[tabl10s]

without the assist light?

[IchabodCrane]

without the assist light?

Focusing is very accurate for me despite the assist light almost never illuminating.

As long as there some light, read almost total darkness, at the subject there is no need for the focus light.

[savoche]

without the assist light?

I just tried at two different exposures.

* ISO100, f/2, 30s - struggles a bit, but finds focus after a few tries. If I'm not mistaken that is roughly EV -3 - which in turn is about as much light as a landscape reflects under a full moon and no artificial light around.

* ISO100, f/2, 5s - locks focus quite effortlessly. This is still less than EV 0 - sitting in a very poorly lit room. If you shoot handheld you'll end up with something like f/2 and 1/60th at ISO25600 - which is noisy - but it will focus.

[stevebrot]

Focusing is very accurate for me despite the assist light almost never illuminating.

As long as there some light, read almost total darkness, at the subject there is no need for the focus light.

What they said. The low light AF ability is impressive.


Steve

[phoned]

Shockingly impressive if you are coming from another brand. It's so good you may wonder if your light or flash is actually broken because it almost never needs to go on, compared to others where they are lighting up like a christmas tree.

[tabl10s]

When would you need the light?

[rawr]

When would you need the light?

When you want to annoy the people you are shooting.

[tabl10s]

I've got a lot of shooting to do.

[JinDesu]

Well based on the above responses, you'll never need the light, because ISO100, f/2, 30s or more likely 25,600, F2, 1/8s is going to be dark enough where an assist light is going to just blind your subject.