Trouble with AF on a Z7

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Pics6x6

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Upgraded from a Z6 to Z7 to get more AF points, having continuing AF problems. I shoot portraits and use EyeAF (one reason I bought the Z line), I was shooting a model on a exterior covered walkway. Several missed focuses, seems the AF locked on the columns to the model's right side. In several she was standing against a wall and again it missed focus. I shoot AF-S and got focus lock but the results are off. I was using a Nikon 85mm S lens. Two days ago I shot another model this time I used a 18-35G lens with a FTZ adapter and after an hour there were many times it wouldn't even get a focus lock and I intentionally pointed it at high contrast areas such as where the dark dress touch the light color skin or the hairline where it's half dark hair and half lighter skin. First shoot was daylight with plenty of light, the second was indoors but pretty bright with room lights and modeling light from my monolight. Most of the time I get focus lock and sharp results but if this issue keeps on ocurring and I can't trust it I'm going to put it on eBay and go back to my D850.

Anyone have any experience and a solution to this or just a solution ?

Thanks
 
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Eye AF is good with people but not foolproof. It works better at close range for sure (not sure how far away you were). Did it look like eye-AF was active (little box around the eye) on the missed shot(s)?
 
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Steve said:
Eye AF is good with people but not foolproof. It works better at close range for sure (not sure how far away you were). Did it look like eye-AF was active (little box around the eye) on the missed shot(s)?
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Yes, for head and shoulder type work it works fine but these were full body shots. In the covered walkway I had several green boxes at one time but they were on the column next to the model, not on the model (letting off on the shutter release and trying AF again go the same results) so I had to move the camera, get them on the model, lock focus and then shoot. For the shots against the wall it did face AF with the green box around the face and still several (and of course her best ones) soft. Of the ones I wanted to use about 25% of them where soft. Should let you I was shooting at 1/80, with 5 axis VR since I was using a S series lens and shooting at f5.6 at a distance of ten feet or so. Depth of field should have covered a slight error in focus. Thinking the body needs to go back to Nikon as it's only a couple months old. Still have the issue while using the 18-35 G lens indoors I couldn't get a focus lock at all and wasn't using eyeAF since most shots were done from the back or side. If it wasn't for the weight, lack of eye AF and only having one third of the focus points, I'd go back to using my D850.

I liked my Z6 but this is the first time I'm getting disappointed with a Nikon product after 52 years of using them.
 
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Pics6x6 said:
Yes, for head and shoulder type work it works fine but these were full body shots. In the covered walkway I had several green boxes at one time but they were on the column next to the model, not on the model (letting off on the shutter release and trying AF again go the same results) so I had to move the camera, get them on the model, lock focus and then shoot. For the shots against the wall it did face AF with the green box around the face and still several (and of course her best ones) soft. Of the ones I wanted to use about 25% of them where soft. Should let you I was shooting at 1/80, with 5 axis VR since I was using a S series lens and shooting at f5.6 at a distance of ten feet or so. Depth of field should have covered a slight error in focus. Thinking the body needs to go back to Nikon as it's only a couple months old. Still have the issue while using the 18-35 G lens indoors I couldn't get a focus lock at all and wasn't using eyeAF since most shots were done from the back or side. If it wasn't for the weight, lack of eye AF and only having one third of the focus points, I'd go back to using my D850.

I liked my Z6 but this is the first time I'm getting disappointed with a Nikon product after 52 years of using them.
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If you had several green boxes the eye-AF was not locking on due to you being too far away, or the camera could not consistently see the eye. In my opinion you would have been much better off to use one of the other AF-C focus modes, such as single point, dynamic, or even Wide-Area AF Small. Looks to me like with the green boxes you were in Auto-Area AF, and that hands all control over to the camera. Not a good idea if it cannot find an eye to focus on. You could also try the sticky mode where in Auto-Area AF mode you hit the OK button to tell the camera where to focus, like the model's head, and then the camera will keep focusing there. Horses for courses - the Z cameras' focus modes work different to the DSLR's.
 
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Pics6x6 said:
Yes, for head and shoulder type work it works fine but these were full body shots. In the covered walkway I had several green boxes at one time but they were on the column next to the model, not on the model (letting off on the shutter release and trying AF again go the same results) so I had to move the camera, get them on the model, lock focus and then shoot. For the shots against the wall it did face AF with the green box around the face and still several (and of course her best ones) soft. Of the ones I wanted to use about 25% of them where soft. Should let you I was shooting at 1/80, with 5 axis VR since I was using a S series lens and shooting at f5.6 at a distance of ten feet or so. Depth of field should have covered a slight error in focus. Thinking the body needs to go back to Nikon as it's only a couple months old. Still have the issue while using the 18-35 G lens indoors I couldn't get a focus lock at all and wasn't using eyeAF since most shots were done from the back or side. If it wasn't for the weight, lack of eye AF and only having one third of the focus points, I'd go back to using my D850.

I liked my Z6 but this is the first time I'm getting disappointed with a Nikon product after 52 years of using them.
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It sounds like the camera lost the subject and reverted to Auto Area AF - and anything goes with that mode. Normally, the camera is pretty good about switching to face detection if it loses eye detection. Was the model wearing a hat, glasses, anything like that?

I think the best bet in a situation like that is, if the camera is struggling with eye-AF, switch to single point.
 
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Steve said:
It sounds like the camera lost the subject and reverted to Auto Area AF - and anything goes with that mode. Normally, the camera is pretty good about switching to face detection if it loses eye detection. Was the model wearing a hat, glasses, anything like that?

I think the best bet in a situation like that is, if the camera is struggling with eye-AF, switch to single point.
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No, no hat, glasses, or anything that should confuse the AF. Yeah, I kinda figured I'd have to use single point when it's more than a head shot. Any idea about it not locking focus on the model's back in my second scenario ? Okay, here's the funny part; I just tried checking the AF in my semi-darkened living room and the AF worked fine and locked on easily. The strange part is my last posting about trouble with the EVF not lightening in dark situations, it worked fine just now for the first time. Okay, I lost on one problem and won on a second so I'm batting .500
 
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Pics6x6 said:
No, no hat, glasses, or anything that should confuse the AF. Yeah, I kinda figured I'd have to use single point when it's more than a head shot. Any idea about it not locking focus on the model's back in my second scenario ? Okay, here's the funny part; I just tried checking the AF in my semi-darkened living room and the AF worked fine and locked on easily. The strange part is my last posting about trouble with the EVF not lightening in dark situations, it worked fine just now for the first time. Okay, I lost on one problem and won on a second so I'm batting .500
Click to expand...

Not sure, there are just too many variables to guess at.
 
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