GerardFor
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Jan is normally a Canon shooter, but I find his reviews to be unbiased and informative. His auto focus setup is definitely worth a look.
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I haven‘t seen it mentioned before either. I saw his video yesterday and tried that method last night and it seemed to work well. I’ll need to try it for a while to what I think overall.That was a very interesting video and I think his way of using the "handoff" setup is unique and I can't recall reading anyone else operating it in that way. He is leaving shutter button AF on with a Custom Wide Area assigned to it but is not engaging AF with the shutter button (or only rarely). Allowing the restricted area of the Custom Wide Area to search for the subject/eye and then only engaging AF with the AF-ON button set to 3D. Essentially doing the Wide Area to 3D handoff (with focus point persistence turned ON) as so many Z9 shooters do, but not actually using shutter button half press AF.
I don't think there's any functional difference vs half pressing the shutter. Just his personal preference to do it that way. And of course he can tout it as something new/different.That was a very interesting video and I think his way of using the "handoff" setup is unique and I can't recall reading anyone else operating it in that way. He is leaving shutter button AF on with a Custom Wide Area assigned to it but is not engaging AF with the shutter button (or only rarely). Allowing the restricted area of the Custom Wide Area to search for the subject/eye and then only engaging AF with the AF-ON button set to 3D. Essentially doing the Wide Area to 3D handoff (with focus point persistence turned ON) as so many Z9 shooters do, but not actually using shutter button half press AF.
That is true. But I don't think the largest Wide Area covers the entire sensor.He is setting the custom wide on the shutter to the full image area though, so it detects a subject anywhere.
The only difference as I understood it in the video is that he isn't engaging the half press of the shutter. Most people using the hybrid handoff engage AF with the half press of the shutter, may even fire a few frames, and then hand over to the AF-ON button set to 3D. Jan is not engaging AF with the shutter. He just allows the camera to search in the background and recognize the subject if it can and then engages AF with AF-ON set to (AFAreaMode+AFON) in 3D. While holding AF-ON he fires the shutter using 3D mode.Jan is one of my favorite photographers on YouTube. I really like his balanced and objective reviews. And his images and colors always look great!
I don’t understand what is new about his Z9 AF setup. As far as I can tell, he’s suggesting the hybrid AF hand-off, that I first saw described by Hudson Henry. That is, use an Area-AF mode as your basic AF mode activated by the shutter button to acquire your subject, then hand the subject off to 3D tracking and AF-ON (on the AF-ON button).
I thought Jan might be doing something different because he refers to preferring ‘a single button’. He doesn’t really tell us in the video what his settings are. My Z9 doesn’t activate Area-AF unless a6:AF Activation is set to Shutter/AF-ON. Then with a7: Focus Point Persistence set to Auto, hand-off to the AF-ON button with AF Mode is possible.
In his reply to a question from Hank Dinardo –
“..Using the front AF with C-1 19X11 and assigning the back button to 3D Tracking. The larger AF box helps plenty. My question is how do you set the Front AF button to C1?”
He says, “If the shutter button is activated whichever base AF mode you chose will be assigned to it. ..”
That’s how I setup my Z9 after hearing Hudson Henry’s description of ‘hybrid AF’. I don’t know if Hudson originated the idea or not? What am I missing?
I don't think it would make any difference. 19x11 doesn't cover the entire sensor in FX mode. Only Auto AF will search the entire sensor.I have a question regarding setting the Custom Wide areas…if you set one up in DX mode, how much area does it cover in FX mode? I ask because I set up my C1 to the max 19x11 while in DX mode. When I switch to Fx mode, it only covers that DX area. If I did the reverse (set it up in FX mode) would it cover the whole image area as he shows in the video?
He has a6 set to AF-ON only, and Wide-Area assigned to it, so it’ll detect a subject in the area even though AF isn’t engaged. Then, he hands-off to the AF-ON button, which he has set to 3D. That’s what he means by “one button to AF”.Jan is one of my favorite photographers on YouTube. I really like his balanced and objective reviews. And his images and colors always look great!
I don’t understand what is new about his Z9 AF setup. As far as I can tell, he’s suggesting the hybrid AF hand-off, that I first saw described by Hudson Henry. That is, use an Area-AF mode as your basic AF mode activated by the shutter button to acquire your subject, then hand the subject off to 3D tracking and AF-ON (on the AF-ON button).
