I'm curious what other users have observed regarding the autofocus on the XF when shooting people. So I'll begin sharing my experience:
First off, spot focus or average focus. In my testing spot focus wins hands down. Average does not give me a good hit rate when I go short DoF. So in essence, I make sure to always be in spot focus mode.
I have some issues with getting false focus confirms and when a false confirm happens it always back focuses. However, it's really not that much of an issue because when it happens it's clearly visible in the viewfinder and contrast on the subject is low, so I can forgive this behaviour.
Calibrating the lenses have proven to be difficult, not with longer lenses but 80mm and wider. When using a LensCal Spyder that is well lit the XF back focuses when the lens is set to close focus, and front focuses when set to infinity. It instantly finds focus, but moves to the point where it's just in focus, but really it should hop back a smidge to be in perfect focus. This does not happen if the throw is short or if the contrast is bad since it then will try harder to get in perfect focus.
Hard to explain the last one, but knowing this, if I know the focus throw is long and my subject is well lit, I double tap to be sure that I'm perfectly in focus. With the above knowledge, my hit rate is excellent.
First off, spot focus or average focus. In my testing spot focus wins hands down. Average does not give me a good hit rate when I go short DoF. So in essence, I make sure to always be in spot focus mode.
I have some issues with getting false focus confirms and when a false confirm happens it always back focuses. However, it's really not that much of an issue because when it happens it's clearly visible in the viewfinder and contrast on the subject is low, so I can forgive this behaviour.
Calibrating the lenses have proven to be difficult, not with longer lenses but 80mm and wider. When using a LensCal Spyder that is well lit the XF back focuses when the lens is set to close focus, and front focuses when set to infinity. It instantly finds focus, but moves to the point where it's just in focus, but really it should hop back a smidge to be in perfect focus. This does not happen if the throw is short or if the contrast is bad since it then will try harder to get in perfect focus.
Hard to explain the last one, but knowing this, if I know the focus throw is long and my subject is well lit, I double tap to be sure that I'm perfectly in focus. With the above knowledge, my hit rate is excellent.