NX1 pics AF experiences?

[sandro]

Hello,

I'm using the nx1 for stills for my job and I find the AF extremely bad, not in line  to what reviews said. My old Canon 550D is much faster and better in low light.

I'm using it on the ski slopes with the 18-200mm with very good light and sometimes it misses the focus or is not that fast. Tonight i tried to use it indoors in a very good lit restaurant. At 18 till 70mm it would focus eventually, beyond it just hunts for focus and then give up, while any DSLR would focus instantly. I thought that with phase detection mirrorless cameras would behave the same as DSLR but I guess I was wrong.

I tried to use every single focus option but for certain situations it just won't focus at all like if you're focussing on a white wall. 

[DPStewart]

It's the lens - not the camera.

Each different lens design has its own auto-focus abilities and accuracies. There is also the ever-present possibility that your particular copy of that lens is not performing as well as it should be. Some lenses have the ability to have their auto-focus mechanism updated or adjusted - either by downloading firmware into the lens itself, or by making adjustments to the lens' back focus. 

Check into what other folks' experiences have been with the exact lens model you're having trouble with.

And NO, not "any DSLR would focus instantly". Not by a long shot.
I have a Canon T2i and a Canon 6D and 'some' lenses focus nearly instantly while other lenses, even Canon's own cheaper ones, take so long to focus I could call Stevie Wonder to come manually focus the lens and he'd be faster.
Also, my GH2's, which are technically not DSLRs just like the NX1, focuses so fast with the 14-140mm kit zoom that I'm not even aware it's doing it sometimes, while some of their other auto-focus lenses are FAR slower.

It's the LENS.

[Geoff CB]

3 hours ago, sandro said:

I tried to use every single focus option but for certain situations it just won't focus at all like if you're focussing on a white wall. 

It's a contrast based AF system, it struggles with flat tones. But more that the lens you are using is bad AF.

The best AF lenses for NX1 are 16-50 S, 50-150 S and 45mm f1.8. 

[sandro]

In bright light the focus is not that much of a problem it's in low light that it just won't focus.. and by low light I mean great lit indoors. I don't think it's the lens though... I read that even the 16-50 S sucks in low light but I thought a real low light!!!

[giannis_ch]

The 18-200mm has a fast focusing mechanism, which results in fast AF in good outdoor light. However, the max aperture is already f5.6 at 70mm and eventually f6.3, so it can't collect enough light for fast AF. I get a similar problem with the 16-50mm Powerzoom at 50mm. It is quite slow to focus in indoor low-medium light. The 45mm f1.8 though is still quite fast in the same light. I guess the situation would be similar with the 50-150S at longer focal lengths.

[The Chris]

Fast/accurate AF in lowlight is the last thing mirrorless needs to conquer to make most DSLR's obsolete, all are bad compared to most DSLR's - how bad it varies. The A7s is probably the best I've ever used, the A7rII is pretty good, others I've used vary. The NX1 was a disappointment, it struggled a lot indoors for me, but faster lenses do help. Lock the AF point onto something with lots of contrast or put a small LED on the camera to help the AF.

[Dean]

My experience with the NX1 and both "S" lenses is that it's fine in good light but very very poor in indoor or low light situations. 

[tugela]

19 hours ago, The Chris said:

Fast/accurate AF in lowlight is the last thing mirrorless needs to conquer to make most DSLR's obsolete, all are bad compared to most DSLR's - how bad it varies. The A7s is probably the best I've ever used, the A7rII is pretty good, others I've used vary. The NX1 was a disappointment, it struggled a lot indoors for me, but faster lenses do help. Lock the AF point onto something with lots of contrast or put a small LED on the camera to help the AF.

With the focus assist light I have had mine focus on things in pitch black. You do need to be selective on your focus point in low light however, you need to pick something that has a contrast difference to anchor on, or it won't do it.

[sandro]

shouldn't be phase detection like DSLRs?

[SR]

On 2/19/2016 at 5:29 AM, sandro said:

'm using the nx1 for stills for my job and I find the AF extremely bad, not in line  to what reviews said. My old Canon 550D is much faster and better in low light.

I was testing out my NX1 for the first time the other day with my Elinchrom setup and found the AF was constantly off indoors by a small fraction (details like hair and all would be better focused on my 7D). I didn't have the lights on, but it's not as if the studio is dim or anything; there was afternoon (12:30pm to be exact) sun coming into the room from a window 3 meters away.

Wireless Flash mode isn't usable with an external trigger, so no brightness-boosted EVF. Not sure a brighter EVF will fix this problem, though.

(On a side note, I realized my Yongnuo RF-603C (for Canon) trigger for my Yongnuo YN560-III speedlite is useless at the moment. Anyone know what trigger might work with the NX1?)

[ImagineArt]

I have been using nothing but manual primes on the NX1 since 2014. When I had to shoot a wedding in 2015, I decided to rent the 50-150 and take a chance. Overall, the 50-150 performed well enough in a dimly lit church and reception hall. My settings were around f/2.8-f/5.6, ISO 400-2000, and shutter 1/50-1/100 using burst rarely. The photo AF is not up to par with your classic 70-200 f/2.8 Canikon lenses but it did deliver when I needed it to. 

The 50-150 photo AF definitely struggles with faster movement in low light/high iso and is literally hit or miss. With slight movement it was pretty accurate most of the time. The pastor did not allow any flash during the ceremony which would have helped my shots big time (grain/noise and photo AF). Using the 50-150 outside was a dream (nice and sunny) and it didn't miss anything.

On a different note, the one thing I really enjoy about the 50-150 and NX1 combo is the video capability. During the wedding, I also shot about 30 minutes of 4k footage using the video AF and OIS. The 50-150 video AF and OIS is the best I have used to date. The video AF actually out performed the photo AF by a large margin (shooting the same scene) and this is while handheld at high focal lengths with high iso.

In conclusion from my experience on a paid gig, did the 50-150 perform well enough for photo AF in dark and fast situations? Yes. Did it perform as well as other popular lens/body combos? No. Would I use it again for a wedding? If I can use my flash or it is a sunny event, Yes.

Funny side note, as much as they liked the photos I think they liked the Bluray more.

A few shots from the wedding I spoke of.