Autofocus, set up right
How do you set up autofocus and subject detection on a Nikon Z5 II — and keep detection with manual lenses?
AF-C for movers, AF-S for stills
AF-C keeps adjusting focus while focus is held active — the mode for people, animals and anything alive. AF-S locks once and holds it: landscapes, still life, posed work. AF-A, offered on this body, uses AF-S for stationary subjects and switches to AF-C when the subject moves. Video uses AF-F. For speed: continuous high runs about 7.8 fps, continuous high (extended) about 14 fps, and high-speed frame capture + records at 15 or 30 fps with Pre-Release Capture (Custom Setting d3) keeping frames from before the full press.
Name the subject
The detection choices are Auto, People, Animal, Birds, Vehicle, Airplanes, and Subject detection off, chosen separately for photo and video. Animal means a dog, cat or bird; Birds is a dedicated category of its own on this body. Vehicle is one bucket — cars, motorcycles, trains, airplanes and bicycles — while the separate Airplanes choice reads the aircraft itself. People and Animal detection include eye detection. The manual cautions that detection performance can drop during high-speed frame capture + and in HLG/N-Log tone modes.
Wide-area AF (C1) — a zone you size
Subject detection runs in Wide-area AF (S), Wide-area AF (L), Wide-area AF (C1), Wide-area AF (C2), 3D-tracking and Auto-area AF — not in Single-point, Pinpoint or Dynamic-area AF. The C1/C2 zones are sized by the photographer: in FX for stills there are 77 sizes from 1×1 to 21×13 focus points, chosen with the arrow keys when the mode is selected. Size the zone to the subject — a head-and-shoulders box for portraits — and use 3D-tracking for subjects crossing the whole frame.
Detection with manual focus
With a manual-focus lens mounted, set MF subject detection area to All and the camera keeps detecting the chosen subject class across the whole frame, placing a focus point over it — over the eye for People — while you focus by hand. Wide (S) and Wide (L) limit detection to the current focus area. It is the feature that makes adapted vintage glass practical on this body.
Set AF-C, People detection and a head-and-shoulders C1 zone, and track a person across the room. Then fit a manual lens, set MF subject detection area to All, and focus by hand while the camera marks the eye.