Having trouble with Z6iii Animal Autofocus

[NicoleMordecai]

Steve,

I've been practicing photographing squirrels and chipmunks with my new Z6iii. I know you say that if the animal tracking isn't working, stop using it, but I'm trying to get a feel for how it works, so I'm sticking with it for now while I'm practicing. Here's what's happening. I'm using the AF Area Mode Wide-L setting with animal subject detection. I see the small square around the squirrel's eye and press and hold the back-button focus. Then, even if the squirrel doesn't move a muscle (and I try not to as well), the camera loses focus. It seems like the focus is hunting even though nothing in the scene has changed and I've kept the focus button down. It's quite frustrating since my challenge to myself was to catch the squirrel running, so I wanted the camera to track the squirrel, but it didn't hold on to the focus long enough. I tried switching to the Wide-S mode, but that didn't seem to help anything. Any suggestions of what else to try?

 

[MrFotoFool]

I know on my Z8 the animal has to fill a substantial amount of the frame for animal tracking to actually grab the eye. When I owned a Sony A7IV for about a year and a half it seemed to do better when the animal was far away. Most of the time, though, I am in the habit of just using single point focus and manually placing it on the eye. This helps when animals are in brush surrounded by branches. However, if your squirrels are in the open then the mode you are using should work.

 

[bleirer]

This is all they promise:

People, dogs, cats, birds, airplanes, cars, motorcycles, bicycles and trains.

For people they say the head should fill 3% of the frame, so could be same for animals, so maybe get a bigger image in the viewfinder, perhaps DX mode.

 

[JAJohnson]

Steve,

I've been practicing photographing squirrels and chipmunks with my new Z6iii. I know you say that if the animal tracking isn't working, stop using it, but I'm trying to get a feel for how it works, so I'm sticking with it for now while I'm practicing. Here's what's happening. I'm using the AF Area Mode Wide-L setting with animal subject detection. I see the small square around the squirrel's eye and press and hold the back-button focus. Then, even if the squirrel doesn't move a muscle (and I try not to as well), the camera loses focus. It seems like the focus is hunting even though nothing in the scene has changed and I've kept the focus button down. It's quite frustrating since my challenge to myself was to catch the squirrel running, so I wanted the camera to track the squirrel, but it didn't hold on to the focus long enough. I tried switching to the Wide-S mode, but that didn't seem to help anything. Any suggestions of what else to try?

Animal AF shouldn't struggle with a chipmunk. Here's a photo of a rabbit I shot yesterday on a Z6III with a 400 f/4.5 lens. Animal subject detection grabbed the eye and held it, no hunting at all. Without knowing more about your specific scenario I'm not sure what advice to offer.

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

 

[NicoleMordecai]

I had good luck with a rabbit as well. I guess the little red squirrel was probably just too small in the frame. I'm working on trying to get closer to them to see if that will help.

 

[Hooligans Imagery]

Frame of reference. Mine would bounce on and off the eye depending on whether the face was in the sun or not. How close you are and how much you fill the frame matters. That is why a backup is good. Some people use single point and others use dynamic (in case the animal moves a little). Fn2 is where I have my choice.

 

[abc123brian]

Keep in mind when using a focus mode along with subject detection if the subject is not identified the camera defaults to the focus mode you are in, with closest object priority. So if you’re using wide area large + animal subject detection as long as the camera is grabbing the subject the focus should go to the eye, head, torso. If anything causes the camera to not identify the subject, think squirrel putting its head down into the grass, the camera will instantly switch to wide area L behavior and focus on the object closest to the camera under the wide area L focus box. If the subject recognition is intermittent, say small subject in the frame or subject becoming partially obstructed to where the camera is not recognizing the subject switching to a smaller focus box that you’re able to keep on the subject should have more success. You might also want to try utilizing 3D tracking depending on the situation. When it comes to partially obstructed subjects I often find I have more success.

 

[John Navitsky]

you mean as soon as you press af-on it looses focus?

if so, i would suspect you have af-on to be set to an af mode PLUS af-on, and you don’t have af hand-off enabled

 

[NicoleMordecai]

you mean as soon as you press af-on it looses focus?

if so, i would suspect you have af-on to be set to an af mode PLUS af-on, and you don’t have af hand-off enabled

John, no, I don't mean that. Sometimes the eye focus stays for a few seconds before it goes away. I guess what's puzzling to me is if the camera can identify the subject and the subject doesn't move, it seems like it should be able to keep identifying it until something changes.

 

[John Navitsky]

John, no, I don't mean that. Sometimes the eye focus stays for a few seconds before it goes away. I guess what's puzzling to me is if the camera can identify the subject and the subject doesn't move, it seems like it should be able to keep identifying it until something changes.

be aware when using a limiting af box, it won't track the subject far outside of the box.