Best and Worst Sony FE Lenses for A7 Cameras, Tips for Photographing the Great Conjunction. I could be wrong though cause I can’t figure it all out. Although you can find them at bargain prices. Trying to figure out what setting has to be adjusted in what menu in order for a feature to work properly is getting really stupid. Am looking forward to giving it a workout with the tips you’ve offered. Enjoy wide-ranging lens compatibility and high-performance Fast Hybrid AF. Happy to help Howie. And by low light conditions I’m not talking about shooting in moonlight, I’m talking about shooting inside your house with the lights on at night. For those who have struggled with AF issues I think this thread from dyxum will be helpful and I hope reassuring! 2. I never thought of that one. I am still having trouble working out thA77ii – when I lock on a face with the white square around it, how do I make the double green square appear – I have watched Gary Fongs videos numerous times, but still cannot work out how to use this tracking feature properly. Hi…I had posted a fairly lengthly comment here to Elise and Zas…who had some focusing problems with the 77ii. I’ve been outside in strong sunlight for two hours this morning, shooting high shutter speed with gulls gliding over, and nearly every shot is fuzzy and unusable. Yeah the manual isn’t very informative unfortunately. In a nutshell, there are two steady shot settings in this camera…the standard one, and the steady shot with shutter release. Hi. Slow mode just takes a tiny bit more care, when approaching focus lock, not to overshoot or miss minor details in certain conditions. Some Sony users like to use eye autofocus in single AF mode, but I suggest that you should use it in continuous autofocus mode by keeping the … I was a bit overwhelmed by the controls and realised it would be a real trial and error journey till I can master even a little bit. Then there are all the Object Tracking and Eye-AF features which may be available or mostly not available depending on all the other settings of the camera, like the Continues AF vs Single AF setting. I’m wondering how you came by the information contained in the article given the lack of information in the camera instruction manual. We’ll go over some settings that influence the performance of the focus area settings first. The firmware for the a7RII isn’t even finalized yet and the video shows that the camera focuses as fast (or faster) than a DSLR—at least according to DPReview and this video test. Tip: Works well if you find the wide focus area setting too unstable in focussing on what you want , but you still want the camera to do some follow focusing without physically moving the A77II itself too much. You get faster autofocus, more AF points, and eye AF when continuous focusing. If the A77M2 loses focus on the selected ‘spot’, it will automatically switch to one of these surrounding spots. This mode is best used for critical focusing. Hi Michael, yes it’s what they call an advanced feature. Since the official release of these cameras, I had a chance to test both in 2014 as soon as they were available. We have set up our a7II and a7RII cameras with similar custom buttons and functions, so that we can easily switch between them. Sony Autofocus Modes: AF-A (Automatic AF) Not available on the A7 I series or the A7 mark II model. Sony hot a home run with this AF system, but it takes some time to learn all the features, and it doesn’t work as well for all scenarios straight out of the box. It is fine in single shot mode on a static subject, but anything moving it will not capture no matter what af settings I use and I’ve been doing sports photography or years. Thanks this has been a big help. I found that in Continuous Shooting Lo, the camera performs better with AF Drive Speed set to Hi. Tip: I’d recommend setting it to 15 points and Expanded Flexible Spot if you want to use a Flexible spot zone, as this area setting activates surrounding AF points if it loses focus anyway. In any case, Wim, thank you very much for this. Yes, the A77M2 is much better than the original in every way. “Drive mode settings This makes one of the big benefits of back button autofocus irrelevant. It’s currently the best APS-C camera when it comes to AF capabilities and general performance. On top of that, 2014 was also a year of personal transformation for me, so I was incredibly busy trying to shuffle a lot of things at the same time. However, I did not write detailed reviews for a number of reasons including native lens shortage and availability, all kinds of initial firmware bugs and lags, shutter vibrations (A7R), slow start up time, compressed RAW, terrible menu system, poor battery life and a number of other annoying issues. Can you help? I had the A77 and now I have the A77ii. This is useful for unpredictable subjects that may move at … Hi Wim and let me say thank you for offering up this info on the AF system of A77ii. (small typo under lens reviews: you wrote SEISS instead of Zeiss on one of the bottom zeiss lenses…), I was wondering about this: “You can select if you want to use all AF area points or just the 15 central points.” Are you sure about the “central points” part? Different lenses behave differently, for instance; a wide prime lens has much less travel than a telephoto. In Continuous Shooting Hi, I got the best results when AF Drive Speed was set to Lo.”. This has been very helpful as I’ve just moved over to Sony from Nikon so as you can imagine, it feels a bit alien to me at the moment. There are a six different Sony A77II autofocus area settings selectable. This technique applies for all a7, a77 and a99 series cameras, and Lock On AF: Flexible Spot feature is available for the a7S, a77ii and a7ii. Z6ii vs. Z7ii which has better tonal gradation? Best, Wim. The A77M2 will lock-on to your subject again when in reappears in the frame when you press the shutter. Best, Wim. High-definition movie mode. Hi Michael, You’ll need to assign the eye-AF to a custom button, MENU → Custom Settings – Custom Key Settings – assign the Eye AF function to a button. I got mine at B&H. On my A77ii my AF Drive speed has fast and slow not hi and lo maybe that’s due to the area I live in? As I have already mentioned above, the A7 II now has 5-axis in-body image stabilization (IBIS), which down-grades to 3-axis IBIS when non-native lenses are used. This is with the a7ii with continuous af, i had this issue a few weeks ago as well and it was in bright daylight so its not something that is low light specific. Yes migrating to another brand is always a challenge. Hi Zas, i would advise you to play around with the CAF settings, see what works for you first. But that only makes it more interesting! Hi Andy, I agree, it is an excellent way to use the A77II for sports. When Sony initially