The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

snerkler said:
I think you're missing the point. I choose the composition I want before the shot therefore have the AF in the correct place, all I have to do then is follow the subject with the camera, and yes you can move the camera pretty damn quick. I can move the camera fast enough to follow BIF, F1 cars doing 200+mph or whatever ;) The trouble with tracking AF is that you're not guaranteed the composition, ie if you have the camera static (or reasonably static) and let the AF point wander across the frame you're not in charge of composition anymore.
Why does one person preferring a different method make you automatically assume they can't get the other to work?
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Following an f1 car is easy :)

The thing is your stuck with that same composition. Whilst lock on af gets you different composition shots.

Have u ever used a d5? If you did or even one of the 3rd gen Sony's you will see how b) accurate the af is on lock on.

Your downplaying the af ability quite a lot.

AF allows me to concentrate on composition and lighting. I never had bothered whether it nailed focus!
 
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snerkler said:
Why does one person preferring a different method make you automatically assume they can't get the other to work?
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snerkler said:
You've obviously found a technique that works for you which is great. However, just because people don't use the same technique you do it doesn't mean it's wrong, doesn't work or even inferior (y)
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I didn't, if they can get it to work, then great, like you said. If they can't get it to work, then it's their technique and user error and technically inferior technique.
 
jonneymendoza said:
Following an f1 car is easy :)
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PMSL, not always. Might be easy if you're on a long sweeping corner with great view, or down the main straight, but try being close to the track and getting a car coming off a blind corner, you've got to have the reflexes of a cat ;)

The thing is your stuck with that same composition. Whilst lock on af gets you different composition shots.
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So you're saying that you let the camera choose the composition and you hope you have something usable at the end? No wonder you need a camera that shoots at 20fps ;) :p

Have u ever used a d5? If you did or even one of the 3rd gen Sony's you will see how b) accurate the af is on lock on.

Your downplaying the af ability quite a lot
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How am I? Whenever have I said that lock on AF doesn't work? I've used arguably the best lock on AF on the market in Nikon's 3d tracking (Nikon D750, D500 and D850), and it's great. I just chose not to use it in a number of scenarios. as I want to choose the composition.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
I didn't, if they can get it to work, then great, like you said. If they can't get it to work, then it's their technique and user error and technically inferior technique.
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Yep I agree. If I can get it to work and someone else can't on a similar camera then it's the user.

I sometimes even shoot wide af and I nail shots for fun.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I didn't, if they can get it to work, then great, like you said. If they can't get it to work, then it's their technique and user error and technically inferior technique.
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Sorry I thought you were suggesting that I couldn't get tracking AF to work, my bad.
 
snerkler said:
PMSL, not always. Might be easy if you're on a long sweeping corner with great view, or down the main straight, but try being close to the track and getting a car coming off a blind corner, you've got to have the reflexes of a cat ;)


So you're saying that you let the camera choose the composition and you hope you have something usable at the end? No wonder you need a camera that shoots at 20fps ;) [emoji14]


How am I? Whenever have I said that lock on AF doesn't work? I've used arguably the best lock on AF on the market in Nikon's 3d tracking (Nikon D750, D500 and D850), and it's great. I just chose not to use it in a number of scenarios. as I want to choose the composition.
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I can still choose composition while locked into a subject ;) and yes I can shoot from near the track on a blind corner fine hehe
 
jonneymendoza said:
I thought you couldn't? Diddnt you say it's unreliable?
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No, I said I prefer to use single point AF-C. The only thing I said is that with the AF tracking modes I've used they don't stick to faces, therefore when I'm shooting the London marathon or whatever the AF point would often move onto the person's torso rather then sticking to the face. If I'm in control of the AF point I can guarantee it stays on the face (y)
 
snerkler said:
No, I said I prefer to use single point AF-C. The only thing I said is that with the AF tracking modes I've used they don't stick to faces, therefore when I'm shooting the London marathon or whatever the AF point would often move onto the person's torso rather then sticking to the face. If I'm in control of the AF point I can guarantee it stays on the face (y)
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Well that's when I disagree with you. The af does easily stick to faces. At least in the Sony's and i seen it on the z7 and z6 too
 
snerkler said:
No, I said I prefer to use single point AF-C. The only thing I said is that with the AF tracking modes I've used they don't stick to faces, therefore when I'm shooting the London marathon or whatever the AF point would often move onto the person's torso rather then sticking to the face. If I'm in control of the AF point I can guarantee it stays on the face (y)
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You need an A9 with real time tracking and eye a.f. It works perfectly if they are running towards you but isn't so good from side on as you would expect.
 
