Panasonic S5 - "stickier" people continuous autofocus?

[sgreszcz]

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...

[Emanuel]

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.

:- )

[hojomo]

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.

[kye]

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.

[MrSMW]

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.

[MrSMW]

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 😂

[Beritar]

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.

[sgreszcz]

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.

[sgreszcz]

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.  

[sgreszcz]

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.