launched the A7 series, I wrote a detailed article on how the Sony mirrorless would most likely impact Nikon and Canon full-frame DSLR prices and potentially sales. They are not on the same “page” in the settings so you’ll have to look for the latter. It’s easy to run through the flexible spots (more so if you’ve set the limit to 15 Flexible Spots). I had a Sony HX100V earlier (superzoom) which had a help button that explained each and every icon and its function on the LCD itself. Great article. A7r II: Autofocus with FE lenses. It was especially bad in low light conditions. Thanks so much for writing this. Hi Rob, it’s a fantastic camera, with a bit of a learning curve. It might look like a small incremental upgrade over the A7 at first, but when you consider the above changes, especially the inclusion of IBIS, it certainly becomes a very different, more practical and capable camera in comparison. Very nice website! Either my continuous af settings are wrong for action shots or the camera has an issue with tracking? AF drive speed is switchable between slow and fast. [learn_more caption=”Olympus Focus Area”] [/learn_more] [learn_more caption=”Olympus Focus Mode”] You get 42 megapixels versus 24 megapixels. I don’t want to toggle between 79 AF points , Yes you can use 15 points spread over the entire AF area. Have fun shooting. Flexible Spot is a manual AF area selection mode and lets you manually set the main AF point by using the Multi-controller to highlight one of the 15 points. This is located on Page 3 of the a7II Custom Settings menu. But, the A7s would be my preferred camera if you’re doing video too. What am I doing wrong and what is the best setting it. They help me utilize this fantastic camera to it’s fullest potential though I think the best is yet to come with more experience and practice. I’d rather have a camera that has mor basic AF functionality, but is easier to use than all these features where you have to dive into the menu system at times when you don’t have the time for it. Thanks for the heads up on the typo, I’m on it . Anyway I, and others, have found a significant improvement in the sharpness of bird photos by leaving the standard steady shot on (which matches what the a65 had) and turning the steady shot with shutter release to off. I just got my a77ii and OOB i was able to test its AF “intelligence” using the 55-300 SAM lens. Thanks for taking the time to write a comment. Or only 15 central AF points?? If it failed to go through I simply wanted to share this thread from the dyxum forum…I found, as many did here that simply leaving the main or standard steady shot on, and turning the other “steady shot with shutter release” to OFF, that it greatly improved the image quality and focus. That would alleviate the pain of many photographers, as they would be able to choose a camera based on their megapixel and other shooting needs. I tried many different settings but it was kind of a crapshoot how I went about it and I should have documented various steps but ended up getting to where I was literally ready to sell everything sony and move over to canon. This mode is somewhat random, in the sense that it will lock-on to any movement in your image. Hi Wim, Different photographers use the same camera in different ways, if this suits you, go for it. I have always used sony cameras and wore out two a700’s.This was suppose to be a great focusing camera. 1. By then, Sony already had a few more native lenses to choose from and I had high hopes that Sony perhaps addressed many of the concerns from the original A7 in this new camera. The camera […] To put it short, my lack of time and my negative experience with these cameras contributed to reviews being put off for a later date. Try experimenting with tracking duration on low, and use AF range control set to your shooting distance. Hi Kyle, I understand your frustration. Tip: Tip: Works well if your scene is not too busy, and is what I would call one of the advanced functions of the A77 M2. I wish someone could actually create a guide for the A77ii AF system that shows EACH setting AND what all else needs to be adjust for it to actually work. Daniel, / I have a77 a99 +ninja2+xlr-k1k+bag of glass and doing wedd foto-video combo jobs /. Sony FE 28mm f/2; Sony FE 55mm f/1.8; Sony FE 70-200mm f/4; Sony FE 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3; To assess the performance of the new A7r II in terms of autofocus, the test could only begin with the native full-frame E-mount lenses. I am a long-time owner of the A77 and recently upgraded to the A77II. I look forward to trying some of these settings at the matches I shoot this weekend. There is the new Lock on Af: expand flexible spot which I would imagine would be good for hockey, football and anything that has a chance of something going in front of your subject at random times. Sony definitely stirred up the full-frame camera market with the A7 series cameras. Allows you to record clips at 1920 x 1080 resolution at 60p or at 1280 … And that’s the idea – these cameras are meant to appeal different needs primarily based on resolution. AF functionality is quickly set by the dedicated Mode Dial on the bottom left front of the camera. Press the shutter button while pressing the assigned button. Although all features are pretty advanced Perhaps I should do an advanced features post! I can confirm that use of the remote forces the camera to autofocus, even when Menu > Custom Settings > AF w/shutter > Off. And you get far superior, 4K video. Everything else is pretty similar or more or less the same. Wow Wim, For subject tracking in action photography, the. You get better high ISO performance. What you’re describing has not been unusual for a number of people trying out the 77ii. Seems to work best for what I do. Also some older lenses may not work as well with the af drive speed set to fast..and as Wim noted, he uses the slow setting here and that may work better with some lenses. Keep in mind, this is a pre-production camera, which makes the results pretty amazing. These settings are also available in Full HD movie shooting. Although it is hard to say exactly how much the company has impacted DSLR sales, I believe that Sony was one of the main reasons why both Nikon and Canon dropped prices on their D610 and 6D cameras by 30% to around the $1500 mark to stay competitive. Choose the desired button and change the functionality to “AF lock”. We purchased the A7 with the 28-70 kit lens and it seemed like that lense was particularly slow at focusing. Sony has several autofocus settings to choose from, so it can be kind of confusing on what each does and when to … Much for this consumers would like to see a white square appear when the camera has an issue with duration... 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