sgreszcz Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Hi there, I recently switched from the Olympus EM-1ii to the Panasonic S5, mostly for lower-light photography which I also needed to do for some work. I'm having trouble getting the autofocus to "stick" on people once it finds them and focuses on them. If they move or there are other people in the frame it often jumps or just "forgets" about the person and tries to focus on something else. I've tried different settings, and I think the best is area+1 or oval, but I'm not sure if people have something that is tried and true? I saw that Panasonic just released another firmware for the S5ii that improves focus and IBIS, but I'm not really able to afford to upgrade right now. Thanks in advance... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emanuel Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Yes, they have introduced PDAF in their latest models versus contrast-based autofocus for some reason... ; ) For stationary subjects can work out though. I personally like their cameras but don't like their old option. Just expecting to have the chance to test the new adoption anyways. :- ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hojomo Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 Even with the addition of PDAF in the S5II/X/S9, Panasonic FF C-AF is not what anyone should describe as 'sticky'. The S5 is even worse unfortunately. I don't think you can get much out of it in that regard, but otherwise it is a good camera. Panasonic is near/at the bottom of the pile of continuous autofocus, tracking moving objects (same as Fuji?). Only exception would be G9 and now G7, but I'd imagine OM still does better there. Sony, Canon and Nikon can sell you cameras for that. Beritar and Emanuel 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 1 hour ago, sgreszcz said: Hi there, I recently switched from the Olympus EM-1ii to the Panasonic S5, mostly for lower-light photography which I also needed to do for some work. I'm having trouble getting the autofocus to "stick" on people once it finds them and focuses on them. If they move or there are other people in the frame it often jumps or just "forgets" about the person and tries to focus on something else. I've tried different settings, and I think the best is area+1 or oval, but I'm not sure if people have something that is tried and true? I saw that Panasonic just released another firmware for the S5ii that improves focus and IBIS, but I'm not really able to afford to upgrade right now. Thanks in advance... No knowledge with that camera, but if the focus selection AI just randomly changes modes on you, it sounds like there might be a problem. As a standard troubleshooting step, maybe try resetting the camera to default settings, and upgrade to the latest firmware for your S5 and each of your lenses too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSMW Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 S5 Af was nowhere near the best at the time, even less so now and was never reliable. Ditto S1/S1R/S1H. Good enough in most scenarios yes, but never reliable. I cannot remember my settings now but they were based on a lot of research, trial and error and combos of the type of Af area selected, such as oval, wide etc and then +/- the stickiness etc. S5ii much better being PDAF and I know you mentioned cost, but if you can at any time move to a user one, it’s well worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSMW Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 Also, certain lenses with the native zooms having the best Af performance. Sigma etc lenses less so… Best practice for me with that system was to use Af to acquire focus and then flip to manual on the lens. These cameras are utter trash for tracking forward motion a lot of the time. Closing down the aperture (such as shooting f8 instead of f2.8 for instance) helps as doing being in S35 mode which offers better Af than full frame modes. Jeez, it’s coming back to me now how much pissing about there was with the OG S5 😂 zlfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beritar Posted June 26 Share Posted June 26 I never use tracking mode on either my S5, S1, GH5 and GH6. I always use 1 area with relatively small square. When using this setting with my GH5 with speed at +5 (sensitivity depends of the lens used), the AF is very fast most of the time, by exemple with the 12-60mm PL or 10-25mm, the focus is sometimes faster and more accurate than my old A7III. The only issue is with low contrast scenes. However even with 1 area, my S5 and S1 have sometimes an hard time to find focus if my subject is moving a lot, even more if the contrast is low or the DOF shallow. zlfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgreszcz Posted June 26 Author Share Posted June 26 Thanks for the replies, but I'm a complete idiot. I actually have the S5ii with PDAF. I will update the firmware ASAP and see how it goes. Any suggestions on best Sii autofocus settings would be appreciated. I need to check