Focus issue

[Malcolm Collins]

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Hi  I recently purchased a Sony a7r111 + 200-600 G lens, I am having a lot of focus issues, being, That i focus on a subject but the sharpness is in another area. I have tried various settings to no avail. Could someone help with this please. I have included an image, I was focussing on the Honeyeater, but the main focus is on the leaves to the right of the photo.  Thanks in anticipation, Mal Collins

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Hi,

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[Pieter]

Did your camera agree that you were focussing on the Honeyeater? What focussing mode did you use? In cases like this where your subject may be obscured by foliage in front, I tend to use single spot AF. Tracking AF might get confused by stuff in front of your subject.

[Malcolm Collins]

Thanks for the quick reply, settings were as follows, AFA,focus areas wide, Aoto ISO, metering mode multi. had shutter speed of 1/4000, f6.3. I realise shutter was fast as  I am trying to get birds in flight. and the light was good so shutter speed shouldn't affect it. But I will try single spot tomorrow.

Edited October 22, 2021 by Malcolm Collins

[Pieter]

In conditions like these, with AF-C and area set to wide, the camera will usually focus on a contrasty object close to the camera. I'm not at all surprised it picked the foliage over the bird. The camera doesn't know you want to focus on the bird so you'll have to tell it very specifically.

[Malcolm Collins]

Thanks Pieter,  Tried  AF-S, focus mode centre, metering mode centre, 1/250 f8  results look a lot better. I focusssed on water droplet. Many thanks Mal.

Edited October 22, 2021 by Malcolm Collins

[Pieter]

For slightly moving subjects like the bird in the other pic, you may also try AF-C and focus area set to Expand Flexible Spot. The camera may fail to achieve focus on a fully black bird due to lack of contrast. Expand Flexible Spot allows the camera to use the focus points around the initial focus spot to achieve focus. Try some of these settings and see what gives the best results.

Metering doesn't matter for focussing, you can set it to anything you like. Center or spot metering is tricky as it may result in vastly over-/underexposed images if your focus subject is very bright or dark (like the black bird).

Edited October 23, 2021 by Pieter

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Hi,

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[Aldowski]

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Yes, there is exact option for the focusing to the detail not being in the center, not being closest to the camera, not being "contrasty" enough as well, Focus Area -> Flexible spot; it's ("spot's") dimension can be chosen, and, most important, it can be positioned anywhere at the visible area. Requires some time to be managed, but it works.

Learned this many years ago using the Fujifilm S2950, which has no manual focus, and this option is just exactly what I did need many times. BTW, still have that old camera, it can act as a great telephoto 18X zoom (28 – 504 mm); and (super)macro one as well (less than an inch distance). Sensor based stabilization! 

Anyway, most of cameras have similar or same processes to achieve solutions, sometimes, or many times the biggest difference is the name of the task, words in manual.