- On today's video, we are
gonna get into the zone. (upbeat rock music) Hi, everyone. Welcome to pal2tech. Today, we're talking about zone autofocusing on Fujifilm cameras. Autofocus modes can be
confusing to new camera users. I do have an older video on the subject of Fujifilm focus modes of the X-T3 and I will link to that
in the description below. But in today's video,
we are gonna be focusing specifically on zone autofocus. So what is zone autofocus exactly? Now, in order to explain that, let's first understand single point focus. In your camera's menu, you can set the different types of focus modes here, and this is one of those camera menu items that I absolutely recommend you
assign to a shortcut button. I have mine assigned right
here to this top D-pad button, so I can just go boom, and there it is. So if you're in single
point autofocus right here, wherever the focus point is, that's what your camera
is going to focus on. You see that? Now this works for both S and C, continuous focus modes on the camera. The main difference here
is that when the camera is in C mode, the camera is continuously scanning the frame and adjusting focus. And if you're new to this and you wanna make things a bit easier, I recommend you go into the menu and make sure that
pre-autofocus is turned on. Once you've done that you don't need to be half pressing down the shutter button. The camera will constantly be
checking focus and adjusting. However, keep in mind that this
does use more battery power. Now taking this a step further,
think of zone autofocus as a collection of a lunch
of single autofocus points all grouped together,
represented inside a frame in your camera that you
can adjust the size of. Simply press one time on the
joystick, boom, like that. You then rotate the rear command dial and you have three different settings, small, medium, and large. And then within the
boundaries of this collection, the camera will have a
fixed set of focus points that the camera will start using together and calculating for both single
point and zone autofocus. Where zone can be very
helpful is when your subject is in motion, either moving
towards you or away from you. So for example, take a look
at this scene right here. I have a dog running right at me. When I shot this, I had it
in single point autofocus, not the best idea in the world. I had a lot more shots in focus of the dog when I had
it in zone autofocus. - [Crowd] Awww. - Okay, let's take a look
now at a perfect case for using zone autofocus. Have a look at this. The subject is moving
erratically, you see that? And the camera is
locking onto the subject, even though there's other things the camera could be focusing
on in the background. It's great when you know
where your subject will be, more or less, but you
don't have enough time to set focus with single point. However, if you are trying
to capture something that may suddenly jump
into frame suddenly, such as a bird or a
car, then I'd recommend perhaps not using zone autofocus and instead using tracking. When you set it to wide tracking, Fujifilm is using the entire frame in the camera to do its calculations, not just that little zone area. And while it sounds like that would be the best use case in
all scenarios, it's not. It's better to use zone when
you can than wide tracking because it's less calculations
the camera has to make, and it's less room for error. Now on Fujifilm cameras, you can choose either 117 or 425 points,
but this only applies if you're using single point autofocus. The minute that you put
it into zone autofocus you lose the 425 point option. Watch, I'll put it in zone. I'll go back to the menu
and have a look at this. It's grayed out. You see that? it's 117, whether you like it or not. Now, now what I've found with regard to the size
of the zone, the square, is that you don't want it too large and you don't want it too small. Just right in the middle, I
think, is the best place to be. Now, regardless of the size that you set your autofocus zone, whether
it's small, medium, or large, one really important
thing you need to consider in order for it to do its
job correctly is contrast. The more contrast that you have between your focus zone and
the background, the better. Lack of contrast can really trip it up and cause your camera to get confused. And another factor that
can affect the reliability of your zone autofocus
is your depth of field. Obviously, if you have the camera lens opened to way up to say, F2 or F1.4, it's going to be a bit more difficult for your camera to get you
reliable zone autofocus. However, when you stop down
your lens to a smaller aperture, you'll get a wider depth of
field and the more quickly and more easily that your
camera will then be able to lock onto your subject
when using zone autofocus. Now a big beginner mistake I
see new Fujifilm users make is that they will try out autofocus. They'll set their camera to AF-C, they'll set it to zone and then they'll get a bunch of blurry shots. And they'll complain that
maybe the zone autofocus on this camera doesn't work very well. (sighing) There's just
one setting on the camera that I get stunned all over and over again as to how few Fujifilm users know about and use on a regular basis. Now, the setting is so obvious to me because I sit around
here and I make videos about camera settings, but
so many people new to Fuji either miss it or they
just don't think about it. And I'm talking about
this setting right here. This has such a significant
impact on your zone autofocus. And that's because you're
telling the camera what elements of your scene are important
