Nikon Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 G2 on Nikon Z6

emorgan451

Regular
Location
Western North Carolina
Name
Eli
This is a follow-on thread to my comments in my telephoto for Nikon Z thread. I'll be discussing and showing focus performance in various scenarios using the Tamron 70-200 f2.8 G2 on an FTZ with a Nikon Z6.

The first set I'll show is my son walking really slowly towards me as he's looking at some of the plants near our house. This should be a 11 for 11 perfect focus in this scenario, and with this combo it never is. I'm shooting the H burst which is 5 or 5.5 fps with no blackout and using the wide area small box in this test, which I've found to be about equally as good as the dynamic. This is a perfectly fine mode with my other lenses. Keeping the focal length at 190mm and f 3.5 with 1/1600 SS with no VR to ensure that VR doesn't mess with acuity. He's probably about 20-25 ft from me as a guess. I believe this was set to release priority for this particular set. I've taken screenshots out of Capture NX so I can show the focus point. Showing an overall image from shot 1, then just 100% view of the rest of the 10 in the burst.

Results are 4/11 for good focus

Shot 1 is good
Shot 1 full.jpg
Shot 1 100%.jpg


Shot 2 is soft on the eyes, you can see the shoulders are in focus now like it didn't move the focal plane from shot 1
Shot 2 100%.jpg


Shot 3 is soft, full image shows that focus is a few inches in front of the face
Shot 3 100%.jpg


Shot 3 #2 (haha missed this one in the burst at first) is good
Shot 3-2 100%.jpg

Shot 4 is just way out

Shot 4 100%.jpg


Shot 5 is out, seems like it's a bit in front but not sure
Shot 5 100%.jpg


Shot 6 is good
Shot 6 100%.jpg


Shot 7 you can see that focus didn't adjust between since shoulder is in focus
Shot 7 100%.jpg


Shot 8 is still behind
Shot 8 100%.jpg


Shot 9 is good
Shot 9 100%.jpg


Shot 10 is out but I cant tell for sure where focus moved to
Shot 10 100%.jpg


Settings walking burst.jpg
 
I use the same AF-C focus mode and Wide Area AF (S) AF-Area Mode as you with my Z6.

However in terms of shooting people (and apologies if you've previously mentioned this elsewhere and I haven't read it), I also make sure to assign:

1) the FN2 button to focus tracking; and
2) the AF-On button to back button focusing,

and engage 1) and 2) when shooting, which gives me a 100% hit rate with people, their faces, even their eyes when at events etc. I also take advantage of the option with the Z6 to assign focusing to face/eye (I think this can also be assigned speficially for animals) where appropriate. This is with a Z native lens, although I'm led to beleive that F mount FTX adapted lenses are in the same ball park in terms of responsiveness.

I appreciate that birds are a different ball game, but in certain circumstances it might just be worth a go too.

Good luck with all this.
 
I use the same AF-C focus mode and Wide Area AF (S) AF-Area Mode as you with my Z6.

However in terms of shooting people (and apologies if you've previously mentioned this elsewhere and I haven't read it), I also make sure to assign:

1) the FN2 button to focus tracking; and
2) the AF-On button to back button focusing,

and engage 1) and 2) when shooting, which gives me a 100% hit rate with people, their faces, even their eyes when at events etc. I also take advantage of the option with the Z6 to assign focusing to face/eye (I think this can also be assigned speficially for animals) where appropriate. This is with a Z native lens, although I'm led to beleive that F mount FTX adapted lenses are in the same ball park in terms of responsiveness.

I appreciate that birds are a different ball game, but in certain circumstances it might just be worth a go too.

Good luck with all this.
Thanks for the response. That's the way I have mine setup as well and find it works great with my other lenses and for non sports photos. I find with this particular lens that the tracking box is less accurate and responsive than wide area small or dynamic.
 
Try doing this again but have your son wear a 2-color contrasty shirt, and put the AF on the shirt.
My thought is that the camera AF was having trouble finding something contrasty enough to lock focus on.
I had this when shooting sports, when the jersey is mono-color, the lens starts hunting.

Is there a FW update for the Tamron and Z6?
 
I got my hands on an AF-S 80-200 and the focus is really fast and reliable! I was really impressed by this 20+ yr old lens. I've got a similar test sequence that I haven't had time to do the screen grabs of focus points but it hit the first 10 as expected, I drifted focus point and the next two were out (my fault), then the rest were in focus.

I haven't gotten to really evaluate it directly against the G2 for sharpness, flare resistance, or close focus. But I have the 13 more days to decide if I send it back to mpb or not. I know these were prone to have afs failures and no parts anymore. It's also not weather sealed. But so far I've learned that I will be going for some version of Nikon branded 70ish - 200 2.8
 
I got my hands on an AF-S 80-200 and the focus is really fast and reliable! I was really impressed by this 20+ yr old lens. I've got a similar test sequence that I haven't had time to do the screen grabs of focus points but it hit the first 10 as expected, I drifted focus point and the next two were out (my fault), then the rest were in focus.

I haven't gotten to really evaluate it directly against the G2 for sharpness, flare resistance, or close focus. But I have the 13 more days to decide if I send it back to mpb or not. I know these were prone to have afs failures and no parts anymore. It's also not weather sealed. But so far I've learned that I will be going for some version of Nikon branded 70ish - 200 2.8

Interesting.
That is something that I was afraid of, when we eventually have to transition to mirrorless.
I would contact Tamron and tell them what you are running into. Maybe they have to update their firmware for the Z cameras.

To me, accurate/reliable focusing is the most important thing, everything else is secondary.
 
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