IRIS problem with 85 1.4 and 24-70 2.8 GM lenses

[oriomenoni]

Hi, first post here, nice to meet you.

I've just registered after reading this topic. Maybe this helps, not sure. I don't have a g-m lens or an A7r2, but I have an A7r (firmware 3.20) and a sony/zeiss 55 1.8ZA and this works on it.

When on afc, it does indeed focus at the fstop selected, unless you deactivate an option found on the second menu (gear icon), page 2. Should be named "live view" or something like that (my menu is on spanish). It's the one before pre-af on/off option. When it's set to "off" it opens for focusing depending on the ambient light, if good it opens just a little, on low light it focuses wide open and works fine.

 

Hope this helps

Both the original poster, and most of the other users, have reported about the problem using the camera with studio strobes.

The "live view effect" must be OFF anyways in order to shoot with studio strobe as main light. If you leave it on, you only see a black screen.

[loomitz]

i think is a firmware problem with the a7R II, i have both lenses 85 and 24-70 and the problem is:

 

no matter if you have the live view effect on or off, the lens will stuck on the selected aperture the aperture wont open for manual focus or anything.

 

when i try both lenses on my a6000 both lenses keep the widest aperture all the time, and just step down to focus, and shoot.

 

i thinks this is a BUG, i understand that some lenses step down the aperture for more accurate focus, but the 2 GM lenses on the A7RII if you put F8 the lens stay on F8 all the time. (thats a problem, and makes really hard to manual focus on studio situtations).

[jonneymendoza01]

I own both 85mm and 24-70 GM lenses. This thread confirms my suspicions regarding the completely unreliable focus performance I've experience over the last two studio sessions. They show up around f8 in my case. When the 24-70 does lock on it produces beautiful images. Can't say about the 85MM since I never was able to shoot a session with it. The lens, which I've owned for 60 days, refused to focus at all when mounted for the first shoot and is in a shop for warranty 'repairs'. QC and studio performance limitations should be shouted from the roof tops for lenses touted as professional hardware and sold at premium prices. Not a word on line from Sony's Artisans on this...

Shoot on one shot mode

 

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[jonneymendoza01]

I addressed the question. I shoot in "dimly lit studio situations" as high as f16 and have never experienced these issues with any of my lenses. Take a look at any of my shots on IG ( you'll see a ton of studio shots that were done in those exact situations. The only thing I could think of is that there's an issue with this users camera, as none of my own (A7II, A7RII, A7SII) have any of the problems described in the original post.

 

MQ

On what setting though? You can't shoot on continues af when using lots of depth of field.

 

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[loomitz]

i made a Video, Showing the Iris Problem on the A7RII, and how works on the A6000.

 

Second 34, is the A7RII

 

[jonneymendoza01]

Quality. Did you try with one shot instead of continues af

 

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[loomitz]

Quality. Did you try with one shot instead of continues af

 

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im shure i wass in one shot, not in continues af, i press C3 for focus i have the focus assigned there.

[Lotus Eater]

i think is a firmware problem with the a7R II, i have both lenses 85 and 24-70 and the problem is:

 

no matter if you have the live view effect on or off, the lens will stuck on the selected aperture the aperture wont open for manual focus or anything.

 

when i try both lenses on my a6000 both lenses keep the widest aperture all the time, and just step down to focus, and shoot.

 

i thinks this is a BUG, i understand that some lenses step down the aperture for more accurate focus, but the 2 GM lenses on the A7RII if you put F8 the lens stay on F8 all the time. (thats a problem, and makes really hard to manual focus on studio situtations).

 

I'm even more confused now.

 

Do you have the A6000 set to Setting Effect OFF?  The problem people are complaining about is that the A7R II doesn't focus wide open with some lenses, therefore badly impacting on AF.  So why does the A6000 focus stopped down?  Have you tried focusing in low light to see what it does then?

 

If Setting Effect is ON, the iris should stay stopped down, but ideally it should open up when acquiring focus in low light, to improve performance.

 

If Setting Effect is OFF, the iris should stay open all the time, apart from when the shutter is released.

[loomitz]

I'm even more confused now.

 

Do you have the A6000 set to Setting Effect OFF?  The problem people are complaining about is that the A7R II doesn't focus wide open with some lenses, therefore badly impacting on AF.  So why does the A6000 focus stopped down?  Have you tried focusing in low light to see what it does then?

 

If Setting Effect is ON, the iris should stay stopped down, but ideally it should open up when acquiring focus in low light, to improve performance.

 

If Setting Effect is OFF, the iris should stay open all the time, apart from when the shutter is released.

 

The A6000 with the Setting Effect OFF, Stop down to the setting to focus when is too dark it open the iris a little, i think the camera do that for better focus.

 

but the A7RII dosent matter if the setting effect is OFF or ON, the iris always is close and have more problem to focus, than the A6000, i find that the A6000 focus better with the same lenses.

[pss]

is there any news on this? 

on both my A7RII bodies the 85 GM (even at 5.6) is almost unusable in a normal studio flash setting unless i set up an extra continuous light source for focus....the 24-70GM is slightly better but probably only because i usually use the wider end which is much easier to focus anyway.....f11 is completely out....

i am getting better results using MF lenses with peaking....

i haven't used the 16-35 in studio but it acts the same, iris does not open to focus....again, it is less of an issue because of the focal length but still....

