Snow and AF

[MikeS]

Recently I shot an event in very snowy conditions and the AF of my Z8 struggled with all of the AF modes. Single Point was the best of these. I've read various posts describing the AF being so good it's grabbing the snowflakes. I can't recall having so much trouble with snow after years of shooting sports and wildlife with DSLRs in snowy conditions. I'd like to hear from the people having both Sony and Nikon whether one is any better than the other. Absolutely no plans of changing systems but I am curious.

 

[Steve]

In my experience, snow or other precipitation can always cause issues, usually in the form of jittery AF. I've experienced with this both Sony and Nikon (mirrorless and DSLR). I just keep AF engaged and fire longer bursts

 

[MikeS]

In my experience, snow or other precipitation can always cause issues, usually in the form of jittery AF. I've experienced with this both Sony and Nikon (mirrorless and DSLR). I just keep AF engaged and fire longer bursts

Thanks Steve, that's pretty much what I did but it was hit and miss. We get spoiled with stellar AF at all other times and expect it at all times!

 

[Warren D]

I noticed a change with the D5, the AF was so good it liked to lock on small snow flakes and rain drops over a much larger object in the background. Single point AF seemed best as that mode doesn't use close-subject priority. The D6, D850 and now the Z9 seem to have gotten more likely to lock on precip and the best way I've found is to have single point on one of my buttons and engage it, dropping out subject priority. If you go that route, be sure you aren't using one of the custom af boxes set to 1 pixel square (like Steve uses) as you want to disable subject detection.

 

[EricKlees]

Agree with Steve on this one. I would have my D500+500mmPF want to grab the snowflakes in a moderate to heavy snow in Minnesota getting Great Grey owls. The AF would just want to go back and forth. You can work around it and shoot when the subject was in focus. But snow, if you're on the closer side to your subject, can be a nuisance. The further you are away, the snow is so small I never had an issue

 

[bsinc1962]

Heavy snow can be tough. I was shooting Bighorns during a heavy and wet snow dump with my Z9 a month ago and I wound up manually focusing because it kept on losing the animal. Thankfully he wasn't moving around very much.

 

[SugarDude]

I was in Yellowstone last January and experienced the exact same thing on my Z9. I tried 3 different AF modes and all of them gave me trouble. I even switched to manual focus with focus peaking and had a little luck. I will say there were some Sony shooters with us and they were having better luck with their AF than us Nikon shooters. I was on Z9 4.1 FW and using my 600PF. Maybe it's something Nikon can work on.

 

[EricKlees]

I was in Yellowstone last January and experienced the exact same thing on my Z9. I tried 3 different AF modes and all of them gave me trouble. I even switched to manual focus with focus peaking and had a little luck. I will say there were some Sony shooters with us and they were having better luck with their AF than us Nikon shooters. I was on Z9 4.1 FW and using my 600PF. Maybe it's something Nikon can work on.

Interesting. I was in Yellowstone that trip and then in Minn for the great grey owls and Canon R5 and Sony A1 shooters were all having the same exact issue. Curious what @Steve has experienced with his A1 in these scenarios

 

[Steve]

Interesting. I was in Yellowstone that trip and then in Minn for the great grey owls and Canon R5 and Sony A1 shooters were all having the same exact issue. Curious what @Steve has experienced with his A1 in these scenarios

I honestly haven't used it much while it's snowing. I'm more of a fair weather photographer

Still, I have used it in rain and it's about the same as what I see with the Nikons.

The thing is, there's a physical barrier between the camera and the subject, so AF can sometimes struggle. On thing that might help though is setting the blocked AF response so it's not as eager to jump to other things, although Subject Detection doesn't really care too much about that setting. So, if you turn SD off, use single point, and set a longer delay, that might help keep the lock if you have a lock.

 

[MikeS]

I honestly haven't used it much while it's snowing. I'm more of a fair weather photographer

Still, I have used it in rain and it's about the same as what I see with the Nikons.

The thing is, there's a physical barrier between the camera and the subject, so AF can sometimes struggle. On thing that might help though is setting the blocked AF response so it's not as eager to jump to other things, although Subject Detection doesn't really care too much about that setting. So, if you turn SD off, use single point, and set a longer delay, that might help keep the lock if you have a lock.

Re: the longer delay, I wondered if a setting of "1" instead of my usual 3 would help with snow and will be sure to try it next time I'm in near-blizzard conditions. I photograph in snow a lot and actually like the mood it adds to wildlife photos. Thanks everyone for your thoughtful replies.

 

[EricKlees]

I honestly haven't used it much while it's snowing. I'm more of a fair weather photographer

Still, I have used it in rain and it's about the same as what I see with the Nikons.

The thing is, there's a physical barrier between the camera and the subject, so AF can sometimes struggle. On thing that might help though is setting the blocked AF response so it's not as eager to jump to other things, although Subject Detection doesn't really care too much about that setting. So, if you turn SD off, use single point, and set a longer delay, that might help keep the lock if you have a lock.

With the Z9, I set my blocked shot to 5. Auto area will use 5 and 3D defaults to 3 only. This has been the best i have experience in a medium to heavy snow. I haven't found turning off SD if any real benefit