Fujifilm: Release Priority vs Focus Priority

Photography

For me, the most important for me is to have my photos in focus. My clients would not be happy if I delivered out of focus photos. In my defence, I could blame my Fujifilm camera that was set to priority focus :)

Info

From the manual:

Choose how the camera focuses when the shutter button is pressed all the way down with SINGLE AF or CONTINUOUS AF selected for FOCUS MODE.

  • RELEASE: Shutter response is prioritized over focus. Pictures can be taken when the camera is not in focus.
  • FOCUS: Focus is prioritized over shutter response. Pictures can be only taken when the camera is in focus.

Regardless of the option selected, pictures can still be taken when the camera is not in focus if ON is selected for AF+MF.

In fact, it’s a lot more complicated than that. There are many other factors that will influence the focusing:

  • Mechanical shutter vs electronic shutter
  • Back Button Focus vs shutter focus
  • Face detection and subject detection

Warning

  • I’m sharing my experience from trying combinations and variations.
  • This is not a scientific study. It’s my experience with the Fujifilm X-H2s, which I use almost exclusively in AF-C.
  • I use my Fujifilm X-Pro2 only in AF-S with release priority by hammering the shutter button and it has giving me excellent results: 90%+ in focus even when the subject is moving.

Mechanical Shutter vs Electronic Shutter

  • With the shutter set to electronic: I have found that I had many more photos in focus when the setting is RELEASE PRIORITY. The first image is half of the time out of focus and almost all the other are in good focus even when lens open at its widest f/stop.
  • With the shutter set to mechanical (used with flash): I have found that I had more images in focus when the setting is FOCUS PRIORITY.

Back Button Focus vs Shutter Focus

  • With the Back Button Focus method: The setting MUST be set to RELEASE PRIORITY. Setting to focus priority will defeat the Back Button Focus.
  • With the Shutter Focus method: I experimented somewhat, meaning that I do not have enough images (a few hundreds for each method) to compare and didn’t find much of a difference, ie: inconclusive.

Face Detection and Subject Detection

When using Face or Subject Detection instead of zone-af or point-af, it adds another level of complexity.

  • Zone AF + mechanical + back button focus: RELEASE PRIORITY gives me better results.
  • Face detect + mechanical + back button focus: RELEASE PRIORITY gives me better results.
  • Face detect + electronic: FOCUS PRIORITY gives me better results.
  • Subject detect (dogs) + mechanical + back button focus: RELEASE PRIORITY gives me much better results.
  • Subject detect (dogs) + electronic: FOCUS PRIORITY gives me somewhat better results.

Tip

  • In general, I get better results with RELEASE PRIORITY. The first image is usually 50/50 in focus, but the others are in focus.
  • In spite of whatever focus setting, my X-H2s will keep focusing while I keep pressing the back button focus.