 

is anyone looking into this? i can only shake my head when i read the Sony artisans' reaction to this....aren't they supposed to have some input? 

i love what Sony is doing in terms of sensors, bodies and glass, i also own a FS7 and love it as well but in commercial photography studio flash (studio or location) can't be replaced....and not having fast reliable focus at 5.6 or 8 is a joke and pretty much disqualifies the A7series....i am amazed that this has been on the table for so long and nothing has happened? does Sony not want people to switch to the A7?

 

i can't even imagine what a pain this must be for wedding shooters.....

[SA2016]

I couldn't agree more ^

 

My anger on this issue has now subsided and been replaced by complete untrusting disappointment in this range of cameras,

 

Regretfully it seem Sony has every major voice in the industry in their pocket & have made an incredible job of keeping this issue out of mainstream publications & websites,

 

Obviously the iris issue is a problem with the core design of these cameras & lenses otherwise I can't see why a simple firmware update couldn't have solved this problem long ago,

 

Here's hoping this thread stays active and hopefully can make more people aware of this issue before they start in investing large sums of money in a system which won't work in certain basic aspects of photography.

[magicklens]

Been away for a while and decided to visit in large part to see if anything was new on this thread.  I use speedlights in low light situations often and getting consistent focus at mid to smaller apertures remains a constant PIA. This is a significant issue and there must be a way to get Sony's attention. 

[SA2016]

After all this time I think its safe to say they're not to bothered & they will never admit to the A7's massive short comings as it will make this system an invalid professional product for the studio photographer who needs to work in low light.

 

There, said it

 

Sorry but true.

[pss]

shot on location yesterday, pretty standard situation, backlit, did not want to overpower the sun but used a broncolor para with HSS to give a nice fill....2 different models, on the very dark skinned girl the camera could not even see the features although i shot straight on and it was mostly waist up....needless to say i could not even see her expression....tried both settings ON/OFF....this is a situation in which the EVF on mirrorless has a hard time regardless but the use of fill flash made it pretty much unusable....this is at f4 both GM 85 and 24-70....

i have been selling the Sony A7RII to most of my photographer friends and still believe that it is an amazing system...but it really seems like nobody really cares about this....

i am really looking forward to the next version of this camera and am assuming that this will be fixed....not sure though how i will feel about it...it seems like this should be a firmware fix and really should not be too hard to do....i am pretty sure this wasn't an issue with previous firmware(s)?

what really amazes me though is that none of the "Sony Masters" use professional flash systems or set ups? really? or really only wide open? it just does not make sense to me....

[LiveShots]

Just tried this on my A6300 with 70-200 F2.8 G Master lens

 

With Setting Effect ON: If aperture is smaller than 5.6 lens will open up to focus and close to the set aperture once focus is achieved.

With Setting Effect OFF the lens will open up for focus regardless of aperture setting

[pss]

just keeping this alive because it is so ridiculous.....A7RII fw 3.30 with GM 24-70 and GM 85 is pretty much a manual focus combination in a professional studio setting at anything over f4....will also start a thread in the camera section because i am hoping/thinking/praying that this can be resolved with a firmware update...

[SA2016]

Good idea & good luck,

 

Wouldn't hold your breath though, some of us have been banging on about this issue for 7 months or more now & absolutely nothing has been mentioned by Sony, their artisans, technicians or engineers either acknowledging the issue or offering any type of fix,

 

Frankly I find the whole situation beyond a joke and personally won't be investing anymore in this system until it can cope with some of the most basic fundamentals of studio photography,

 

Although there is much to love with what Sony is trying to bring to the table with this range of cameras & lenses, lets not kid ourselves any longer that this is a professional system for the studio photographer.

[SA2016]

Bump 

[Username]

just keeping this alive because it is so ridiculous.....A7RII fw 3.30 with

GM 24-70 and GM 85 is pretty much a manual focus combination in a

professional studio setting at anything over f4....will also start a thread

in the camera section because i am hoping/thinking/praying that this

can be resolved with a firmware update...

    

There's seemingly fine logic here, but not successfully 

implemented. The logical operation, if they can get it to 

work in every lens-body combination, is that AF should 

begin at a medium f/stop to avoid rapid focus hunting. 

  

The medium stop will make most subjects recognizable 

even when they are far out of focus. Promptly, the iris

should open fully upon target recognition so as to focus 

as accurately as possible. This protocol is perfect "on 

paper" but, so far, not properly implemented :-(    

   

" .... bast laid plans of muice and squawrill" - Boris B. 

[Bghead8che]

If you use AF-S the problem is fixed, correct?  The behaviour only exists when using AF-C I believe. 

 

Is switching to AV-S not a viable solution in the studio? 

[jonneymendoza01]

Do you think the a9 will have same issue?

 

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[SA2016]

I guess we're have to wait and see, I certainly won't be pre ordering until I have seen some respected independent reviews, even then I'd like a hands on demo before even considering a purchase, the small amount of reviews I've seen so far have only shown c-af at f2.8.

[Marc104]

New firmware today for a7rII

It seems there maybe something related to the issue

 

 

"Optimizes exposure algorithm during focusing when Live View Display is set for Setting Effect OFF"

[jonneymendoza01]

New firmware today for a7rII

It seems there maybe something related to the issue

 

 

"Optimizes exposure algorithm during focusing when Live View Display is set for Setting Effect OFF"

Anyone tried it yet? I'm at work all day

 

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[Marc104]

A thread on dpreview confirm it seems to solve the issue

 

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4166824?page=2#forum-post-59673471