NIKON Z SERIES - 2 MINUTE TIPS #32 = 'AF Activation' (Back Button AF) in the nikon z6 & z7

#32 & a bit closer to 2 min again and back to some core functionality in terms of AF on the z-series cameras 'AF Activation' or back button AF as you may know it.

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[AFImages]

So how many of you are back-button AF users?

[CloverPhotoandVideo]

Yes, I certainly find this feature useful, especially for photographing birds in flight, and as you noted it is already built into the Z6 as the default. Good informational video!

[Cornelis]

I use back button focus for a few months now. It didn’t take much time to get used to it and I will NEVER change back to the original factory setting.

[shmacro]

Love back button focus. All I’ve used for years.

[photo-markus]

Yes, for years I only use back button focus

[MoonerBros]

Thanks for the video. it is very useful for portrait shooting with AF-S mode. However, AF-C + eye detection should be fine for most of casual photographers. this really requires the muscle memory like you mentioned.

[matsudakodo]

I think the Nikon Z eliminates many of the scenarios where AF-ON was useful. It's still useful in some situations like when you need to pre-focus while anticipating a very quick shot coming up, but NOT for focus and recompose, which was replaced by subject tracking.

[paulmartin]

On my Z5 camera, In custom setup, a7, AF Activation, AF Only enable will not show ON, , under Shutter/AF-On comes on. Any suggestion on correcting this issue.

[marclabro]

on my z6ii, it is in A6 AF activation. If i select AF-ON only, it opens another menu "out of focus release enable". should i leave it enable ? does this AF-ON apply to mode A, S and also to my existing U1, U2, U3 which previously used half press mode or do i need to save each preset again to be sure ?
I have set my z6ii to AF-C and a6 to af-on only. There are still two menus a1 and a2 which mention Af-C and AF-S priority selection which are both on focus. should i set both to release or leave them as they are because they are desactivated by af-on only mode ?

[jeromeThailande]

The problem is that in manual the camera keep the focus, when you half press the shutter, but in other modes A, S, AUTO and P, it doesnt look like it keeps it.
Does it keep the focus in all modes and areas with the back button ?

[laporziuncula]

I use back button focusing but just got the Z5 and can't figure out how to stop the shutter button from re-focusing when I half press. It keeps detecting that I'm half pressing but I'm only meaning to release the shutter.

[davidp]

directions did not apply to Nikon Zfc

[san]

Hi I use back button focus on. but i'm not sure if i need to return to release shutter/focus when using a remote. Does the remote for z7 focus with Back button focus on?

[slimshady]

Nice tip. Does the AF-ON change the focus square to Green like the normal shutter half press one? I tried the settings and it stays Red even though I am pressing the AF-ON. Any thoughts?

[amandawood]

I have two questions. When I enable AF-ON only the AF activation (a7) still shows it as OFF although back button focus appears to be working. Secondly, if I back button focus, release, and then recompose, the focus point on playback display mode the shows the position of the recomposed focus box. Can you help me understand this please?

[blurayauthority]

You never told us how to actually do it.

[peterh]

What a waste of time. Hearing you prattle on about the benefits was useless. Your video title is "AF Activation (back button focus)" and the key word - activation - is what I wanted to learn.

[iammz]

I did not enjoy the video, as I still dont know how to setup my camera.