AF Assist at DVinfo.net

Bill Ackerman · January 30th, 2009, 04:23 PM

The AF Assist menu setting (page 73 of Operating Guide): " ... temporarily focus manually ... when Focus Switch set to auto ..."

What does "temporarily" mean? I set this to "ON" and did not get what I expected. Yes I can rotate the focus ring to change the focus plane, but within a second autofocus takes it back to the original focus plane. Is this function of any use other than some kind of visual effect? Or am I doing something wrong?

For relatively static scenes, I've been leaving the camera in manual focus mode and using "Push Auto" if I want to see what the camera thinks the focus should be. Is that how you mainly shoot such scenes?

Bill

Tom Vandas · January 31st, 2009, 04:38 AM

Hey Bill,

I've been playing with my Z5 for a few days now and have purposely left the AF Assist on to see how well it works. 'Temporarily' just means that I can manually refocus the AF to specify what the camera should auto-focus on rather than letting the camera decide for itself. It's been very useful because I'm often shooting through whatever I can find on site to get a sense of depth in my images.

So far, I've found it works best when there is contrast on the various planes of focus and that it stays auto-focused on the plane I specify as long as there is something there to focus on. Also works best when the planes of focus are not too close together, so I've been using the longer end of the lens. With practice I can now do a convincing pull-focus without having to nail the exact focus!

I should add that I have in the past typically focused manually in the way you describe, but wanted to see if auto-focus could become a viable option for me. With the Z5's AF Assist, I feel more confident in using the AF.

January 30th, 2009, 04:23 PM	#1
Bill Ackerman Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Rio Chango, Brazil Posts: 112	AF Assist The AF Assist menu setting (page 73 of Operating Guide): " ... temporarily focus manually ... when Focus Switch set to auto ..." What does "temporarily" mean? I set this to "ON" and did not get what I expected. Yes I can rotate the focus ring to change the focus plane, but within a second autofocus takes it back to the original focus plane. Is this function of any use other than some kind of visual effect? Or am I doing something wrong? For relatively static scenes, I've been leaving the camera in manual focus mode and using "Push Auto" if I want to see what the camera thinks the focus should be. Is that how you mainly shoot such scenes? Bill

January 31st, 2009, 04:38 AM	#2
Tom Vandas Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: currently in Kigali, Rwanda Posts: 144	Hey Bill, I've been playing with my Z5 for a few days now and have purposely left the AF Assist on to see how well it works. 'Temporarily' just means that I can manually refocus the AF to specify what the camera should auto-focus on rather than letting the camera decide for itself. It's been very useful because I'm often shooting through whatever I can find on site to get a sense of depth in my images. So far, I've found it works best when there is contrast on the various planes of focus and that it stays auto-focused on the plane I specify as long as there is something there to focus on. Also works best when the planes of focus are not too close together, so I've been using the longer end of the lens. With practice I can now do a convincing pull-focus without having to nail the exact focus! I should add that I have in the past typically focused manually in the way you describe, but wanted to see if auto-focus could become a viable option for me. With the Z5's AF Assist, I feel more confident in using the AF.