Eye recognition problem

[Citizen of Bath]

Yesterday, I took a Halloween portrait and the Z 9's eye recognition function did find my model's left eye (please see attached picture). However, when I checked the picture, I saw that, actually, the focus wasn't on the eye, it was about an inch too close.

After this shot, I switched to the old-school single-point autofocus mode and everything went well, but I'd like to use the eye recognition function. Do you know why it didn't work?

 

[sirch]

My guess is that it has focussed on the frame of the glasses as that is just within the focus square shown in your first image above

 

[Honey Monster]

My guess is that it has focussed on the frame of the glasses as that is just within the focus square shown in your first image above

Also, the actual focus area may well be bigger than the square shown

 

[Citizen of Bath]

Many thanks for these ideas! I'll have to be cautious with that function. I was probably overly optimistic about it.

 

[Phil V]

I would have expected the eye recognition of Nikon’s flagship camera to be better than that.

I know they were flagging behind somewhat, but my R6 would have nailed that without a moments hesitation.

 

[Gav.]

1/20 and f2.

Could movement have thrown it off, if single shot AF was used? (I don't know Nikon terms)

 

[Citizen of Bath]

I would have expected the eye recognition of Nikon’s flagship camera to be better than that.

I know they were flagging behind somewhat, but my R6 would have nailed that without a moments hesitation.

I would have expected better of it too! Having to rely upon the old-school single-point autofocus came as a bad surprise.

 

[Citizen of Bath]

1/20 and f2.

Could movement have thrown it off, if single shot AF was used? (I don't know Nikon terms)

Thanks, Gav! I also wondered about that, but her front strands of hair are sharp (I used continuous AF).

 

[Gav.]

Thanks, Gav! I also wondered about that, but her front strands of hair are sharp (I used continuous AF).

Was flash used? That would have frozen movement but allowed time for camera/subject to move slightly.

Just throwing ideas out

 

[Citizen of Bath]

Was flash used? That would have frozen movement but allowed time for camera/subject to move slightly.

Just throwing ideas out

No flash, but the IBIS thingy did its work and my model stared at me in an almost uncomfortable way
.

 

[stuartm1]

I was just wondering whether the shutter release was in focus priority or release priority - I'm presuming Nikon kept this feature on the Z system but don't even know if it would work with eye recognition option?

You can't beat the old single point - it gives you more control of what to focus on and at least when it goes wrong it's usually the photographer at fault. I've always used single point as it infuriated me when the camera would screw up, plus I hated seeing more than one square in the VF.

 

[Citizen of Bath]

I was just wondering whether the shutter release was in focus priority or release priority - I'm presuming Nikon kept this feature on the Z system but don't even know if it would work with eye recognition option?

You can't beat the old single point - it gives you more control of what to focus on and at least when it goes wrong it's usually the photographer at fault. I've always used single point as it infuriated me when the camera would screw up, plus I hated seeing more than one square in the VF.

Your idea could well account for my problem, as the a1 setting was in AF-C Release. According to Thom Hogan's Complete Guide to the Nikon Z 9, V. 4.00, "in some circumstances, the camera may take time to acquire focus for a subject, though it tends to be excellent in maintaining focus once acquired" (p. 858).

 

[bovey9]

I shoot Sony but recently bought a Z8. Absolutely loved the camera in every way apart from the AF. The 3d tracking with eye af is great but it loved to jump off what I was focusing on at any opportunity it could. Nikon shooters say thats my fault I should change to single spot and move the focusing point over the persons face. This problem was particularly bad when trying to pick out one person within a crowd. So yes, I could work my way around it but thats like going back to a DSLR. I joined lots of Nikon FB groups and post after post there were people having problems with AF. I think the AF of the Z8 is good as long as you are in the right AF mode and I found me having to change this constantly throughout a shoot, causing me to miss photos. So to cut a long story short, I sold it and today my A1 has arrived. bloody horrible camera to hold but an amazing photographic tool as is my A9 and A7IV . Great thing about Nikon is they do keep improving their top of the range cameras with firmware.

 

[sk66]

Did the focus point turn green before you took the picture? It can be yellow (eye detected, but not focused), or even red.
I know that is image review and the focus point is always shown in red; but it is small (stepped down), and on the eye, which does mean it found the eye.

My best guess is that there wasn't enough light... f/2, 1/20, 800 is an LV of ~ 0. While the Z9 can focus down to an LV of -6.5, it will certainly be slower and more prone to struggle (BS marketing aside). You can turn off "see effect of settings", or enable starlight view to increase its' ability to focus in low light (LV -8.5); but I would suggest using an assist light. Since this was taken w/o flash and from a shorter distance you could have used the built in assist light (when in AF-S).