Fujifilm X70 review – Autofocus
With the lens focusing back and forth during focusing like the X100 series, it shuns a more sophisticated internal focusing system most of its rivals tend to favour. That said though, it’s a welcome upgrade to the system found in the X100T, with the new Intelligent Hybrid AF system featuring both Phase Detection AF and Contrast AF to offer a number of AF modes – just like we’ve seen on the X-T10 and X-T1 (via the Firmware 4.0 upgrade).
This means that not only is there a Single Point mode, allowing you to select one of the 49 focus points that covers the majority of the frame (as well as setting the size of the area from a choice of five different levels for greater accuracy), but there’s also Zone and Wide/Tracking modes.
With a f/2.8 maximum aperture, it’s possible to isolate your subject
Both the latter two modes employ a 77-point grid of focus areas that covers almost the entire frame. Zone mode allows you to specify a group of focus points – 5×5, 5×3, or 3×3, that can then be positioned freely around the frame and is suitable for predictable moving subjects. If your point of interest is moving more erratically, the Tracking mode allows you to set a specific point for the initial focus acquisition and, once the camera has locked focus, track it around the frame.
The thing you need to remember here is that because the X70’s 15 faster phase-detect points are grouped in the centre of the frame, when you opt to move outside that towards the edges of the frame, it reverts to the slower contrast AF system, so where possible I’d stick to the central area in Zone mode to ensure brisker focusing.
When it comes to the broader Tracking mode, don’t expect too much – it copes with relatively sedentary subjects, but it can struggle when put up against faster-moving subjects. You can also expect a little stutter as it finds focus, with a mechanical whirr as the lens moves back and forth – not the whisper-quiet AF we’ve become accustomed to with some rivals. Those niggles aside, focusing on the whole is good and accurate.
