A7R5 Focus Stacking

[vjbelle]

I recently purchased an A7R5 and have tried the focus stacking feature where focusing is near and the camera ultimately focuses to infinity.  This is one of two options for focus stacking.  My camera will not focus to infinity.  I am not the only person who has had this problem but am curious if others in this community have tried this feature and if it works for them.  

 

Thanks for any replies.....

 

Victor B.

[FunWithCameras]

I haven't used it, but my understanding is that it takes what it thinks are "enough" images, based on the aperture. So it stops when it thinks the last image includes infinity.

I hope someone who has used it can give you a better answer.

[Qqphot]

The focus stacking interface is a little frustrating. I only use it for tabletop macro work so I haven't run into the infinity issue, but I can see how it would be unsuitable for that. 

You set the focus at the near point to start, and then you only get to set the number of steps and the "width" of each step, but in no particular distance unit, so it's guesswork. I suspect they're spaced evenly in terms of AF actuator steps rather than any inferred real-life distance, because the latter would require knowing more about the lens and making maybe imprecise assumptions.

For tabletop it works ok because I usually want evenly spaced steps anyway as if I were turning the focus ring the same number of degrees for each step, but for landscape I can see how you'd want to start a bit short of hyperfocal distance and space the steps further and further apart toward infinity, which you definitely can't do automatically with the firmware as it exists.

It's also quite slow at maybe one exposure per second or so, which could be a problem for some applications I guess.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Qqphot

[Berndk]

On 4/8/2023 at 3:03 PM, Qqphot said:

The focus stacking interface is a little frustrating. I only use it for tabletop macro work so I haven't run into the infinity issue, but I can see how it would be unsuitable for that. 

You set the focus at the near point to start, and then you only get to set the number of steps and the "width" of each step, but in no particular distance unit, so it's guesswork. I suspect they're spaced evenly in terms of AF actuator steps rather than any inferred real-life distance, because the latter would require knowing more about the lens and making maybe imprecise assumptions.

For tabletop it works ok because I usually want evenly spaced steps anyway as if I were turning the focus ring the same number of degrees for each step, but for landscape I can see how you'd want to start a bit short of hyperfocal distance and space the steps further and further apart toward infinity, which you definitely can't do automatically with the firmware as it exists.

It's also quite slow at maybe one exposure per second or so, which could be a problem for some applications I guess.

I have the same problem the a7r5 does not go to the infinit!