Acquiring fast autofocus is critical for wildlife and sports photographers. Camera companies are constantly improving autofocus patterns and installing powerful processors so autofocus seems almost instantaneous. I have to admit using my 600mm F4 Z lens is lightning fast, the Silky Swift VCM system is the fastest autofocus I have used.
But I still do other things to improve my focus speed, including using the lens limiter switch on the side of my lens. On many Nikon lenses you will have two choices, the Full range and a setting for 10 meters to Infinity. If my subject is more distant (further than 10 meters), I set my lens to the 10m to Infinity setting so the lens isn’t hunting for close subjects. This significantly speeds up lens acquisition of subjects.
If you have been updating your Nikon Z8 and Z6III firmware (other camera systems also have digital focus limiters), you may have noticed Nikon introduced a new setting…a digital focus limiter in the Custom Functions- Focus section. This digital limiter setting allows you to fine tune exactly where you want focus, much more control than the hard switch offers on the lens. It should be noted this only works on Z lenses with your focus limiter switch set to Full. Also note the settings stay in place even after turning your camera on and off (why won’t my lens focus right!?…oh yeah, I have my focus limiter switch set…).
When to use this feature? Use the focus limiter when you know where your subject is going to be. Think about shooting from a bird blind at a perch. You know the bird is going to land on the perch, and you don’t want your lens to focus on the background and stay stuck there. Go into your digital focus limiter setting and set it for about one foot in front of the perch, and about 2 feet behind the perch. This gives you a three foot plane of focus, and your lenses won’t hunt in the background. Maybe you are photographing distant birds….set up the range for 100 feet to infinity. Lens autofocus speeds will be much improved…
One downside of this setting is if your subject, or a new subject, appears outside the focus range. Maybe a goshawk lands near your bird feeder, and you can’t focus on it because of your focus limiter settings. Be ready to switch it off quickly if needed.