to you as the photographer, and what you want
prioritized to be in focus. Now, if you're unsure
as to what to set here, then experiment, but I've found that number two, ignore obstacles and continue to track subject,
as well as number four for a suddenly appearing subject generally works really
well right out of the gate, if you wanna try something. However to really get the
most out of zone autofocus, you are gonna wanna set a
custom setting right here. And what settings you
make here will all depend on your shooting situation. You basically have three parameters here tracking sensitivity,
speed tracking sensitivity and zone area switching. Tracking sensitivity tells the camera how long it should stay
locked onto your subject. This is a big deal if your
subject is around other subjects and you wanna keep tracking your subject. Let's take a look at this. Okay, look at this. I've got my camera set to zone autofocus. I'm tracking the main subject. There's another subject
about to get in the way, but look, the camera
stays on the main subject. This is really important. You do not want your camera switching from the main subject
you're trying to shoot over to somebody that's
getting in the way, right? So here's what you need to
know about this setting. The higher you set the numerical value, the longer the camera will continue to stay locked on to your initial subject. Basically, it's like this. When you have it set to zero, your camera's all over the place. It's like, "Ooh, huh? Subject?" (speaking gibberish) Like that. (speaking gibberish) But when you have it set higher, say to four, your camera's very focused. The whole world could
be collapsing around it and it's locked right into your subject, and nothing, no matter what's going on, is gonna distract your camera from focusing on that subject. Let's take a look at speed
tracking sensitivity. You've got three values
here. Zero, one, and two. This setting allows
you to tell your camera how your subject is moving. Is your subject moving steady
and easy and consistently, or is your subject like
a two year old toddler? You know, moving all the way around, just erratically and randomly? If your subject is moving
slowly and predictably, then you wanna set this to zero. But if your subject is
running all over the place then set it to two, and
this will tell the camera and its subsequent algorithms
to be on the lookout for a fast-changing and
erratically moving subject. And lastly, we come to
zone area switching. Now this is an interesting one. It allows you to tell the
camera what inside that section, that square or that autofocus zone you want most of all to be in focus. So for example, if you
have it set to center the camera is going to
assume, more or less, that the subject is right
in the center of your zone most of the time, and it will update its autofocus calculations accordingly. Okay, so watch this. I'm gonna set my camera's
autofocus mode to zone and I'm gonna make the size of
the autofocus square medium, and I have two subjects in my image. I've got this little Lego guy right here and I've got Thanos. (laughing) I'm gonna put Thanos right
in the center of the image. Okay, there's Thanos. Now I'm gonna slowly start to move this subject into the frame. Look at that. Nothing's happening. No focus, nothing, nothing, nothing nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. There we go. It got to the center, the camera said, "Oh, you're in the
center," and it focused. but now let's change this to front. So now you are telling the camera that regardless of whether the subject is on the right side or the left side, you want your camera to
focus and give priority on any subject that is
closest to the camera. Distance from the subject
becomes the priority. I've got my zone square right
in the middle on Thanos. The camera's focused on Thanos. Nothing, nothing. Look, look at that. You see that, it focused right in on it. Even though it's not in the center, this subject is closer to
the camera than this subject. This is close- Whoops. This is closer, so it became in focus, even though it was not in
the center of the image. And of course auto, like everything else, tells the camera to "You take care of it. You do all the thinking.
Leave me out of it." And lastly, with regard to zone autofocus, how does face eye auto detect fit in? Well, face eye auto detect
simply uses zone autofocus but it has a special algorithm
that keeps the focus zone within the confined of someone's face. Okay, so right here,
I've got zone autofocus. I'm gonna go ahead and turn it over here, but I am going to turn
on face eye auto detect. The zone is not anywhere near my face, but look at that. See? It knew that my face was where my face is and it said, "Oh, I better
focus on your face." The point here is to make sure that you are completely familiar with
using these custom settings, because it has a huge
effect on zone autofocus. I see a lot of complaints about Fujifilm and their autofocus. Some of those complaints are very valid. Some I've seen from
people who are not using and/or not quite familiar
with how to make sure that their zone autofocus is set correctly using what I just showed you. So give it a spin, test it out
and see if it works for you. Well, thank you so much for watching and I really hope you
found the video helpful or at least entertaining. And if you did, be sure to
give it the like and subscribe. I will be signing off now,
but have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you in a new video very soon. Take care. (upbeat rock music)