I thought Jan might be doing something different because he refers to preferring ‘a single button’. He doesn’t really tell us in the video what his settings are. My Z9 doesn’t activate Area-AF unless a6:AF Activation is set to Shutter/AF-ON. Then with a7: Focus Point Persistence set to Auto, hand-off to the AF-ON button with AF Mode is possible.
In his reply to a question from Hank Dinardo –
“..Using the front AF with C-1 19X11 and assigning the back button to 3D Tracking. The larger AF box helps plenty. My question is how do you set the Front AF button to C1?”
He says, “If the shutter button is activated whichever base AF mode you chose will be assigned to it. ..”
That’s how I setup my Z9 after hearing Hudson Henry’s description of ‘hybrid AF’. I don’t know if Hudson originated the idea or not? What am I missing?
Are you sure he has a6 set to AF-ON only? Wouldn't he need to have shutter AF active in order for the shutter to use the default AF mode (in this case Wide Area Custom 11x19)?He has a6 set to AF-ON only, and Wide-Area assigned to it, so it’ll detect a subject in the area even though AF isn’t engaged. Then, he hands-off to the AF-ON button, which he has set to 3D. That’s what he means by “one button to AF”.
I’m trying this setup out now, and it works, but I have to adjust muscle memory. You have to assign Single Point or similar to one of the Fn buttons to “unstuck” the AF when it goes to the background, or you need precision AF when getting into the “neighborhood” so that the Wide-area AF can detect the subject.
I don’t know, it’s kinda iffy at times, sometimes the handoff doesn’t quite work, and the camera will drift off target. Could just be I need more time with it.
Yes; a6 is set to “AF-ON only”, and the main “AF-area mode/Subject detection” is set to “Wide-C1”.Are you sure he has a6 set to AF-ON only? Wouldn't he need to have shutter AF active in order for the shutter to use the default AF mode (in this case Wide Area Custom 11x19)?
Are you saying that even though no button is assigned to activate the default AF mode (which would be the case if a6 is set to AF-ON only and the AF-ON button was set to AFON+AreaMode for 3D) that the camera still just runs the default AF mode in the background with no way to actually engage it on the camera?
If so that is really interesting and something I never thought the camera's FW would allow.
He states he has AF on the shutter button and it can be seen in the transcript shared above. He is not first half pressing the shutter before engaging 3D tracking, but just letting the camera find the subject first.Yes; a6 is set to “AF-ON only”, and the main “AF-area mode/Subject detection” is set to “Wide-C1”.
AF-ON button is set to “AF-area mode + AF-ON”, with 3D.
When the camera is sitting there, with no buttons pressed, the Wide-C1 box is visible, and if you happen to have a bird near to the plane of focus, the Subject Detect will light up and put a box on the bird. Half-pressing the shutter will not do anything. Once Subject Detect has a square on the bird, you then hit the AF-ON button, and 3D takes the hand-off.
My challenge with this setup now is one of muscle memory causing me to mash the Shutter button trying to engage AF, and then nothing happens, as I’ve gotten used to having a custom 1x1 set on the shutter button for the past 9 months.
You’re right, he is. I’m not having shutter activate AF. Same intent though, except Jan’s way would give the option to have AF on the half-press. That’s cool, but in that case I’d just go back to how I was doing it in the first place (which I probably will, since I had no issues with it).He states he has AF on the shutter button and it can be seen in the transcript shared above. He is not first half pressing the shutter before engaging 3D tracking, but just letting the camera find the subject first.
I enjoyed it as well. He’s a small channel but very informative.Jan is normally a Canon shooter, but I find his reviews to be unbiased and informative. His auto focus setup is definitely worth a look.
His method doesnt really make sense..... why not just activate AF with the shutter button. He acts as though half pressing is doing something with his index finger that he wouldnt already be doing. I mean, if hes planning on taking a photo hes going to press that button anyway lolThat was a very interesting video and I think his way of using the "handoff" setup is unique and I can't recall reading anyone else operating it in that way. He is leaving shutter button AF on with a Custom Wide Area assigned to it but is not engaging AF with the shutter button (or only rarely). Allowing the restricted area of the Custom Wide Area to search for the subject/eye and then only engaging AF with the AF-ON button set to 3D. Essentially doing the Wide Area to 3D handoff (with focus point persistence turned ON) as so many Z9 shooters do, but not actually using shutter button half press AF.
This is my take-away. Jan shoots in a rich birding environment and seems to be able to get relatively close so the birds are always reasonably large in the frame which is required for his method to work. Around here it's rare to be able to get close enough for the camera to pick up the bird using custom wide unless it's against the sky.This might work for up close small animals but now my style.