Zone/Scale Focusing with a Fuji X100

[Hamish Gill]

I just explained the basics of zone focusing with an X100 to one of our members elsewhere on the internet. I thought that since we have a few members with X100's here it might be useful.

More on zone/scale focusing here http://www.realphotographersforum.com/content/281-How-to-Zone-Scale-Focus

So on to the Fuji x100

I've just nicked this image of Fuji's website as it will be useful for this tutorial ... I hope fuji wont mind me doing that

Switch the camera to manual focus

So, switch on your pride and joy...
Look through the veiwfinder.
There is a pale blue bar along the bottom of the view through the finder.
Somewhere on the blue bar will be a grey bar with a red line in the middle.
Under the pale blue bar there is a scale in meters.
The red line indicates the distance the lens is focused to (This is your digital rangefinder)
The grey bar indicates what is in focus in front of and behind the that distance - this is the 'DOF' or 'depth of field' or in simple terms thee 'depth of focus')
Now set the camera to aperture priority - ie the shutter dial to 'A' and the aperture off 'A' to one of the 'f' numbers.
Now rotate the focus barrel so the red line in the viewfinder is by 2.0 (ie 2meters)
Set the aperture to '16' and you will see that the grey bar is large and covering an area from below 1.5m to nearly 5.0m.
This means everything within that area will be in focus.
Now rotate the aperture 1 click at a time down to '2'.
You will see that the area that is in focus shrinks to just a little bit either side of 2.0m meaning that your depth of field is a narrow area either side of 2m away from the camera.

One of the nice things that this allows you to do is to shoot without having to worry about focusing the camera.
To do this, Set the red line to between 3.0m and 5.0m and the aperture to 16, you will see that everything from 2.0m to infinity will be in focus. Of course this means that anything closer than 2m, in theory will be out of focus. In practice the image will possibly be in focus closer than 2m, but its best to err on the side of caution.

The only issue with this is of course that at 16 or f/16 the camera is letting in much less light than at f/2 so it's not really a useable method indoors without the use of the flash or by setting the iso quite high to accommodate.

If you would like to know more about the effects of aperture there is a lot more to read here http://www.realphotographersforum.c...Basics-Exposure-Part-1-Understanding-Aperture

 

[Larry Bolch]

When using manual focus, the AFL button can be called upon for momentary auto-focus. Place the focus rectangle over the main subject and push the button. This assures one that the main subject will be in the middle of the depth of focus zone, with the zone taking in foreground and background as you set with the aperture as you describe. Manual focus by itself can be a bit slow and awkward, and this speeds things up a lot. A tap on the Command Control will substantially magnify the subject making visual focusing much more accurate. A second tap or a touch on the shutter will return you to the previous full view. This can be very useful in macro mode for achieving precise focus on small details.

That said, I almost always use AF-S in area mode. The focusing rectangle can be moved over a wide part of the image area, to match the position of the main subject. This avoids the need to focus and re-compose. I like this very much. Anticipation is the key to great shots. With a group of people anticipate who is likely to provide a spontaneous reaction, and place the focusing rectangle accordingly. A half-press of the shutter will lock focus on that person, with a full press capturing the moment. Anticipation is also required since contrast detection focusing is somewhat slower than the phase detection focusing of a dSLR.

I have also tried using Multi-mode, letting the camera choose the subject, and that is the weakness of Multi-mode. What I consider to be the subject may disagree with the camera. Area lets the photographer decide. AF-S is the fastest way to focus, but you are back to focus in the middle, lock focus with the shutter button and recompose. If the subject is in the centre of the frame, then great.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Thank you for that Larry, I'm yet to have a proper read of the manual ... Made my self a cup of coffee the other day got my self comfortable on the sofa, got a page in and was distracted by paternal duties ...

Anyway, that's very useful!
I think I will possibly use the camera more in mf than afs or at least as much in mf as afs - especially with that nugget of info! It feels more like a natural way to use it for me. It's always felt like it was going to be the natural digital step from my rangefinders and as a replacement for the rd-1. I spent an hour or so out snapping with the dogs this avo, exclusively at f/16, on mf, auto iso, auto shutter (lower limited to 1/60th). I had nothing to worry about other than pointing it in the right direction and pressing the button! No delay at all, instant reaction to my button push! Got a great shot of the dog jumping up some steps ... It entirely fulfils what i wanted it for in that respect, with the added bonus of being cleaner noise wise in low light than film equivalent! Todays session was mostly in near dusk light, iso was often at 1000-2500, not once did I worry about noise... This sort of snapshot photography in these sort of conditions is a new and very welcome experience for me! Anyway, I'll get a couple of shots up to show results in a bit... Needless to say, I'm over the moon with the camera so far!

 

[Jason Porthouse]

I've started using a similar technique with mine. I tend to keep it in MF and use AFL button to focus then recompose - I find it faster than Larry's method for me, though both have their uses. The only fly in the ointment is that the focussing zone size can't be changed in MF as it can in AFS mode - something I hope they change in the next FW update.

I like the randomness that zone focussing can introduce though, especially for street work - it can be a real 'shoot from the hip' camera when set up like this.