There is a learning curve with every new camera I get. Changing to another brand increases the learning curve a great deal.
Auto Focus with the Fuji X-E2 has been a challenge for me due to the learning how the camera works the best. This was true with me learning all the settings for my Nikon D4. When shooting sports I used a totally different AF settings than for normal photojournalistic shooting that I normally am doing with storytelling style I use.
This is what I am finding to work best for me for now for photojournalism style of shooting.
First go to the shooting menu and go to the [camera 4] part of the menu. The top 4 menu items in that submenu all deal with AF.
For the AF MODE I am finding I like to use the Multi-Mode
In the AF Multi-Mode when the shutter button is pressed halfway, the camera detects high-contrast subjects and selects the focus area automatically.
It generally is pretty quick and picks most of the time the closest object with high-contrast to the camera.
For the most part I am leaving the Face Detection off. If I am shooting portraits or a group photo I might choose to have this setting on. Intelligent Face Detection sets focus and exposure for human faces anywhere in the frame, preventing the camera from focusing on the background in group portraits. Choose Face Detection for shots that emphasize portrait subjects.
If PRE-AF ON is selected, the camera will continue to adjust focus even when the shutter-release button is not pressed halfway. Note that this increases the drain on the battery. Generally this is off for me.
You need to go back to the first menu item AF Mode and pick AREA to use the focus points. Once this is selected and you are not in Face Detection mode you can move this green box around on the grid points.
You will need to push the AF button to then activate the screen you see above. Then you can toggle around the screen using the four buttons around the Menu OK Button to navigate.
When you select a point you can increase the size of the green box to take into account more area to determine the contrast to pop the camera in focus.
Here you can see I increased the size of the box for focusing.
All these functions work with AF as long as on the front of the camera you have chose C [continuous] or S [single].
Now frankly the one thing Fuji need to do in a firmware upgrade is allow you to over ride and just grab the focus ring and adjust the focus. This is where Nikon and Canon are superior, for now.
In the M [manual focus] setting you are then able to adjust everything manually. I will not go into those setting right now.
AF Setting Tip
Once you have everything set the way you like it in the menu, then go and save the setting in Custom settings. That can be found in the 3 menu>Edit Save Custom Setting.
I am using a few of these custom settings. My hope is Fuji will do a firmware upgrade allowing the user to change the naming of those settings rather than being stuck with "Custom 1" when I might like to call it "Portrait" or "Sports" for example.
Sound Tidbit
Beeping noise is the default setting for the camera. So when the camera locks in the focus you hear a beep. Don't make the mistake I did by choosing to turn the sound off.
Do not use the Silent Mode to turn the sound off of the beeping. When you do, the flash will no longer work. This includes the internal and if you use any external flash.
You can turn the sound off by going to the Sound Set-Up screen.
The next thing you choose in the menu is the Operation Vol.
I put my setting to OFF. Now the beep I no longer hear, but the flash still works. Hey I missed a bunch of photos because I had the camera in Silent Mode and never could figure out why my flash stopped working. I thought I had broken the camera. I had to wait and read the manual to find the reason why.
