Fuji Focus Tracking

Ansolutrly no need to shut up. It helps to share frustrations and to get things off your chest - you are among friends.

All I would say is that the 55-200 is first-generation in Fuji terms and the X-T1 lags some way behind the X-T2 in both specification and performance. I have the X-Pro2 and have used it successfully with the 100-400 at a point-to-point and an airshow. I know there are too many variables for a direct comparison but the combination you are using is not Fuji's latest. Each generation gets better. I have used Nikon (and Leica M, R and LTM, Olympus OM and four thirds, Contax and others and I still think Fuji is the system that will see me out.
 
Thank you Bill. Believe it or not I do have a plan in place to pick up the XT2 and the 50-140 or 100-400 next year. I shouldn't let it get to me. I have the Godox system up and running so I'll have time to work on my lights and portraits. Until then the D300 will have to carry the load for sports.
 
I wish I could work out how to set up the XT2 (with latest upgrade of internal system gubbins) and 50-140..... my action shots with this setup are PANTS, or lucky. I have spent months trying to understand how to set it up - took me 2 days with D4s to be getting 90% hit rate at slow shutter speeds with action. The Fuji is eluding me. SO, any hints and tips greatfully received - I THINK I have the focus selector on the smallest target square. I don't know. Otherwise it is on C and fastest shutter sequence.
 
I have seen you tube videos on how to set the XT2 up, but really I have reservations on going this route. There are things I love about the Fuji system, a lot of things, but this one really aggravates me. From what I'm reading I'm not sure the XT2 is the answer. I am asking myself everyday what will make my day to pick up and shoot. This is the key, " What will make you say Yes and smile when you grab it", I have shot action with the D300 , D700 and D7200 and I have total confidence in a high hit rate. On the other hand the light package of the XT1 and lens that are very sharp keeps me in the camp. In a perfect world I will have a Nikon D4s for action and my Fuji kit for travel. The 80-200 f2.8 and D700 was a magical combination in the day, and still very worthy. The D700 is long in the tooth, but the images I have captured with it are special and my confidence in the system is very high. As I understand it the XT2 must be set up in a certain way in the menu for focus tracking. Maybe someone will chime in or if not check out you tube, there are several videos on this subject. There are people with more experience than me on the forum that can help you set this up. Good luck.
 
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Blimey, that is complicated. I can't find half the things he was going through to do the same as him! I don't know my camera well enough yet. I am still looking at the handbook to tell me where things live. The settings he had I will try to replicate, it might take me some time - he did say it would take a day to set it up.

Thanks for finding that though. I will keep going back to it and doing another bit each time.
 
I went back and looked at what I wrote when I got the XT1, many years ago, and struggled with this same issue. To boil it down, I never got a good rate with AFC, period. I would suggest a quick, fairly easy experiment:

1. Don't "go play in traffic," but .. go stand next to traffic. :) Stand next to a street with cars going 30-40mph at least. Gotta be some of that near by. Plenty of targets to pan on.
2. Front AF switch on the camera, put it in AFS.
3. Put the focus box somewhere centerish, and as small as it goes.
4. Distate your desired slowish shutter speed, etc.
5. Pre-focus the lens out at about the right distance before a target car approaches, just to get the internal focusing lens in the ballpark.

If you're putting the focus box on a remotely contrasty part of the car as it approaches, you should be able to pop off at LEAST one shot per second in focus, all the way across the arc as it goes by. I can often get about 2 per second on the XT1 + the XC 50-230, so the XT2+50-140 had better be as quick (or quicker.)
 
I went back and looked at what I wrote when I got the XT1, many years ago, and struggled with this same issue. To boil it down, I never got a good rate with AFC, period. I would suggest a quick, fairly easy experiment:

1. Don't "go play in traffic," but .. go stand next to traffic. :) Stand next to a street with cars going 30-40mph at least. Gotta be some of that near by. Plenty of targets to pan on.
2. Front AF switch on the camera, put it in AFS.
3. Put the focus box somewhere centerish, and as small as it goes.
4. Distate your desired slowish shutter speed, etc.
5. Pre-focus the lens out at about the right distance before a target car approaches, just to get the internal focusing lens in the ballpark.

If you're putting the focus box on a remotely contrasty part of the car as it approaches, you should be able to pop off at LEAST one shot per second in focus, all the way across the arc as it goes by. I can often get about 2 per second on the XT1 + the XC 50-230, so the XT2+50-140 had better be as quick (or quicker.)

What you are describing is basically the old pre-focus technique. Years ago, we used this with manual lenses (I am talking 1980s now). That technique was further refined to increase the panning blurr by follow focussing DURING the exposure. Stood or kneeling for the World Superbikes on the inside of a fast corner, where the bikes would be going past at abuot 90 - 110mph and with a 300 f2.8 the bike would fill 90% of the frame for the most part, sometimes it was just rider and cockpit. You would have to focus during the exposure to ensure a sharp image, but by doing so you could increase your depth of field and get more than one sharp zone of focus - it was extended so it looked like you had used a higher f-stop. We were shooting with 50ASA (Fuji Velvia) and polarised if the English weather allowed, giving us a whopping ASA12 - so when people today start talking about using 400ASA and above, they don't know how easy they have t! 300 f2.8 generally panning, with manual focus, at 1/60th, sometimes 1/125th (1/3rd stop shutter speeds hadn't been invented yet! BUT, with the FA that I had, you could be clever and select the aperture, metering off the grass, that would give a stepless shutter speed between 1/60 and 1/125 - brilliant piece of kit for its day that camera.

Autofocus does make it easier - but by god doesn't it make you lazy, as does digital capture. When you have 37 frames to a roll you had to be very much more considered with your shooting technique, or you would miss a vital moment while you were changing rolls. The trick was to leave a couple of frames and shoot with the second body until the field had gone by. We didn't use 250 roll backs, because we had a disaster one meeting with one.....never again! When you get a problem, you lose the lot. A film pouch for used films on my belt was the answer. New film in a bag, already out of the tub, just flung on the ground next to my rucksack.
 
Yes. It's how I "grew up" and I prefer it to relying on all the techno whizz-bang. I am a "sniper" by inclination and prefer timing to machine-gunning. It means I shoot less overall but I get a higher proportion of keepers.
Farnborough Airshow July 2016 XPro2 Pitts 4.jpg
Le Mans 24 Hours Race June 2015 64 X-T1.jpg
Goodwood Revival Sept 2015 Pedal Car Race 10 XPro1.jpg
Peper Harow P2P April 2016 XPro2 12 Race.jpg
Surrey CC vs Derbyshire CC Royal London One Day Cup 9 Davies.jpg

All of these are taken with Fuji lenses: 100-400, 90, 50-230... I used the same technique every time - single AF, spot meter, centre focus.
 
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