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focus trouble A7RV, please advice


MirjamLCV
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I am the happy owner of a Sony A7RV still trying to get to know all the new possibilities, but there is one thing that drives me mad!

When I shoot an image - say in aperture priority - focussing on a piece of bread (green square is highlighted, piece of bread sharp) and I reframe half-pressing the shutter release button, I loose my focus (instead, the focus is on something I don't want just by reframing the scene). I've looked at the focus settings, of course, but I cannot figure out why I cannot simply point, focus, half-press the shutter, reframe and take the photo. Simple and straightforward! As I did with my older Sony. 

Can someone please guide me in the right direction?

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Hi, Mirjam , I have just switched from Nikon to Sony (A7RV like you). I prefer to turn off "focus with shutter" and just use the "AF-ON" button with my thumb. You press button, when focused, remove thumb from AF-ON button and focus is locked. Then recompose and fire the shutter.

AFMF menu /  page 1  AF/MF  / AF w/ Shutter  OFF

I think you may have focus set to AF-C  , which is continuous focus. as you move the camera with shutter half pressed, it will keep focusing.  If you want to keep using shutter to focus, try switching to AF-S.  I hope this helps. Chris

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

My guess would be that the camera is in AF-C.

To hold the focus with the shutter at half-press you need to be using AF-S (technically DMF would also work) - that focuses once, when you half-press, but does not move the focus after that.

With AF-C, while you hold the half-press the camera is continuously focusing, so as you move the camera to re-frame, it keeps focusing, exactly as you report.

https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2230/v1/en/contents/TP0002919988.html talks about all the focus modes of the A7RV - there are others (like AF-A - I've never used it).

Then there's your focus area, which tells the camera how much of the scene to consider when autofocusing. If you are in AF-C, and your focus area is set to anything smaller than Wide, then recomposing can get the camera re-focusing on something new as it enters the focus area. Focus areas are covered here: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2230/v1/en/contents/TP0002911172.html

Then there's tracking - you can have the AF in AF-C and do a recompose without losing your chosen subject, as long as you have tracking active - that either requires choosing a tracking focus area, or activating tracking via a button (that requires customising a button to Tracking On)

Things get even more complicated when you enable Subject Recognition AF, and it interacts with your Focus Area - if you have a smaller focus area, and your reframing moves something recognised as the right kind of subject into the focus area... That's a much bigger subject. 

All in all, autofocus is a complicated subject on the A7RV, but it is well worth learning, because this camera has one of the most powerful and effective autofocus systems ever created.

If you want to let the camera do most of the work, I suggest using Focus Mode AF-C, Focus Area Wide or Zone, Subject Recognition On and set to what you want to photograph (People, or Animal/Bird, or Insect, or Vehicle, ...). The camera will spot one or more subjects, you can choose one to track, half press, and watch the camera follow your subject. Sadly, bread is not a supported subject type yet - I suggest AF-S for bread.

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4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

My guess would be that the camera is in AF-C.

To hold the focus with the shutter at half-press you need to be using AF-S (technically DMF would also work) - that focuses once, when you half-press, but does not move the focus after that.

With AF-C, while you hold the half-press the camera is continuously focusing, so as you move the camera to re-frame, it keeps focusing, exactly as you report.

https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2230/v1/en/contents/TP0002919988.html talks about all the focus modes of the A7RV - there are others (like AF-A - I've never used it).

Then there's your focus area, which tells the camera how much of the scene to consider when autofocusing. If you are in AF-C, and your focus area is set to anything smaller than Wide, then recomposing can get the camera re-focusing on something new as it enters the focus area. Focus areas are covered here: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2230/v1/en/contents/TP0002911172.html

Then there's tracking - you can have the AF in AF-C and do a recompose without losing your chosen subject, as long as you have tracking active - that either requires choosing a tracking focus area, or activating tracking via a button (that requires customising a button to Tracking On)

Things get even more complicated when you enable Subject Recognition AF, and it interacts with your Focus Area - if you have a smaller focus area, and your reframing moves something recognised as the right kind of subject into the focus area... That's a much bigger subject. 

All in all, autofocus is a complicated subject on the A7RV, but it is well worth learning, because this camera has one of the most powerful and effective autofocus systems ever created.

