A7RII Aperture Focus Noise. Is this normal?

[chairman]

Hey Guys,

 

Just got my A7RII and it's been great so far, untill i have been noticing the focusing noise every time i press to focus a shot. It's silent on 1.4 but as I go up to 16 it gets louder and louder. Not sure if this is normal or not for this camera. Link to video below!

 

The lens is a New FE Distagon 35mm 1.4 Zeiss lens, its also happening on my 28-70mm FE Sony Kit lens. 

 

 

http://youtu.be/vBfrLzRu68U

[alastc]

Could it be the image stabalisation for the sensor? That would have to work harder as the aperture goes up (and presumably the shutter speed goes down?)

[chairman]

Could it be the image stabalisation for the sensor? That would have to work harder as the aperture goes up (and presumably the shutter speed goes down?)

Called sony support and they're saying its not normal

[RishiSanyal]

Yes, this is normal, and is actually due to something that's an advantage with the a7R II: the fact that it initially opens up its aperture fully to acquire AF. This means the sensor gets more light, and has the shallowest depth-of-field, when focusing... both of which are advantages and guarantee faster focus than focusing at the selected aperture (though focusing *at* the selected aperture minimizes focus shift). I'm glad they finally fixed this: previous Sony cameras would cripple themselves when shooting at smaller apertures by giving the AF system less light or too much DOF to focus quickly (and literally shutting off phase detection completely at F9 or slower). 

 

The reason it gets more drastic with slower apertures is b/c the camera has to open up the aperture more to go from F8 to F2 as opposed to F4 to F2, for example.

 

One remaining problem, though, is that in AF-C, the camera only initially opens up the aperture for AF acquisition, but then closes it back down to the selected aperture to prep itself for shooting (minimizing shutter lag by not requiring the additional step of stopping down the lens when the shutter button is depressed). Personally, though, I'd take a little extra shutter lag for the ability of the camera to continue focusing well. For example, if you're in AF-C and have selected F9 as your shooting aperture, the camera will initially acquire AF quickly, but then will stop down the lens to F9, at which point phase detection shuts off, and you see the camera constantly hunting back and forth. This is unfortunate.

 

Rishi Sanyal

Deputy Editor, Technical Editor | Digital Photography Review

[cengell]

Try AF-S mode, on my A7MII and the Sony 90 mm macro and at F/9-F22 in the AF-C mode it would focus in-out over and over but on AF-S at same F/9-F/22 works great in low contrast or outside, so try AF-S mode.

 

Christopher

[Christo25]

I have heard it with my A7r ii and the 55mm 1.8. It doesn't worry me too much yet but I did notice it before I read it hear.

[RishiSanyal]

Let me try rephrasing: it's actually a good thing that you hear the aperture opening up during AF acquisition, and what's 'not normal' IMHO is all the other Sony cameras that don't do it...

 

Rishi Sanyal

Deputy Editor, Technical Editor | Digital Photography Review

[slothead]

Let me try rephrasing: it's actually a good thing that you hear the aperture opening up during AF acquisition, and what's 'not normal' IMHO is all the other Sony cameras that don't do it...

 

Rishi Sanyal

Deputy Editor, Technical Editor | Digital Photography Review

The reason it is a 'bad' thing is because of its impact on video with audio.  The A7Rii has its strength in video (at least for my purposes) and this kind of behavior will prevent me from acquiring one of them.

[RishiSanyal]

The reason it is a 'bad' thing is because of its impact on video with audio.  The A7Rii has its strength in video (at least for my purposes) and this kind of behavior will prevent me from acquiring one of them.

 

This definitely does not happen in video. That would be immensely stupid The camera just focuses at whatever aperture you're shooting at.

 

Rishi

[slothead]

This definitely does not happen in video. That would be immensely stupid The camera just focuses at whatever aperture you're shooting at.

 

Rishi

 

Thanks for the clarification Rishi