AF question on the D500

[bluzman]

I had to go back and reread your initial post where you described this feature. Apparently I misunderstood but think I get it now. Thanks!

If there were maybe 2 or 3 images where I slightly missed focus out of the 100+ today, that was it. Previously I was lucky if anything at a distance was in focus with release priority. But I still need to test this for a further distance. That's where I find most of my images miss focus. Up close was rarely ever a problem and almost always got good focus in release priority. So I can switch between focus and release priority depending on the distance. :encouragement:

This whole discussion got me thinking (always dangerous ). For all of my cameras prior to the D500, like you, the drill was to set up BBF with the shutter set for RELEASE. This has always worked well for things like BIFs but now I'm wondering if, for stationary subjects like your egret, RELEASE + FOCUS would be a better choice.

 

[nickt]

This whole discussion got me thinking (always dangerous ). For all of my cameras prior to the D500, like you, the drill was to set up BBF with the shutter set for RELEASE. This has always worked well for things like BIFs but now I'm wondering if, for stationary subjects like your egret, RELEASE + FOCUS would be a better choice.

unfortunately r+f and f+r don't work with bbf, only shutter button mode. I think Cindy switches between shutter and bb but I get myself all confused, lol. I have to stick with bbf full time.
@hark , something else to play with is menu a4. The purpose of this setting is to decide how long the camera waits before letting itself be distracted by an intruder in the frame. But it also works in the other direction. It is messing with me in bbf with single point. Say if I am focusing on that egret's head with constant press of the bb, a4 affects what happens if I wobble that single point off the head. With A4 set on fast, it will instantly refocus on the background. Set to the slow side, it will give me a small grace period before it jumps to the background. The downside to setting it slow is if focus does jump to the background, it will delay before refocusing on the bird when I get on target again. There is no right or wrong here but I think I like it set to fast response.

 

[hark]

This whole discussion got me thinking (always dangerous ). For all of my cameras prior to the D500, like you, the drill was to set up BBF with the shutter set for RELEASE. This has always worked well for things like BIFs but now I'm wondering if, for stationary subjects like your egret, RELEASE + FOCUS would be a better choice.

unfortunately r+f and f+r don't work with bbf, only shutter button mode. I think Cindy switches between shutter and bb but I get myself all confused, lol. I have to stick with bbf full time.
@hark , something else to play with is menu a4. The purpose of this setting is to decide how long the camera waits before letting itself be distracted by an intruder in the frame. But it also works in the other direction. It is messing with me in bbf with single point. Say if I am focusing on that egret's head with constant press of the bb, a4 affects what happens if I wobble that single point off the head. With A4 set on fast, it will instantly refocus on the background. Set to the slow side, it will give me a small grace period before it jumps to the background. The downside to setting it slow is if focus does jump to the background, it will delay before refocusing on the bird when I get on target again. There is no right or wrong here but I think I like it set to fast response.

bluzman, as Nick mentioned, the Release + Focus won't work when using BBF. It will release every single time. Even Focus + Release will simply release. The only way I can achieve reasonable focus when using BBF is to set it to Focus Priority.

Nick yes you are right that I tend to switch between BBF and the shutter button, but with the D500 I have been sticking with BBF only. I use both with the bodies that offer U1 and U2. I think my delay is set to 5 (long) if I remember correctly.

 

[hark]

Here is another one of the Great Egret. It caught what I believe was a frog then walked to the water's edge and dunked the frog - twice - during the course of eating it.

After scrutinizing these images, I really do need to perform the AF tuning. Some were a tad soft but nothing compared to the images I took with release priority.

 

[hark]

Thinking through this some more - I will give the Shutter ON option a try. In the past I've used it on the D500. The downside is there's no way to recompose when using the shutter to focus while being in AF-C. But if one of the options of Focus + Release or Release + Focus works well, I might use one of those settings when I take the falconry images. That opportunity will be presenting itself soon, and I want to be ready. I'd hate to wind up with hundreds of images that are just a little too soft to sharpen. And that's what I've been dealing with for the past 18+ months.

 

[bluzman]

bluzman, as Nick mentioned, the Release + Focus won't work when using BBF. It will release every single time. Even Focus + Release will simply release. The only way I can achieve reasonable focus when using BBF is to set it to Focus Priority.

Nick yes you are right that I tend to switch between BBF and the shutter button, but with the D500 I have been sticking with BBF only. I use both with the bodies that offer U1 and U2. I think my delay is set to 5 (long) if I remember correctly.

Ok, thanks to both of you for clarifying things for me. I'll continue to use BBF as in the past.