My wishlist for the A7-range firmware

[olemartinorg]

Hi all!

I'm new to this forum, and new to shooting with Sony cameras. I bought the A7m2 with a kit lens a while ago, and i've bought adapters for all my older Minolta MC/MD lenses - and i've also bought a few other manual/legacy lenses for use on this system. Since I bought the Camera, I've thought a lot about the shortcomings I've seen with the system. All of these are really fixable in firmware. Below is my rant over the Sony A7m2 firmware (will probably apply to all other A7 cameras, and a bunch of NEX ones too).

First off is the memory functionality. While good in theory, it quickly fails when I try to use it what i thought it was for. I usually shoot with available light, but in some rare instances I shoot with off-camera flash (specifically two Yongnuo YN560-III flashes with either the RF603-II or the YN560-TX). When using off-camera flash, I have this setup:

    Shutter: 1/200
    ISO: 100
    WB: Flash
    Auto review: 2 seconds
    Live View Display: Settings Effect OFF

Only the first three are stored when setting them in a memory slot. Every time I shoot with flash, i now turn the mode switch to "1" and go into the menu to set "Auto review" and "Live view display", and manually reverse them when switching back. Turning the mode wheel once would be so much simpler, so of course i would like these settings to stay in the memory slots. All settings in the "Custom settings" menu (the second main menu from the left, the gear icon) should be stored along in the memory slots. Even some in the setup menu (the toolbox icon on the far right) could be stored in the memory slots.

Allright, so even if we're never getting to store all these settings stored in the memory slots (this may not be possible due to memory limitations, i don't know), there's another almost-as-good solution. In my day job (as a web developer) we focus a lot on usability in form of how many clicks a user has to perform to do a desired action. I count 14 button presses to change those two settings. That's a lot. How about combining the third and fourth main menu items (the wireless and apps stuff) into one, and adding a "favorites" main menu item as the first? If i could add single menu items to my favorites list, this could be reduced to 9 button presses.

When we're into usability and number of presses, there's a lot of menu items in my A7m2 where there are only 2 or 3 options ("on" and "off" for instance, or red/yellow/white for peaking color). Instead of opening a sub-menu for those choices, why not just toggle or cycle through the options on click? As for the example above, with a favorites menu, the operation could be dramatically simplified with this approach. I think the sweet spot is when you have 3 different options (you should open a sub menu for all settings with more than 3 options).

Allright, enough about the menu system. Shooting with a mirrorless camera is exactly like i envisioned - i love it a lot. DSLR shooters are envious of my focus peaking and in-EVF magnification capabilities, and i don't miss DSLR viewfinders even a tiny bit. Some things don't translate as well though. In the EVF i have the option to see the exposure exactly like it's going to be before i take it, so auto review is pretty much useless (unless you're shooting with flash, like i mentioned above). It is even more useless when it obstructs the EVF for those precious seconds after taking a shot. In cases where timing is crucial, auto review will make your blood boil (yes, I'm aware that half-pressing the shutter cancels the auto review, but still). The camera already have sensors for switching between EVF and LCD (and it works...OK, it should be adjustable) - why not have an option to only show the auto review when using the LCD? This would be extremely intuitive for DSLR owners, and would still allow you to work quickly and skip reviews when you need speed.

Allright, and a last thing. One of the main reasons i bought this system (I've been reading SAR for years before taking the plunge) was the focus peaking and ease of using manual-focus lenses on this system. It's just as good as i thought it would be, and accompanied with the magnifier it gives me a great balance between getting quick and good enough focus (with the peaking) and tack-sharp focus every time (with the magnification). There's one thing i miss though, and it's for action shots. Manually focusing usually is a slow process, and doesn't work well for action shots unless you were a sports photographer in the 80s or early 90s. Correct me if i'm wrong here, but there's no reason the PDAF focus points should'nt work even on fully manual lenses? Of course, the camera can't focus for you, but it can use the PDAF system to tell you if your focus is ahead or behind a given point? What i would love to see is a mode where you could set the camera up with focus trapping on a given focus point (or area), so that you can just hold the shutter down until the area is in focus (for the current focus distance you have set on the lens). You could shoot baseball and snap that home-run each and every time, in sharp focus with a legacy lens!

So what do you think?

[panzerbjorne]

Amen. And add focus point control from the ring.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DCB]

I wish they would make the playback zoom be the focusing point. Right now it zooms to the middle of the picture.

 

One question... is the initial zoom 200%? It sure looks like it.

 

Peace

[olemartinorg]

Amen. And add focus point control from the ring.

 

If you set the center wheel button to "focus area" and use flexible spot for focusing you just have to double-click the button to use the wheel to change focus points.. :-) That works pretty well, and you can change focus method pretty quickly using that method too!

 

I'm kindof used to nikon cameras, and choosing the focus points on those is probably what you want (but it kindof breaks with the timer/disp/iso buttons, since they're part of the wheel - so i understand why Sony didn't make it an option).

 

I wish they would make the playback zoom be the focusing point. Right now it zooms to the middle of the picture.

 

One question... is the initial zoom 200%? It sure looks like it.

 

You're thinking of the C3 button (on my A7II, it's called C2 on the A7)? The one on the top that you use to zoom into pictures on playback? You can change that in the menu (find Custom Key Settings) and have it open the "focus area" settings. You'd have to double-press it though, like i mentioned to @panzerbjorne above.

 

If you're talking about having the zoom button automatically zoom into a picture to where you focused (when in playback mode) that's next to impossible - the camera doesn't store where in the picture it had focus when you took it, and it could just as well be multiple places or none at all. Would be a cool effect, though - but it doesn't sound like somthing Sony should focus on (heh) for their professional (or prosumer) cameras, IMO.

 

Looks like a lot more than 200% initial zoom on my camera, though. No idea how much it is.

[DCB]

How could zooming in of the focusing area not be a "pro" level thing? Nikon's pro camera have this ability. One button and it is at (what ever magnification you tell it) right where the focus was.  It was a great feature. 

 

As for the initial zoom...it's a lot for sure.

 

Peace

[olemartinorg]

How could zooming in of the focusing area not be a "pro" level thing? Nikon's pro camera have this ability. One button and it is at (what ever magnification you tell it) right where the focus was.  It was a great feature. 

 

As for the initial zoom...it's a lot for sure.

 

Peace

 

Huh, I've never seen that! The reason i said i didn't think this should be the focus for future firmware development on the Sony A7 range cameras is that it doesn't really add anything significant (you can easily move to where the focus was by panning), and i think it's more of a gimmick. I'll have to check that out next time i'm around a Nikon user, though!

[Guest all8]

From the entire menu system I think that I mostly use 3 or 4 entries, but I use them infrequently. It would be nice if those would automatically appear under a "Most Recent Used" tab so that I did not have to spend so much time trying to find them.

[DCB]

I find it very valuable. Take a pic (with focus point on the face) push a button and 100% zoom to the face to check focus, eyes shut etc.

 

My D700 was great at this.

 

Peace

[olemartinorg]

I find it very valuable. Take a pic (with focus point on the face) push a button and 100% zoom to the face to check focus, eyes shut etc.

 

My D700 was great at this.

 

Peace

But in a mirrorless camera system like the A7 you can do all of that before taking the picure - not only verifying that the focus was where you wanted it, but you can make sure to actually focus correctly. The focus magnifier is invaluable for that.

 

For an SLR i can see the point in this, but for a mirrorless it's more of a gimmick.