July 2024.
Fargo, North Dakota.

A year ago, in July, I purchased the Nikon Z7 II, a mirrorless camera. Of course, I took it to downtown Fargo to get started on learning how to use the new tool. I would soon learn that the reviews were correct; with its 45.7 MP sensor, it’s an excellent camera for landscape work. On the negative side, it doesn’t have the best autofocus modes for wildlife. I’m not saying it’s bad, but if I were a wildlife photographer, I’d probably choose a Z8 or Z9. For people and portraits, the camera works well if you pay attention to the autofocus settings and learn how they work.

I happened to take my photo walk when a band was featured at Broadway Square, downtown Fargo’s community gathering space. I decided to try my hand at performance photography while testing out the autofocus modes of the Z7 II. The camera performed nicely, but it had one quirk that I would later discover was due to its AI facial detection algorithm. However, before I share that story, which focuses on the drummer (or lack of focus thereof), I’ll provide some information on Walking Phoenix, the band featured in this series. (Note: this reference is not to cast aspersions on the drummer; it was strictly a camera failing.)

Walking Phoenix is an indie-alternative rock band from Fargo, North Dakota, that formed in March 2020. The band is composed of Jaeden Alverson (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Evan Wood (Lead Guitar), Tor Kjartansson (Bass), Dan Schuster (Drums), and, since 2024, Carter Judah (Guitar). I hope I got the names correct. Their website didn’t include names with photos of them holding instruments.

The independent-alternative rock group released a debut album titled “American Dreams” (June 2022) and an EP called “Beautiful Distraction” (2023), alongside several singles. Known for their experimental sound, which draws influences from classic rock, blues, jazz, and R&B, Walking Phoenix has garnered attention through their music and live performances, having opened for national and international acts.

As I wandered in front of the stage snapping photos, I enjoyed their style of music, though it is a bit more modern for this guy who is hooked on 70s pop and rock (1970, not 1870 >grin<). The camera features several modes for detecting and focusing on people. For my two DSLRs, I always used single-point focus, which works nicely on the Z7 II as well. However, I was most interested in trying out the focus modes that detect faces and eyes.

Most of the time, autofocus found the face and marked it in the viewfinder with a red box. When close enough, the indicator switched to a small yellow box, indicating focus on one eye. If both eyes are visible in the finder, a control is available that allows you to switch between eyes, so you can focus on the one that is closer or farther from the camera, if necessary.

Even when eyes were closed or obscured by sunglasses, they were identified with the yellow box most of the time, although sometimes all the viewfinder would display was the red box around the face.

You may know the feeling of having a new piece of technology in your hand, having read the manual (or not), and knowing how the camera is supposed to work, yet being mystified as to why the camera isn’t behaving as you thought it should.

That’s the case with the drummer. Whenever I pointed the camera in his direction, the autofocus system immediately focused on the rack tom drum in the foreground. The only way I could get it to focus on the drummer’s face would be to crop out the drum with my zoom lens. The flaw was completely repeatable, and I captured numerous images of the drummer to analyze what was happening. The picture above is typical: the rack tom is in sharp focus, while Dan’s face is not.

Fortunately, the camera has a workaround: simply focus manually on the person if something in the foreground trips up the autofocus software. That’s what I had to do if I wanted to keep the drum in the picture. You don’t need to disable autofocus on the Z7 II, just rotate the focus ring.

I didn’t figure out what was going on until I got home and saw the misfocused images in Lightroom Classic. On the side of the tom-tom drum is a vent hole surrounded by a chrome accent. Google told me that when you hit a drum head, it creates a quick burst of air pressure inside the drum. The vent hole allows this air to escape, preventing the drum from becoming “choked” by the internal pressure. My camera’s AI autofocus software “locked on” to the drum’s “eye” and put it in sharp focus. Knowing what was causing the anomaly allowed me to recognize the issue when I saw it in other photo shoots. Another time, I took a photo of a scene with a canvas tent that happened to have a vent opening that is shaped like an eye. The autofocus immediately locked onto that canvas vent. Now I know what’s going on, I can easily circumvent the issue.

About the photos: Since these were test images for learning how to use my new camera, I didn’t undergo any extensive processing. Using Adobe Lightroom Classic, I performed basic cropping, applied the adaptive color profile, and downsized the 45.7 MP raw images to 2K HD JPEG files. If you’d like to check out the metadata or pixel-peep, the 2K HD files are posted on my Flickr site here.

John Steiner