Poor focus due to lack of faces?

[Ali452]

Hello, I am a newbie to Sony cameras. On my A7iii, I am getting razor sharp auto focus on close up of faces, but poor focus on wide scenes without any faces. Please see sample video. 

Christmas tree poor focus. On the house, it goes into sharp focus at the very end. Is this because the camera is looking for faces and without faces it can't focus well? 

In my menu, Tab 1 > 14/14 > Regist. Paces Priority is set to ON. Is this culprit? I should set it to off every time there are no faces?

 

[Pieter]

The first one is a difficult shot: your camera tends to focus on the closest high-contrast subject it can find, which in this case might be the arch in front of the tree. Better use point focus and put it on the tree to be sure focus is where you want it to be, instead of relying on 'focus area' set to wide.

[Ali452]

Thanks for your reply. So the idea that focus is poor because it couldn't find a face is not valid, correct? It is just something I surmised.

Do you have any idea why the second shot (exterior house) could be out of focus?

[LiveShots]

Likely a combination of things, there are various focus methods available and you will find yourself switching between them quite often. Best to set up a custom key to bring up the focus options to make life easier.

In wide mode the camera will try to guess what it is you want to focus on, sometimes it will be right and sometimes not, if it’s critical to focus on a specific area then use a small focus point.

Leaving face detect on should not be a problem in most cases.

I usually have focus set on on small with tracking (I do a lot of sports photography). Note that phase detect only works with wider apertures and this can also impact how the camera focuses.

[Ali452]

8 hours ago, LiveShots said:

I usually have focus set on on small with tracking (I do a lot of sports photography). Note that phase detect only works with wider apertures and this can also impact how the camera focuses.

Hi LiveShots, thanks for your response. Can you explain what you mean by "focus set on on small with tracking" ? You mean you set FOCUS AREA on Flexible Spot or Expand Flexible Spot? Is there a separate setting to do tracking? Also what do you mean by "phase detect"? Sorry about the newbie questions. 

[LiveShots]

Tracking for lock-ON AF is set in the menu: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/1720/v1/en/contents/TP0001653124.html?search=Tracking

Phase Detect versus Contrast Detect, PD is faster than CD, you can change the default settings here: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/1720/v1/en/contents/TP0001662005.html

 

[Ali452]

Thank you so much LiveShots