GFX 50s - Firmware Bug with Eye-AF?

[Christoph B.]

I bought my GFX 50s about two months ago and I'm very happy with it, great image quality (on par with my PhaseOne 60MP back at low ISO), fantastic detail and after experimenting for a while I'm getting the colors to look the way I like as well.

However I've noticed that while AF is generally very good and Face-Detection-AF works really well - the Eye-Detectin-AF is bugged (happens with all my lenses, so it can't be a faulty lens-AF).

So I sent it to Fuji to be serviced thinking it might just be a fault with the sensor or the mainboard) - however even after replacing the mainboard and checking and saying it's up to specs the Eye-AF is still bugged.
I've reported this to Fuji Customer Service in Germany and they said they'd forward this to Tokio, but I haven't heard back from them.

Anyway I've asked on other platforms to get other uses to confirm the issue but they all just said that the AF on the GFX sucks and there's nothing more to it.

However as I said the AF performance is really good and face-detection works really well, so I have to assume it's a firmware bug.

Regular AF (Singular&Continous) works perfectly fine.

Face-Detection-AF works perfectly fine as long as Eye-Detection is disabled.

With Eye-Detection-AF it seems that the camera orientation influences whether it works or not:


Right-Eye-AF

Horizontal: WORKS
Vertical CCW: WORKS
Vertical CW: ERROR

Left-Eye-AF

Horizontal: WORKS
Vertical CCW: ERROR
Vertical CW: WORKS

Auto-Eye-AF

Horizontal: WORKS but always goes for left eye(!) does not find right eye and keeps jumping around if only the right eye is shown!
Vertical CCW: ERROR always tracks right eye but jumps to the left eye when focussing
Vertical CW: ERROR always tracks left eye but jumpt to the right eye when focussing


ERROR = focus either in front or behind the subjects eye/face
CCW= counter clock wise (turned right side up)
CW= clock wise (turned left side up)

This also affects Face-Detection AF, so if the Eye-AF fails in a certain camera orientation, it also prevents Face-AF from correctly focussing.

In all instances the camera gives AF-confirmation via bleep and Af-conformation on screen.


I was really hoping to make life easier for my during beauty photography and just use Eye-Detection AF to nail the focus. I can of course work around the issue but it seems to me that it really is just a software mistake, similar to the focus shift that had been fixed by a firmware update some time ago.

Right now I feel like I'm the only one who noticed the problem because everyone else just jumped to the conclusion that the AF is generally bad and Eye-AF doesn't work.

I'm pretty sure if enough people can confirm this, there will be some reaction from Fuji and a fix will soon happen.

So please - if you have this camera, could you try to replicate my issue?

[faberryman]

In auto eye detect how does it know which eye you want to focus on?

[Christoph B.]

In auto eye detect how does it know which eye you want to focus on?

It automatically chooses one eye.

[pschefz]

i do not own the 50s anymore but remember the AF well....i always shot sonys along side with the fuji and for me the best way to shoot with the fuji was to go back a few years, lock on the point and shoot....continuous AF is pointless, face AF ok, eye AF not...single AF is great....IMO face and (even more so) eye AF really needs continuous AF because the distance constantly changes....face might be ok, but eye just does not work...I honestly don't really know why eye and face AF are even an option with the 50s.....it is an amazing camera, truly great files but when your work demands face and especially eye AF, there are just much better options out there....with very, very close IQ they will nail every shot, even at 1.4.....
i am pretty sure the 100s will be a huge step up and will bring meaningful eye af, but sony will still have a better solution, the question then will be if you need to nail eye AF at 1.4 with someone running at you or if the fuji will be good enough for normal movement but provide the better file.....
i heard somewhere that the 50r has slightly better AF (then the 50s), i seriously doubt it, i found the AF speed difference between the lenses actually pretty strange....out of the 45, 60, 120 and 32-64, the zoom was a clear winner for me in terms of AF speed....continuous AF still not useable but clearly faster then the primes....

[Christoph B.]

Perhaps it changed with a firmware update but I've been very happy with face AF and I've used it on location and in studio with daylight and artifical light and it worked really well and at least 95% of all photos are 100% sharp and focused on the face.

If course AF-S would be an issue with moving objects but that has nothing to do with my tests and results. I've tried it multiple times and I paid a lot of attention to whether the subject infront of the camera moved. And they remained absolutely still, so that's not the issue.

As I said, it seems to be a firmware bug that prevents Eye-AF from working at certain camera orientations. This is absolutely reproduceable and the pattern seems to be clear.

[peterv]

I don't have any experience with Fuji, but maybe what you describe is not a firmware bug, but a lack of computational power? Seems to me continuous eye AF needs the most data-crunching of all AF settings. The fact that it says in the spec sheet it does eye-AF, does not mean it works flawlessly, I guess it's just another checkbox. But then again I'm sure everyone will get it right, one day.
Best, Peter

[pschefz]

i do remember having an issue when rotating the camera (horizontal/vertical) and the focus point changing...i do know that there is a setting but that was unrelated....i did end up taking to fuji who ended up replacing my finder since they thought it might be faulty contacts....it wasn't and it ended up being not a big deal....i never had eye AF turned on, so i can't tell what rotating would have done to eye AF but it definitely switched my focus points sometimes....

[Christoph B.]

I don't have any experience with Fuji, but maybe what you describe is not a firmware bug, but a lack of computational power? Seems to me continuous eye AF needs the most data-crunching of all AF settings. The fact that it says in the spec sheet it does eye-AF, does not mean it works flawlessly, I guess it's just another checkbox. But then again I'm sure everyone will get it right, one day.
Best, Peter

It's not continous Eye-AF, that does not exist. This is just plain and simple Single Autofocus.

As I mentioned above - it works perfectly fine in certain camera orientations.

If you prioritise the selection of the right eye it only works when it's horizontal or turned 90° counterclockwise.
If you prioritise the selection of the left eye it only works when it's horizontal or turned 90° clockwise.

Personally I think Eye-AF in Fuji cameras is based on a kind of template/pattern which helps to detect a face and the eyes. Obviously this supposed template would need to orient itself with the camera, so it's the right way up - and with face detection is works fine.
But it seems that with Eye detection the template does not move correctly - it's "stuck" in one position.

That would explain why it doesn't work when you turn the camera. If the pattern/template that helps to detect the eyes is not correctly aligned it will put the focus point somewhere else and cause the focus to shift to the front or back - or it will generally fail to detect one or both eyes.

That's precisely what's happening here.

[Christoph B.]

i do remember having an issue when rotating the camera (horizontal/vertical) and the focus point changing...i do know that there is a setting but that was unrelated....i did end up taking to fuji who ended up replacing my finder since they thought it might be faulty contacts....it wasn't and it ended up being not a big deal....i never had eye AF turned on, so i can't tell what rotating would have done to eye AF but it definitely switched my focus points sometimes....

Rotating and focus point changing is a setting called "store AF mode by orientation" and can be found in the AF/MF settings.
If you turn if off it should not jump around any more