Z9 3D auto-focus mode suddenly not locking on

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GinaLola

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Any idea why my Z9’s 3D autofocus is suddenly not locking on to eyes? Just started today, for no apparent reason. Have tried multiple birds in bright light, overcast light, with good contrast and light on my subject. Tried various distances as well, from 10 feet to 30 feet. It’s bouncing all over the place, searching but rarely locking on. On several occasions it wants to jump off to the left of my subject’s eyes. I have the latest firmware and nothing has happened to the camera. I also switched to Wide L and same thing. The smaller eye tracking box is just bouncing around. I checked my AF settings and everything appears to be set correctly. Any suggestions of what else to check or do? Thanks in advance.
 
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Assuming you have Subject ID enabled. 3D AF has a focus area -- a small square -- once you place the square over the subject and acquire focus, it will usually lock on and continue to stay locked on. If you attempt to acquire focus with the square not on the subject type you select, it will jump around. Can you see the 3D focus area? Sometimes it gets accidentally moved to a corner. If so, move it back near the center.
 
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cchuck said:
Assuming you have Subject ID enabled. 3D AF has a focus area -- a small square -- once you place the square over the subject and acquire focus, it will usually lock on and continue to stay locked on. If you attempt to acquire focus with the square not on the subject type you select, it will jump around. Can you see the 3D focus area? Sometimes it gets accidentally moved to a corner. If so, move it back near the center.
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Yes, I use it daily, so I’m very familiar with how it should work. And it was working fine yesterday, it just suddenly started jumping around today. At first I thought it was my subjects, that maybe I didn’t have enough contrast, but I don’t think that was it. I took a variety of photos with different backgrounds, subjects were very obvious, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t have locked on. I took a variety of photos with different backgrounds, subjects were very obvious and there’s no reason it shouldn’t have locked on. I tried a variety of distances between me and my subject, that didn’t help either. Everything is set correctly.
 
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GinaLola said:
I have AF-C, 3D, Animal all turned on.
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I was going to suggest that maybe Animal wasn't turned on. I usually get into trouble when I've accidentally switched it to animal mode when people are the subjects and vice versa. However it sounds like that's not your issue. If you do find out please let us know.
 
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What you describe doesn't sound odd to me.
3D has some troubles whith certain scenes when there are lots of similar colors in the background.
White or black birds don't work very well.
Also over water or very busy backgrounds, 3D and face recognition can become easily distracted.

What was the scenery when you noticed problems?

Another idea: try with and without VR (only a hypothesis: faulty VR could cause distractions)

My last idea would be a (very) dusty sensor or rear lens element. Something that may distract the recognition process.
 
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GinaLola said:
Any idea why my Z9’s 3D autofocus is suddenly not locking on to eyes? Just started today, for no apparent reason. Have tried multiple birds in bright light, overcast light, with good contrast and light on my subject. Tried various distances as well, from 10 feet to 30 feet. It’s bouncing all over the place, searching but rarely locking on. On several occasions it wants to jump off to the left of my subject’s eyes. I have the latest firmware and nothing has happened to the camera. I also switched to Wide L and same thing. The smaller eye tracking box is just bouncing around. I checked my AF settings and everything appears to be set correctly. Any suggestions of what else to check or do? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Gina, I assume you have checked settings and tried a few different lens, if the AF didn't work out, you Might consider a factory reset.

Oliver.

PS: personally I find 3D AF unreliable with moving objects, it's my least used method.
 
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I have surprising success with 3D. I follow @Steve ’s guides on setup. If I get exposure right and put focus square on subject, it works. The attached heavily cropped photo taken yesterday shows a Blackburnian Warbler 40-50 feet overhead in an Eastern White Pine. It's a teeny bird -- 5" long and weighs less than four US dimes (.3 oz.) Doesn't work every frame, but I'm also incapable of hand-holding the lens steady except for a second or two at a time. LRC and PS only. No Topaz.

BLBW5-05-18-23-DEPONUBA.jpg
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