Ricoh R Series Auto Focus

Some comments about the auto focus on the R3, R4, R5, R6, R7 cameras and maybe future models

There seems to be general lack of understanding about how the R3/4/5 auto focus works. The R6/7 and following presumably will always have only auto focus from examining the contrast of the image on the CCD having dropped the front panel fast auto focus device from the line.

The Ricoh literature always tells how fast the auto focus is, but that entirely depends on circumstances. If it's a nice sunny day and the contrast of the subject if good then the front panel auto focus works (R3/4/5 only) and is quite fast at providing focus information to make sure the lens positions quickly.

But if conditions are not so good then the CCD focus method kicks in and it is a little slower at settling the focus. Only a little slower and not really significant until the light levels get very low - then the focus has problems and can be quite slow. Small cameras generally are not much use in low light. The R5 and following helped this situation by providing an optional focus LED so a beam of green light aimed at the subject to help the focus.

The question with R3/4/5 is when does the front panel focus drop out and the CCD focus take over? This is very vague as to the cross-over point, but it can be at any time and it seems to follow certain rules listed below. The main lesson to learn is that you cannot depend on just pressing the shutter quickly and getting a good shot because at any time the slightly slower (only slightly) CCD focus takes place and a quick press will ruin the shot. It is good behaviour to always wait for the focus confirmation before fully pressing the shutter. That way you will get more keepers even though it may take maybe 1/2 a second more to compose the shot.

If there's action happening then you half press and attain focus lock beforehand in the area of the expected action, hold that half press until the action happens, then complete the shutter press at the right moment. In olden days on manually operated cameras it was the same, focus on point of interest and only press the shutter when things looked right. Blindly rushing a shutter press will usually guarantee that the first shot will be bad, but the second shot may be OK because the auto focus may have caught up.

This highlights the fact that the R series shutter release over-rides the attainment of focus. The shutter fires even if the auto focus mechanism hasn't yet got the lens where it's needed. So be slower and more careful when taking shots. Do not believe any Ricoh advertising that it is "instant" focus, that just is marketing baloney as usual and not to be trusted at all under all circumstances.

So with R3/4/5 how do you know when which auto focus method will be used? You don't, unless you block the front panel auto focus window and force the camera into always using CCD focus, like I did. But pulling off the tape and experimenting with my R4 I found this happening.....

It's very rubbery as to when the auto focus swaps methods so nothing but a very general statement can be made.

You need to use Multi focus to see when things change. If using the front panel focus window, one or up to maybe 5 little green brackets will be seen when the focus is confirmed, if it is using CCD focus then only a large green focus confirmation bracket is see. You can prove that by putting a finger over the front focus window and see that it's always the large bracket only being shown.

When at wide angle...
It seems to use the front panel focus detector at distance and if the general target contrast is high and the light is good.
It seems to swap over to CCD focus when a close-up is called for no matter what the light is like, or if the target is low contrast at any distance, or the light is low at any distance.

When at mid tele zoom.....
The same conditions as above but it more often uses the CCD focus than at wide zoom.

When at full tele......
It uses CCD focus a lot more than at mid tele or at wide. Many subjects that seem to be high contrast still switch to CCD focus. Maybe this is because the depth of field is short at full tele and the CCD focus is way more accurate than the front panel focus.

If you swap to (my preference by far) the Spot focus then the CCD focus is used more often under all the above conditions. The Spot focus makes you always half press focus on the point of interest, hold half press, recompose the frame and then continue to full press. That ensures that the focus has settled properly on the thing you want it to, and causes you to pause for that focus. Better results follow.

It is a fact that many DSLR users always switch to spot focus and use their cameras this way. It is just far more reliable than allowing some ridiculous 195 point multi focus thing make some stupid decision that doesn't fit with what you want to do. Spot focus is good.

Once you have played with the test like I did (on R3/4/5 only), there's no need to take shots in the test, just see what the Multi brackets do in different conditions with a half press. Then you get used to the difference in focus speed. It's not much but enough to make sure that you do try to wait that extra bit to make sure focus is attained.

The overall summary is that the front panel fast focus is used internally in an unpredictable manner and you never know when it may use the slightly slower CCD focus, so adopt good focus behaviour and get a much higher percentage of images that are in proper focus. A side effect of using good focus practice is that the flash then is more reliable. The R3/4/5/6/7 flash depends entirely on using Auto ISO and on very accurate focus.

My own situation is that I use my R4 with the front sensor blocked, so I know that it is always CCD focus and I know what speed it will focus at. It has never caused a missed shot yet due to that slightly slower focus speed. So that's why the later R6 and R7 dropped the front panel auto focus as it is not really necessary, as long as the user adopts proper autofocus behaviour and always waits for focus confirmation.

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