I’m totally unbiased and I can’t say either of the opinions are wrong. I guess it’s up to everybody what they take away, but valid points from both sides on their opinions
 
f/2.8 said:
You need an A9 with real time tracking and eye a.f. It works perfectly if they are running towards you but isn't so good from side on as you would expect.
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If the real time tracking on the A9 miles better than that on the A7III
 
jonneymendoza said:
Well that's when I disagree with you. The af does easily stick to faces. At least in the Sony's and i seen it on the z7 and z6 too
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On the Z's it doesn't pick them up from far enough away, plus with things like the marathon there's that may faces in a scene could you guarantee it would pick the right face up?
f/2.8 said:
You need an A9 with real time tracking and eye a.f. It works perfectly if they are running towards you but isn't so good from side on as you would expect.
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Maybe so, but again in a scenario like above would the A9 pick up on the runner I want in the centre of a crowd, or would it pick up on the one closest to the camera?
 
snerkler said:
On the Z's it doesn't pick them up from far enough away, plus with things like the marathon there's that may faces in a scene could you guarantee it would pick the right face up?
Maybe so, but again in a scenario like above would the A9 pick up on the runner I want in the centre of a crowd, or would it pick up on the one closest to the camera?
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Yup, eye af is great, but not in cases like this.
 
gilbouk said:
How does Real Time Tracking differ from face detect?
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Face detect is different again. Face detect will detect the face, eye a-f will detect an eye. Real time tracking will track the subject across the frame and will jump back on it if they move out of the frame or become obstructed and can work with eye a.f.

Real time a.f is superb.
 
snerkler said:
On the Z's it doesn't pick them up from far enough away, plus with things like the marathon there's that may faces in a scene could you guarantee it would pick the right face up?
Maybe so, but again in a scenario like above would the A9 pick up on the runner I want in the centre of a crowd, or would it pick up on the one closest to the camera?
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I guess with more options there’s more ways to get it wrong. I’m to the understanding you can select the zone you want to focus on and still have the benefit of face detect in the designated area?
 
gilbouk said:
I guess with more options there’s more ways to get it wrong. I’m to the understanding you can select the zone you want to focus on and still have the benefit of face detect in the designated area?
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I haven't used face detect in some time seems pointless when I have such reliable eye a.f, I have face detect turned off.
 
gilbouk said:
I guess with more options there’s more ways to get it wrong. I’m to the understanding you can select the zone you want to focus on and still have the benefit of face detect in the designated area?
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Not on the Z's, face detect/eye AF is only available in Auto AF :rolleyes: The Nikon 3D tracking is a single point and you select a specific point that you want it to track. It's supposed to have face detect however it's only really effective if the face is large in the frame.
 
snerkler said:
Maybe so, but again in a scenario like above would the A9 pick up on the runner I want in the centre of a crowd, or would it pick up on the one closest to the camera?
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Truthfully I haven't used my A9 enough to say for sure, I do know a couple of sports photographers though and they absolutely rave about how good real time tracking is. To pick a target, you can simply reframe your composition to place your AF point over your subject, half-press the shutter, and real-time tracking will collect color, brightness, pattern, distance, face and eye information about your subject so it can use it to keep track of your subject right across the frame. It's going to follow the target you have selected so I don't see it choosing the subject closest to the camera.
 
snerkler said:
Not on the Z's, face detect/eye AF is only available in Auto AF :rolleyes: The Nikon 3D tracking is a single point and you select a specific point that you want it to track. It's supposed to have face detect however it's only really effective if the face is large in the frame.
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I could be wrong but I think with the latest Sonys you can select grouped focus points and it will ignore faces other than those on the area selected so you still get control of where the focus is to be with the camera helping too.
 
f/2.8 said:
Truthfully I haven't used my A9 enough to say for sure, I do know a couple of sports photographers though and they absolutely rave about how good real time tracking is. To pick a target, you can simply reframe your composition to place your AF point over your subject, half-press the shutter, and real-time tracking will collect color, brightness, pattern, distance, face and eye information about your subject so it can use it to keep track of your subject right across the frame. It's going to follow the target you have selected so I don't see it choosing the subject closest to the camera.
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I think I’ve heard photographers using this feature so that the camera recognises Bride and Groom throughout the day. And when you don’t want the subject to be Bride and Groom when they are in the frame you can override it quickly and switch back to AF single point for example
 
gilbouk said:
I think I’ve heard photographers using this feature so that the camera recognises Bride and Groom throughout the day. And when you don’t want the subject to be Bride and Groom when they are in the frame you can override it quickly and switch back to AF single point for example
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Yeah there is a feature on the Sony's that allows you to register a face, I have never found the need to use it.
 
