focus magnifier assign button

[winnie_beex]

hello and thank you for existing 

I am no ordinary newbie , I am a very old newbie

got a a6000 for a while and for the life of me I could not use adapted lenses , the trouble being the button for magnifier 

got a very cheap ex-display A7II and the same 

on both I d like to reassign magnifier to any of the buttons at the back of the camera 

 

help please and many thanks in advance 

[tadwil]

Welcome, very old newbie! 🙂

You have the same two old Sony clunkers as myself - since my shooting style is mostly still images, there is no need for a bleeding edge technological wonders.

Open the second tab (gear symbol) in the Menu and go to Page 6.  Select Custom Key Settings and assign the function that you want to the Custom Button 1 and 2 on A6000 and on the A7II, Custom Button 1-4.

On my A7II, I have set C1 to SteadyShot Focal Length, C2 to Focus Magnifier and C3 to Focus Mode.  If you shoot with a lot of manual focus legacy lenses, you need to let the camera know the lens' focal length so the camera can compensate for your movements by deploying the SteadyShot.  Assigning Focus Magnifier to CB2 makes sense because these two functions are absolute must for legacy lens shooting.

A6000 doesn't have IBIS (SteadyShot) so the option of setting SteadyShot Focal Length do not exist so I assigned the Focus Magnifier to C1 and Focus Mode to C2. 

Hope this helps.

Edit: If you haven't done so already you need to enable the cameras to release shutter without lens in order to shoot with manual focus legacy lenses.  Same Tab, page 3 for A6000 and page 4 for A7II.

Edited May 14, 2022 by tadwil
more information

[Pieter]

Also remember that focus magnifier only works when the camera is set to manual focus mode.

[winnie_beex]

thank you most kindly ; Pieter says that the camera must be set to manual focus mode , mine after I enabled shoot without lens , seems to be always in manual focus mode ; I m almost convinced that I did something wrong or was it just pure luck ?

Tadwil you sound English ; I did assign C3 to magnifier ; seems natural for my muscle memory since for the best part of fifty years I shot an M3 , a Rolleiflex 3.5F/Xenotar and a Linhof Technika with three Schneider glasses , C3 works magnify , focus , delicate tap on shutter button and wallop another tap gets the bleedin picture ; C1 SteadyS/focalL seems OK ; C2 set to focus mode , but press it and on black background says !Lens , pls attach lens correctly ; took a few pics around the flat and outside , all are luvly jubbly ;

cheers !

would be greatly indebted if you can solve the no lens , attach lens properly thingy 

I cannot thank you both enough 

winnie is my real name , pls pron vinny coz it s german 

[winnie_beex]

as there is no way I can contribute to the right honourable members of the forum , I thought I ll present you all with a , let us say  discovery ; my one and only AF lens is for APS-C and it is a SIgma 30mm f2.8 EX DN filter size 46mm

it is sharp corner to corner from wide open till diffraction comes in 

it has to be the very first version though , the others , apparently the same are NOT ; read more at OpticalLimits

if I can solve the problem on FF to shoot the entire circle of light , it will give spectacular square images 

mind you , framing on square negative , etc is not that simple ; look at all modern painting and you ll see very few square works 

composition on square canvas is devilishly complicated 

I should know , I m a painter 

[thebeardedgroundsman]

Interesting to hear your thoughts on Square Framing, Winnie.

I've just read an article in this week's "Amateur Photographer" by a landscape photographer who only uses the square format - sounds like another challenge! (along with monochrome images and long exposures.)

[winnie_beex]

if it is of interest I d be delighted to put together a few words about square format in photography as well ( sorry but no diacritics on my present keyboard ) especially as I cannot contribute in any shape or form with knowledge of any Sony thingies .

off the cuff , I can tell that there is a huge difference between a TLR and a SLR , landscape wise and personally I ve never seen a half decent colour / square landscape ; a forrestscape , yes 

one immutable fact is that framing on 6 x 6 , especially landscapes is devilishly difficult ; once in a blue moon , one succeeds , more often than not cropping is the name of the game 

 

it may be of some interest that I am first and foremost a painter ; the fact that I read Mediaeval Art history , it s neither here nor there ; I ve tried for yonks to stuff some rich empty heads in various European universities with Art history , alas I did not succeed .so my opinions are based on the above and my own discoveries in about fifty years of photography 

 

no solution for C2 set to focus mode < no lens , attach lens properly > ?  

[tadwil]

My pleasure winnie.  The Focus Mode can't be changed when a legacy MF lens is mounted on the camera and you get that weird error message.  I set the focus mode to DMF, this allows me to shoot with both native e-mount AF lenses as well as legacy MF lenses with a dumb adapter (no contacts) and focus magnifier works just as well as in MF mode.

 

 

 

[winnie_beex]

ta Tadwill , you re a life saver , you know that 

cheers !