Sony A7Rii Focus Help

ChrisHeathcote · 27 Jul 2017

I have just got the A7Rii to replace my FF and although it is taking a bit of getting used to, I am enjoying it and pleased I made the switch. I am struggling a little bit though with the AF system, in particular where it locks focus, it always seems to be around the area I want rather than on it.

For example I was taking a picture of my son last night and thought I'd try the eye-af feature. It picked up his face immediately, but when I pressed the eye-af button (set to either C3 or Focus Hold button on the Sony 85mm f1.8, it kepted locking onto either his nose or middle of his forehead rather than the eye. Anybody got any ideas.

ChrisHeathcote · 27 Jul 2017

Another question sorry, but why does the image move back and forward on occasion when you half press the shutter?

stevelmx5 · 27 Jul 2017

ChrisHeathcote said:
Another question sorry, but why does the image move back and forward on occasion when you half press the shutter?

That sounds like focus hunting while the camera is trying to lock on. Were you trying this in lower light or with a low contrast scene?

ChrisHeathcote · 27 Jul 2017

stevelmx5 said:
That sounds like focus hunting while the camera is trying to lock on. Were you trying this in lower light or with a low contrast scene?

Not in particular, however I have just tried it with a larger aperture and it didn't move.

twist · 27 Jul 2017

stevelmx5 said:
That sounds like focus hunting while the camera is trying to lock on. Were you trying this in lower light or with a low contrast scene?

+1. It's hunting.

nandbytes · 27 Jul 2017

Was your camera set AF-C?
If your son was moving his head and your camera was set to AF-S, it'll only focus on the eye once and if he had moved his head since the focus acquisition it won't follow his eye.

ChrisHeathcote · 27 Jul 2017

Thanks everyone. It was in af-s .

Out of interest what modes does everyone use. I'm used to using single spot on the 5d3, but I want to be able to use the face rec/eye af on the a7. Does it still work with spot focus or does it need to be one of the expanded modes?

nandbytes · 27 Jul 2017

Now you are making me doubt what I know

I am pretty certain it eye-AF works with single spot too. I am still very much used to doing it the old fashioned focus and recompose method with center point. I am moving over to eye-AF where appropriate but old habits die hard

Durbs · 27 Jul 2017

Expanded with Eye-AF for me (or rather, my toddler...) - means if she moves out of that area it tracks her easily.
You'll likely want to tweak the button configuration too - BBF is particularly useful with Eye-AF, I then have the AF/MF and AEL toggle switch set to Eye-AF (or not), and pressing the button activates focussing...

If you haven't already, update to firmware 4.0 too as it makes changing the AF point much easier.

ChrisHeathcote · 27 Jul 2017

Durbs said:
Expanded with Eye-AF for me (or rather, my toddler...) - means if she moves out of that area it tracks her easily.
You'll likely want to tweak the button configuration too - BBF is particularly useful with Eye-AF, I then have the AF/MF and AEL toggle switch set to Eye-AF (or not), and pressing the button activates focussing...

If you haven't already, update to firmware 4.0 too as it makes changing the AF point much easier.

Thanks for that I've just done the update to v4, but I haven't had chance to play about with it much since to spot the differences