Is 3D + animal eye AF the best option?

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pmenear

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I've done wide angle, remote trigger, wildlife photography, focal lengths from14mm to 200mm before with the DSLRs and always manually prefocused. This trip I want to try and take advantage of the new mirrorless autofocus on the Z9. My thoughts are to use AFC 3D + animal eye, are there any better options?
 
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3D with subject detection works ok for slow/ non moving targets or perched birds etc and when there are no foreground or background distractions. The moment there is complex foreground/ backgrounds or faster subject movement, 3d tracking struggles. This is the reason most of the Z9 users have programmed multiple AF options assigned to shortcut buttons to either use a more appropriate tracking mode like a wide-S/L or Wide C1/C2 to refine the area within which you wanted the camera to track or look for the subject or in extremely challenging situations, just go the old school and use single point or one of the dynamic modes.

Here’s my configuration:
  1. Shutter AF is set to Auto area AF
  2. Joy stick set to 3D tracking
  3. AF-on set to wid—L
  4. Lens Fn (4 of those in the front of the lens) set to wide-S - I do this so that I can press the lens fn using my left hand and still use my right thumb to move the wide-s box anywhere I want
  5. fn-1 set to single point
I also use my video record button to access the quick menu and the first item there is subject detection. For extreme action i may at times just turn off subject tracking.

90% of the time, I just use either my shutter AF or Wide S but there are exceptional circumstances when a more precise AF mode may be handy and hence all the above customisations.
 
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Rarely does the Z9 do well starting off in 3D. In fact, I found even handing off to 3D from Wide Area size of your choice to be less than ideal.

I'd recommend using a Wide Area size of your choice depending on subject and distractions and then if needed handing off to Auto Area AF on a 2nd button. I found Auto Area much better than 3D as a handoff choice to allow full sensor width tracking.
 
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Thanks for the replies but sorry if I didn't make it clear. I'm asking about 'Remote Triggering' the camera with 'No one' in attendance to handoff or change af mode.

Is AFC 3D + Animal eye AF likely to be the best option? or is Wide Area Large going to be better? Thanks
 
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