Focus tracking lock

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Geoffc

Senior Member
Numerous Nikon DSLRs have a focus tracking with lock setting. On my D7100 it's custom setting A3.

Historically I've left it at normal, but this weekend I turned it off. It effectively means that in continuous servo focussing it continues to track focus as long as you hold the shutter button half or fully down. The other options cause it to pause for various lengths of time before deciding to re-acquire focus. I do appreciate that this option is better in some circumstances, particularly where something may briefly get between you and the subject, such as players on a football field.

Having only tried it for a couple of shoots I can't claim to have any scientific grade findings, however I think I had more keepers when shooting various wildlife.

Has anybody else had a play with this setting and if so what option do you use?
 
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nickt

Senior Member
I'm still learning to get those 'great' shots, but I found having that feature ON took away from my expectations of what continuous mode should be, especially if I am after a bird. I like it OFF and I think the default should be OFF. If a situation comes up where I have distractions to focus coming into the frame, I'll try turning it on for an appropriate duration.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I use continuous AF because I want my focus to be, duh... Continuous and Tracking Lock, however brief it may be, interferes with that smooth, continuous AF. I also don't like letting my camera determine what it "thinks" my subject is. For these reasons I have the Focus Tracking Lock-on feature turned off as well.
 
hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Geoffc said:
It effectively means that in continuous servo focussing it continues to track focus as long as you hold the shutter button half or fully down.
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Geoffc, I'm trying to understand how this works. Why wouldn't your shutter take the photo if it is fully pressed down? Or do you mean it continues to track until the shutter is pressed to take the photo? I've never tried focus tracking so I'm not sure how it works. Thanks for any clarification! :)
 
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Geoffc

Senior Member
hark said:
Geoffc, I'm trying to understand how this works. Why wouldn't your shutter take the photo if it is fully pressed down? Or do you mean it continues to track until the shutter is pressed to take the photo? I've never tried focus tracking so I'm not sure how it works. Thanks for any clarification! :)
Click to expand...

I'm referring to when it's half pressed or when fully pressed and I'm shooting X frames per second.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
hark said:
Geoffc, I'm trying to understand how this works. Why wouldn't your shutter take the photo if it is fully pressed down? Or do you mean it continues to track until the shutter is pressed to take the photo? I've never tried focus tracking so I'm not sure how it works. Thanks for any clarification! :)
Click to expand...
I can't speak specifically to the D90 or the D610 but if those are like most Nikons, you have been using Focus Tracking if you've ever used AF-C because it's enabled by default and active (when using AF-C). What it does is allow the camera to determine what the subject is in your frame so it can lock focus ON that subject for a period of time.

Say for instance you're at the zoo; taking pictures of monkeys because you just looooove you some good monkey shots. You focus on Monkey A and your camera determines Monkey A to be your subject, so it locks focus on Monkey A in case he moves. Just as your about to pop the shot, though, Monkey A moves behind Monkey B, fouling your shot. Curses!

Focus lock keeps the focus locked at Monkey A's position, however, for a period of time (as determined in the menu for this setting). If Monkey A suddenly pops out from Behind Monkey B, the focus lock still has him in sharp focus because it "locked on" to him before he hid behind Monkey B. This being the case, AF does *not* need to re-acquire focus on Monkey A. If Monkey A spends too much time behind Monkey B, though, AF will need to be re-acquired but again, the amount of time the "lock" stays on is determined by the menu setting.

Hope that helps...

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hark

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Horoscope Fish said:
I can't speak specifically to the D90 or the D610 but if those are like most Nikons, you have been using Focus Tracking if you've ever used AF-C because it's enabled by default and active (when using AF-C). What it does is allow the camera to determine what the subject is in your frame so it can lock focus ON that subject for a period of time.

Say for instance you're at the zoo; taking pictures of monkeys because you just looooove you some good monkey shots. You focus on Monkey A and your camera determines Monkey A to be your subject, so it locks focus on Monkey A in case he moves. Just as your about to pop the shot, though, Monkey A moves behind Monkey B, fouling your shot. Curses!

Focus lock keeps the focus locked at Monkey A's position, however, for a period of time (as determined in the menu for this setting). If Monkey A suddenly pops out from Behind Monkey B, the focus lock still has him in sharp focus because it "locked on" to him before he hid behind Monkey B. This being the case, AF does *not* need to re-acquire focus on Monkey A. If Monkey A spends too much time behind Monkey B, though, AF will need to be re-acquired but again, the amount of time the "lock" stays on is determined by the menu setting.

Hope that helps...

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Click to expand...

Terrific! Thanks for the explanation--it clears up what I didn't know! :)
 
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nickt

Senior Member
I think the downside of using the delay is that it can prevent you from staying on a subject rapidly changing distance from you. Whether or not a picture is taken while holding down the shutter will depend on if you are in release or focus priority. If in release priority, you will get some out of focus pictures in your burst while the delay is happening. If in focus priority, your burst will halt during that brief delay until the camera refocuses. You might think your buffer is full during this delay.
Horoscope, am I correct here? I tested this out a bit last year and I think this is how it behaves and why people turn it off for BIF and similar.
 
Horoscope Fish

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
nickt said:
I think the downside of using the delay is that it can prevent you from staying on a subject rapidly changing distance from you. Whether or not a picture is taken while holding down the shutter will depend on if you are in release or focus priority. If in release priority, you will get some out of focus pictures in your burst while the delay is happening. If in focus priority, your burst will halt during that brief delay until the camera refocuses. You might think your buffer is full during this delay.
Horoscope, am I correct here? I tested this out a bit last year and I think this is how it behaves and why people turn it off for BIF and similar.
Click to expand...
You are correct regarding focus vs release priority based on my experience, yes.

As for how the focus-tracking lock works in conjunction with the tracking lock option, the behavior you describe is what I would expect but I can't say I've tested this myself. Your logic is perfectly sound, though; at least as far as I understand this topic.

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GeoWes

Senior Member
I shut it off on my 600 as I seldom need it and it creates problems with other focus settings I'm using. If you are focused on your subject across the street and other objects are passing between you, this feature will delay tracking so as not to shift to the objects between you and the subject.
 
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Galatas

New member
I changed lock on from default to long after reading about it on a photography blog. It's great in theory but I found that in practice it caused more problems than it solved.
For instance , when trying to shoot smaller birds in flight against any background other than plain sky the camera will often initially focus on the background. Having lock on set to long delays or prevents you from acquiring focus on the bird and thus often missing the shot. Likewise with birds perched in trees , if initial focus picks a branch instead of the bird it can be difficult to refocus quickly , particularly if shooting handheld when it can be difficult to keep the focus point exactly where you want it.
I now set focus lock to OFF
 
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