Any low light focus tips?

[BlackRockArt]

Hi y'all. I wonder how folks get accurate focus in low-light situations, normally it's during the early morning or after the sunset, blue hours. On Z8 & Z7, there are peaking options, do you set the peaking sensitivity to 1 or 3 ?

The attached picture is a sunset shot at a local pond, the sky became vivid red 30 minutes after the sunset, and by then the trees were very difficult to see. Even with the focus peaking on, I was not sure if I got the focus correct with a 24-120mm lens.

I would love to hear how folks handle this.

Thanks in advance.

Oliver

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[John Navitsky]

random (probably unhelpful) thoughts:

1) brighten the exposure so your focus point is plenty bright, focus, then flip to mf to lock it in (unless you're BBF in which case you don't need to) then set your exposure the way you want it for the capture

2) astro mode?

 

[Ivan Rothman]

On the Z9, there is a setting in the Custom Settings Menu, D11 Starlight View. When set to ON it will brighten the display for ease of viewing in dark environments and make it easier to focus.
I believe the same is available in the Z8, listed as item D9 in the Custom Settings Menu

 

[BlackRockArt]

random (probably unhelpful) thoughts:

1) brighten the exposure so your focus point is plenty bright, focus, then flip to mf to lock it in (unless you're BBF in which case you don't need to) then set your exposure the way you want it for the capture

2) astro mode?

John, Thank you, especially on 2) Astro Mode, I should use it more often; you are right, I can manually expose the scene to make it very bright.

Both are great tips.

Oliver

 

[aolander]

Beautiful image! Seems like you nailed the focus.

 

[BlackRockArt]

On the Z9, there is a setting in the Custom Settings Menu, D11 Starlight View. When set to ON it will brighten the display for ease of viewing in dark environments and make it easier to focus.
I believe the same is available in the Z8, listed as item D9 in the Custom Settings Menu

Thank you Ivan, yes, Z8 has that too, gotta remember to use it more often.

Oliver

 

[DRwyoming]

Beautiful image, well seen and well shot!

I would love to hear how folks handle this.

For a landscape in low light I'd do much as you described, manual focus with focus peaking enabled. The one thing I'd add for a wide angle landscape shot is I'll often stop down a stop or more from what I think I need as a bit of DoF insurance. That can help in low light situations where it's hard to be completely confident I've nailed the focus.

 

[NorthernFocus]

You didn't post the EXIF data. Depending on FL in shots like this you can often simply rely on setting focus to hyperfocal range.

 

[Ivan Rothman]

What the Starlight View actually does is that it brightens the display to make it easier to compose the image. And to make it easier to focus. You can zoom in to confirm focus and still have the image lighter than normal.
And normally the Z9 can autofocus down to -6.5EV. But in Starlight View it can autofocus down to -8.5EV

 

[Calson]

At small apertures the DOF is enormous at f/22 so focus is far less critical. Long exposure times but not a problem with the use of a tripod and a remote shutter release.