out some online tutorials and do some testing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgreszcz Posted June 26 Author Share Posted June 26 6 hours ago, MrSMW said: S5 Af was nowhere near the best at the time, even less so now and was never reliable. Ditto S1/S1R/S1H. Good enough in most scenarios yes, but never reliable. I cannot remember my settings now but they were based on a lot of research, trial and error and combos of the type of Af area selected, such as oval, wide etc and then +/- the stickiness etc. S5ii much better being PDAF and I know you mentioned cost, but if you can at any time move to a user one, it’s well worth it. I'm an idiot, I do have the S5ii, and got it at a great deal with the 12-105/4 last November. Sorry, I need to update the firmware and see how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgreszcz Posted June 26 Author Share Posted June 26 6 hours ago, MrSMW said: Also, certain lenses with the native zooms having the best Af performance. Sigma etc lenses less so… Best practice for me with that system was to use Af to acquire focus and then flip to manual on the lens. These cameras are utter trash for tracking forward motion a lot of the time. Closing down the aperture (such as shooting f8 instead of f2.8 for instance) helps as doing being in S35 mode which offers better Af than full frame modes. Jeez, it’s coming back to me now how much pissing about there was with the OG S5 😂 I'm an idiot, I do have the S5ii, and got it at a great deal with the 12-105/4 last November. Sorry, I need to update the firmware and see how it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgreszcz Posted July 4 Author Share Posted July 4 On 6/26/2024 at 11:27 AM, sgreszcz said: I'm an idiot, I do have the S5ii, and got it at a great deal with the 12-105/4 last November. Sorry, I need to update the firmware and see how it goes. OK, I shot a bit of theatre with the new firmware, and have found the most reliable to be C-AF 1-Area+ Human Eye/Face/Body with the smaller area setting. I have AF Speed set to 0, and AF Sensitivity on -2 (set more to "Locked") which made the camera want to say more on an individual person. The camera did still have a problem with multiple people in a shot to "stick" or say on the original person when they were in the frame. If someone had a clearer face than the person you were selecting it would jump over. Also the camera seems to prefer people/bodies without hats. I'm not sure if there are any better ways to improve the stickiness of the AF. I've not tried tracking, but I've heard it is poor on the Panasonic cameras still. I would try manual focus, but it is vary difficult in a faster-moving play. Maybe there is a way to use manual focus override or quickly switch between manual/s-AF and c-af? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSMW Posted July 4 Share Posted July 4 3 hours ago, sgreszcz said: I've not tried tracking, but I've heard it is poor on the Panasonic cameras still. Neither have I, so should test that really… But then I hate changing settings because inevitably I forget to change them back! WB is often one such thing… 🤪 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgreszcz Posted July 4 Author Share Posted July 4 7 hours ago, MrSMW said: Neither have I, so should test that really… But then I hate changing settings because inevitably I forget to change them back! WB is often one such thing… 🤪 Yeah, I have made a few cheet sheets to at least have all the cameras set to the same, especially for a fixed generic 3300k WB, ISO/aperture, picture profile so no matter what theatre lighting they use I'm not going to get blowouts. I usually ask them to set the lighting as per the brightest scene, but they usually don't get it right, or set the spots higher than when I take my waveform readings. The great thing about Panasonic is the custom settings, and also I've found that the "lock" settings on the S5ii is great for not having things change. I've also switched the rec start/stop off the shutter button as it is too sensitive and stops/starts by accident. The red box around the screen when record is on is another lifesaver. I also just keep the camera recording to not forget to turn it back on. Another feature that is nice is to change the setting where the camera doesn't reset focus after turning back on. That caught me out once... The face/person detection still bothers me, I wish there was a better way to tell the camera to only focus on a certain person and not to jump around when it feels like. If anyone knows if this is possible, I'd love to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSMW Posted July 5 Share Posted July 5 7 hours ago, sgreszcz said: The great thing about Panasonic is the custom settings Yep, but then most other brands also have this? My Sony does and my Nikon’s do. But that is how I work with an outdoor setting, an indoor setting and a low light setting. 3 is a magic number. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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