I was curious to see if the Fuji XT3's eye detect AF would work well with the 60mm f2.4 macro lens so while I was on a location assignment I tested it.

So, here's the scenario: you're on location with your motley collection of lights and modifiers, stands and cameras and, after you've roughed in the lights (in this case one electronic flash with a sheet of diffusion on it for the background and one electronic flash with a 48 inch octabank) you want to see if your ratios and exposure are in the ballpark so you'd like to have someone sit in for a few test shots. Then you realize that there's no one around to use as a guinea pig so you decide to make good use of that expensive self-timer built into your camera and use yourself as a stand-in. 

Around the same time it dawned on me that I'd really never taken advantage of the eye detect AF in the Fuji XT3 I was about to use to photograph six different doctors. I didn't want to try it if its performance was spotty. I set the self-timer to ten seconds, walked back to the little portable bench I'd brought along for my subjects, and waited for the shutter to go off and trigger the flash. I'd set the AF for continuous to make sure it would lock onto me once I was seated. 

Wow! It worked. I was happy since the room we were shooting in was lit only by the 150 watt modeling light stuck behind a couple layers of diffusion in the octobank. I tested it five or ten times (and also used these tests to adjust light levels). 

The 60mm f2.4 has had a reputation for being slow to focus but I didn't find that to be so. Could be that the latest firmware update (3.11) improved the performance, and since I am late to the Fuji game I've dodged some earlier performance issues....

As you can see from my self-inflicted (and very dour looking) samples the camera nailed focus on my right eye, which was marginally closer to the camera. The menu allows for left or right eye selection or auto. I chose auto. In a series of tests, and then 260 shots with client subjects, the camera nailed all but a few shots. 

Now the real question: Why did I look so glum in these photos?

At the point in time when I took this photo (all three shots are different crops of the same frame) I'd already been up to Round Rock, Texas at 6 am to make a few executive portraits, we spent the middle of the day doing paperwork and supervising Studio Dog's ever important agenda. I left the studio around 3:30 to drive north on the dreaded Mopac Expressway, arriving at Austin Radiological Associates' business offices around 4:30 pm (Yes, nearly an hour to go about 12 miles on an "expressway.") to unload my gear and be set up and ready to photograph by 5:30. 

I was scheduled too tightly. I needed to have this job finished by 6:45 pm so I could wrap everything up, get all the gear back in the car and be at Zach Theatre (opposite end of town)  by 7:30pm to be ready to shoot their season premiere, from 8 to 10 pm. With a little rain in the forecast, and the tendency of people to arrive a bit late for appointments, I figured I'd have a white knuckle/mario andretti journey back my side of town.

I needn't have worried as everyone came right on time. In fact, my last subject was ten minutes early so my margin of safety grew from "yikes" to "comfort zone." 

I don't normally book multiple shoots that close on the same day but I shot the technical rehearsal of the play a few nights before and felt comfortable that if I didn't get the first 15 or 20 minutes of last night's production we'd still have more than enough good content to cover it. As it played out everything worked. I even had time to grab a bottle of water before the show. 

Yes. I think Fuji's ancient 60mm macro is a fine lens, and sharp.

By the way, the play was good. Well lit. 

That's what I notice most as I'm photographing...

Test your gear before you embarrass yourself.