X100T observation/question...

[jky]

I've had an X100T for a couple of weeks and still trying to warm up to it.

For those of you who have the camera, or have played with one extensively, do you find the camera hunting to find AF in bright outdoor light (in scenes with no bright spots/spot lights in them to throw off the focus - so in uniform, but bright scenes)?

This behaviour seems to be constant despite varying the AF size, using EVF/OVF/OVF+EVF, half-pressing the shutter vs using the back button (or a combination of all these).

Thanks in advance.
j

 

[Dante_Stella]

Rarely. Is the camera getting knocked into continuous focus? You might also want to try the prefocus setting (on/off)

Dante

 

[jky]

Thanks Dante.
No, the AF tab is set to either AF-S or M - it's pretty stiff to move so it doesn't get knocked into continuous.

Re: prefocus - I've read that it can eat up the battery so I left that "off".

I should have been more careful with my wording... the camera doesn't hunt - I meant to say that the camera lens cycles back and forth (lens moves forward and back) to achieve a focus lock in bright outdoor, sunlit conditions. It's not as quick to lock as say when in the shade where it doesn't seem to (or at least not as often) move back and forth. Mind you that it still does indeed focus fairly quick - it just seems more decisive when the scene isn't too bright and contrasty (bright sun behind you for example).

 

[willie_901]

Using contrast phase detection AF when there is low contrast in the frame "in uniform, but bright scenes" will be frustrating. For PDAF brightness is less important than contrast.

Fortunately the X100T also supports phase-detection AF. I suggest you learn about using the X100T's PDAF mode of operation.

 

[bigshot]

My experience is that the autofocus on the X100T is in the middle of the frame. It doesn't grab onto things towards the sides at all. So I center, focus, recompose, shoot. Multipoint / Face detection on.

 

[willie_901]

My experience is that the autofocus on the X100T is in the middle of the frame. It doesn't grab onto things towards the sides at all. So I center, focus, recompose, shoot. Multipoint / Face detection on.

This is particularly true for PDAF as the pixels dedicated to PD sensing are a in 3 X 3 array located in the center of the sensor. In some automated AF modes where the AF searches outside of the those pixels, the camera automatically switched to contrast-detected AF even though PDAF was selected.