lock. Beam off. LiDAR would be better. But that can damage fellow photographers sensors. 

[beewee]

Are you shooting with flash or long exposure?

If you’re shooting with long exposure, I expect you have a tripod. In that case, I would use enhanced live view and manual focus. It works great for astro.

[PhotoCruiser]

I dislike the death ray as well as it may advert people/animals that they are framed, so i have it 99% off.
Also the range ist not really very long but it works rather well for near objects and can be helpful.
 

vor 12 Stunden schrieb Jonathan Levin:

The camera has real difficulty focusing on subject in near dark conditions.

Not really sure what would be helpful, a flash with a focus lamp what switch off when you push the trigger, most underwater flashes have that.
You may do a search if there are some hand held focus lights for underwater photography, i believe that they existed once and they are much stronger than the in-camera or in-flash ones.

My Godox V1 have two systems for that, a automatic light what switch on when camera has troubles to focus and a 1 second continuous strobo effect what is thought to show shadows. I did not used either as i use the flashes almost exclusively for macro photography.
The above would work for rather near objects, but most likely not for distant sceneries.

Otherwise focus manually or use hyperfocal settings to have most possible in focus.

Chris

 

[BernardC]

12 hours ago, jaapv said:

I dislike the death ray effect that these focus lights have. Although they are popularly labeled IR in my experience there is little Infra present, nor are they very effective with most cameras and certainly not by Leica. My favourite technique is to focus on stronger contrasts and lock. Beam off. LiDAR would be better. But that can damage fellow photographers sensors. 

My other concern about LiDAR, at least the way it's implemented in the X2D2, is that the sensor is very close to the lens mount, and the lenses are very large. I doubt it can see much of the scene.

Panasonic has a LiDAR implementation with DJI which is mounted in the hot shoe. I have no experience with it, but it's more likely to have an unobstructed view of your subject.

[Photoworks]

1. If you use a Leica flash, an AF assist light goes on from the flash; it also has a video light, but I don't suggest using it.

2. If you are using 3rd third-party flash, your AF assist is only available from the camera. And the exposure preview is still on, and the viewfinder can be dark. You would have to switch to contrast preview off. With a Leica flash mounted, this is accurate automatically.

3. The AF assist beam is only in the center; your focus field has to be in the center aswell. I wish we had a look center option!

4. AFs has only contrast AF, and in low light, it does not work well. In my experience, it is the same as SL2, you take 5 party photos, refocusing every time, and only 2-3 will be usable.

5.  Phase af is only available in the SL3 in AFC, This will be better in low light, and much faster.

[Jonathan Levin]

On 10/27/2025 at 8:37 PM, DenverSteve said:

You need light to photograph regardless of film or digital.  You can't expect a camera to focus in the dark. 

I may have been taken in by the miracle of  autofocus. It works great…when there is light. The limitations are across all brands I think.

Back when I was shooting with my M’s and wanted to shoot people in dark situations close in distance to me, I’d set my 35mm to f/16, use a hand held flash that adjusted output based on how near/far to subject light source was, and lock the distance on the lens at 36 inches, my sleeve length. This worked well for many years.

Trying to buy shirts with this sleeve length years ago not so easy. But I digress.