f/2.8 said:
Truthfully I haven't used my A9 enough to say for sure, I do know a couple of sports photographers though and they absolutely rave about how good real time tracking is. To pick a target, you can simply reframe your composition to place your AF point over your subject, half-press the shutter, and real-time tracking will collect color, brightness, pattern, distance, face and eye information about your subject so it can use it to keep track of your subject right across the frame. It's going to follow the target you have selected so I don't see it choosing the subject closest to the camera.
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TBH this is how the Nikon works, and whilst it does follow the right person the AF point doesn't stick to the face.
 
gilbouk said:
I think I’ve heard photographers using this feature so that the camera recognises Bride and Groom throughout the day. And when you don’t want the subject to be Bride and Groom when they are in the frame you can override it quickly and switch back to AF single point for example
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TBH IIRC correctly you can register faces on the Nikon too. Bit useless in the scenario I referred to though ;)
 
snerkler said:
TBH this is how the Nikon works, and whilst it does follow the right person the AF point doesn't stick to the face.
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The A9 seems to do this very well.

I haven't used it though with a large crowd of runners so I can't say for sure.

So far the only sort of similar thing I have had is a bridal party of about 20 people running full tilt towards me and one particularly fast confetti run and it was perfect but that's not really the same thing as a much larger crowd of runners.

A guy I know who mainly shoots track and field type sports really raves about it though, based on what he has said the A9 does this very well.
 
Another case, I was shooting some video, typical class photo/play scene, subjects were fidgeting, lots of faces, lots of people packed tightly together in rows from front to back, my subject was in the back row, in this case using single point AF I could keep the focus from racking and getting confused between all the faces, especially the ones next to and just in front of him. I tried it with face detect and all I got was racking, its a difficult scenario for a camera though, 85mm @ 1.8, lots of potential subjects/faces, fairly strong backlight.
 
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So, who's buying? Not me but I think there will be interest if the AF delivers.

Tamron.jpg
 
With manual lenses face detect still works so I wonder if selecting the magnified view will automatically magnify the targets face? I've wondered this a few time but I've never pressed the button... I'll have to try it and see what happens as this could be a help.
 
twist said:
So, who's buying? Not me but I think there will be interest if the AF delivers.

Tamron.jpg
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As I've said, I'd like something which would replace the Sigma 20mm f1.8 I had but so far the options seem to be f2.8 or quite expensive and possibly with an issue or two.

I've been thinking about getting a wide for a long time so I'll have a look at the 20mm but so far nothing is thrilling me and getting the gas going.
 
woof woof said:
As I've said, I'd like something which would replace the Sigma 20mm f1.8 I had but so far the options seem to be f2.8 or quite expensive and possibly with an issue or two.

I've been thinking about getting a wide for a long time so I'll have a look at the 20mm but so far nothing is thrilling me and getting the gas going.
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The Tamron 17-28 f/2.8 is very good.
 
f/2.8 said:
The Tamron 17-28 f/2.8 is very good.
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exactly and so is 28-75mm.

I wonder why anyone will buy these primes instead of just buying one of the two f2.8 zoom lenses or both!

Though I am intrigued by the wide filter thread but small front element. I wonder if they are trying to standardise on the 67mm filter thread across their lenses. That'd be pretty cool!
 
Just ordered 2.0X TC. Looking forward to 1200mm reach and a really sunny day (I know, I know I might get that next year for a single day :p )
 
nandbytes said:
exactly and so is 28-75mm.

I wonder why anyone will buy these primes instead of just buying one of the two f2.8 zoom lenses or both!

Though I am intrigued by the wide filter thread but small front element. I wonder if they are trying to standardise on the 67mm filter thread across their lenses. That'd be pretty cool!
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Even a f2.8 prime can offer at least one advantage as it'll almost certainly be smaller than a zoom.

I'll have a think but I might just stick with the film era wide angle primes I have now. They're old and crappy and slow and wont be as good as a modern lens though.
 
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