Autofocus technology - Why Fuji slow, Oly fast

[bob_estremera]

<p>I'm shooting a Canon 60D (with great lenses that carry like bricks) now and have researched Fuji nearly to death. I'm pretty sold on moving toward that system but I have a question. Overall, I consistently read about the legendary AF speed of the OM-D while I can see that most of the Fuji primes really struggle with focusing speed. I see that the 18-55 seems pretty decently fast but the primes are an issue. I know the 18-55 will focus fast enough for me but I'm going to need a good portrait lens so I'm waiting for the new one because I have read many reviews about the slow focusing of the current 60mm 2.8 macro. Zack Arias is actually going to purchase a manual focus lens because the 60mm drove him nuts. I'm giving slow focus of the 60mm the benefit of the doubt because the focus range is so large. But all of that, "Fuji makes me slow down and think about my shots" is a lot of crap. When you put the focus point on your subject, it needs to nail it. For portraits, this is critical because a wonderful moment could be forever lost. Here are my two questions:<br>

1. What is the difference in focusing technology that allows the OM-D to be just about the best of the bunch while Fuji's technology struggles?<br>

2. Can firmware alone keep getting Fuji's system incrementally faster or is it the hardware, ie: the lens construction itself or the need for a upgraded new XPro/XE-1 body?<br>

Thanks, Bob</p>

 

[andylynn]

<p>Wait a bit. Fuji just offloaded a ton of X-Pro1 and X-E1 stock and word on the street is a new body and firmware upgrades for the whole line are due next week. They do manage to improve the AF situation with each firmware update and it really is quite usable now, but won't be really good until the next generation when they incorporate the improvements they put in the X100S and X20.</p>

<p>And yeah, the 60mm lens is infuriating. Seriously, even after they improved it a ton with a firmware upgrade it's still mostly unusable. I sold mine on eBay and started using a 57mm 1.2 Konica lens.</p>

[bruce_rubenstein]

<p>A concept that gets overlooked is that firm/soft-ware runs on hardware. There are several hardware constrains when it comes to what can be done with firmware updates. The first is the electronics in the camera: processing speed, memory size and electrical power (battery). To speed up focusing, the programmers are pretty much limited to optimizing algorithms and cleaning up the code. That's all they can do on the lens side also. It will take newer hardware to make big changes in focus speed. One thing that camera makers will have to yield on for higher performance is camera size; bigger batteries, with higher wattages are needed for higher performance with decent shot numbers. There are a couple of things going for Olympus: they probably made focus speed a higher design priority than Fuji and µ4/3 lenses have to cover a smaller images circle size than APS-C so parts are smaller, with lower mass, and don't require as much force to move fast.</p>

[rapyke]

<p>Yes, I agree, the 60 is slow and frustrating at times... there are compensations though.<br>

<a title="Gustav the cat by R A Pyke (SweRon), on Flickr" href=" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3708/8885131048_34585e299a.jpg" alt="Gustav the cat" width="375" height="500" /></a></p>

[chris_cunningham1]

<p>I don't have the 60mm, but after trying the E-M5 and X-E1(fw updated), for me there isn't enough of a difference to matter. But that's me. Right now, I use a Sigma 50mm macro w/adapter because I can't afford the 60mm, and this works well enough.</p>

[lightcraftsman]

<p>I have an X-E1 with the 14, 35, 60 and 55-200 lenses. If you're looking for lightning fast autofocus response this is not the system for you. The 35 focuses plenty fast for street photography but is not a portrait lens. The 60 is a macro lenses and like most macro lenses it focuses more slowly than other lenses in its range. There is another firmware update due tomorrow that promises faster autofocus, so I'll check it after updating.</p>

<p>Fuji's roadmap lists a 56/1.2 lens coming later this year. If it is as fast as the 35/1.4 it will be fine for portraits. that said, the Fuji X system excels at static subjects, but is not a good choice for moving subjects. I use mine for fine art landscape photography and am very happy with it. Trees and rocks are famously slow moving.</p>

[lightcraftsman]

Downloaded the latest firmware yesterday and the focus speed on the 60mm lens, while improved, does not bring it into

portrait lens territory, but it isn't a portrait lens. I eagerly await the 56/1.2 lens for portraits.