If you want to let the camera do most of the work, I suggest using Focus Mode AF-C, Focus Area Wide or Zone, Subject Recognition On and set to what you want to photograph (People, or Animal/Bird, or Insect, or Vehicle, ...). The camera will spot one or more subjects, you can choose one to track, half press, and watch the camera follow your subject. Sadly, bread is not a supported subject type yet - I suggest AF-S for bread.

Thank you very much for this extensive answer. My present assignment involves focussing on bakers (so 'people') as well as 'still life' (bread). And it was mainly when I focussed on bread and reframed, that I lost focus on the bread, also in AF-S and half-pressed. This was exactly why I got so confused. But I will check the links you mentioned. I guess I need more time getting to know this Sony. Maybe I am just overwhelmed by all the possibilities. 😉 Thank again. Much apprciated!

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6 hours ago, MirjamLCV said:

Thank you very much for this extensive answer. My present assignment involves focussing on bakers (so 'people') as well as 'still life' (bread). And it was mainly when I focussed on bread and reframed, that I lost focus on the bread, also in AF-S and half-pressed. This was exactly why I got so confused. But I will check the links you mentioned. I guess I need more time getting to know this Sony. Maybe I am just overwhelmed by all the possibilities. 😉 Thank again. Much apprciated!

Bakers AND bread - you might even have them in the same frame! (sorry, sometimes I respond in a light-hearted tone which can offend - I am not making fun of you, just having fun with cameras)

To get the focus on the bread rather than the baker can be a bit challenging when subject recognition is on, but it is possible. What you'll need is to choose a small Focus Area first (try Spot S to start with), because you will want to be quite specific about where you want the camera to focus, and you'll want to exclude it focusing on the humans in the frame (I explain how to change Focus Areas a bit further on). Then I suggest moving the focus area away from centre - this camera has a lot of focus points, so you can have it focus quite some distance from the centre. You can move the spot using the touch screen, but I find it easier to use the little joystick - the textured button midway between AF ON and the wheel on the back. You will see a frame in the viewfinder or rear screen moving as you push the joystick around. Put the frame where you want the bread to be in your frame, half-press to focus on the bread, and take the shot - no need to re-compose!

I must admit I am still using re-compose, because I started with DSLRs that only had autofocus near the centre of the screen, but it's often not necessary with these modern cameras.

On the Focus Area menu the various areas are shown in a vertical list: Wide then Zone, and so on, but what is less obvious is that in the vertical list there are horizontal lists! For Spot, you have to scroll sideways between Spot L, M, and S.

If you still need tracking (because sometimes you want to put the bread between two focus spots!), there is an answer for that as well - you can have Tracking Spot S (and all the other focus areas). All the Tracking focus areas are in one long list at the bottom on the Focus Area list - go down the list until you get to Tracking, then sideways until you get to the Tracking area you want (let's try Tracking Spot S to try it out). Put the frame over your desired target, half-press (a green frame appears to show it's tracking), and move the camera - the green frame follows your target, while the focus frame stays in the same position - I think this is what you were looking for originally. If you want to stop tracking, lift your finger off the shutter button, then half press again to focus on what is under the new position of the focus frame. 

One last tip (trying not to overwhelm you with information): instead of changing focus areas on the rear screen using the menus, you can do it using the Fn menu. You can even do it in the viewfinder. You look at the scene, and press the Fn button (it's above/left from the rear wheel, easy to feel). On top of the scene you'll see 12 boxes, each representing something you can change - you can move between them using the wheel. Bottom left is the Subject Recognition type - you can change that away from Human if the camera is jumping to humans too often. On the top line, third from the left is Focus Area (second from the left is Focus Mode). Move to the Focus Area, and press the button in the middle of the wheel, and you can choose a different Focus Area. The other neat part of the Fn menu is that it shows you the current choice, so you can see what the current Focus Mode and Focus Area and Subject Recognition choices are, all neatly summarised. Admittedly, Sony's icons are not always immediately obvious - the icons for Wide and Zone in particular. Still, you will learn to recognise them quickly enough.

I hope that helps.

Edited by FunWithCameras
Add emphasis to setting focus area using Fn menu
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