Sony A7IV autofocus can't keep up

[MinoltaMaster]

I have been using a Sony A7IV since October 2024 and the thing simply doesn't track autofocus at all, the hit rate is near Zero (0) and it's impossible to get any action shot despite following ambassador tutorials and advices step by step.

It's as if the camera actively wanted to miss focus. It baffles me that the kinds of photos I would easily get with my old a77ii and a minolta 80-200G HS APO are now practically impossible to get with "the child of the a1" with a Sigma DG DN sports 70-200 OS. I see YouTubers getting ridiculously high rates and the very same results outside the framerate limits compared to G Master 70-200 II.

 

IDK what to do, and I know I'm not the only one suffering from this issue.

Edited February 14 by MinoltaMaster

[Cameratose]

You must be. I have an A7 IV and an A1, and while the A7 IV isn't nearly as fast as the A1, it is actually more tenacious. I have never had a problem with any kind of action shooting at all. Conversely, I had an A7R III that I loved, but the AF was so far behind the A7 IV I had to give it up. 

I also had trouble with Ambassador settings. Without naming any one in particular, I found most of them to be useless. 

Have you ever checked out Mirrorless Comparison? This post has rankings for many different cameras. The A7 IV is ranked very high and in some excellent company:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Here's a link to the post. You can also poke around the site and find a full review along with his settings for A7 IV BIF, if that helps.

 

The Best Mirrorless Cameras for Birds in Flight Ranked - Mirrorless Comparison

 

As to what's causing this, no way to know without knowing every setting, which lenses, etc. 

 

 

[MinoltaMaster]

1 hour ago, Cameratose said:

You must be. I have an A7 IV and an A1, and while the A7 IV isn't nearly as fast as the A1, it is actually more tenacious. I have never had a problem with any kind of action shooting at all. Conversely, I had an A7R III that I loved, but the AF was so far behind the A7 IV I had to give it up. 

I also had trouble with Ambassador settings. Without naming any one in particular, I found most of them to be useless. 

Have you ever checked out Mirrorless Comparison? This post has rankings for many different cameras. The A7 IV is ranked very high and in some excellent company:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

Here's a link to the post. You can also poke around the site and find a full review along with his settings for A7 IV BIF, if that helps.

 

The Best Mirrorless Cameras for Birds in Flight Ranked - Mirrorless Comparison

 

As to what's causing this, no way to know without knowing every setting, which lenses, etc. 

 

 

i said the lens, Sigma DG DN sports 70-200 FE, the lens is fast enough to track most small birds coming at you or flying away, but the camera seemingly does not want to track

 

it also does the same with my Sony lenses on LA-EA5 adapter.

 

I always do birds at f/4 and 1/5000+ and no stabilizer

 

Thanks for the link on BIF, I will check it out and show results

 

[Cameratose]

Sorry, missed the Sigma. What about other lenses? 

Settings? What about Lock On? Set it for the LOWEST setting, 1. No higher than 3 for sure. 

I've used the A7 IV/LA-EA5/Minolta 80-200/2.8 APO G to track cars going hundreds of miles an hour. Of course, there's some advantage knowing that the car isn't likely to change directions in short notice, but even that combination tracked reasonably well. A burst of 20 shots results in one OOF. 

 

Edited February 14 by Cameratose

[MinoltaMaster]

21 minutes ago, Cameratose said:

Sorry, missed the Sigma. What about other lenses? 

Same behavior.

21 minutes ago, Cameratose said:

Settings? What about Lock On? Set it for the LOWEST setting, 1. No higher than 3 for sure. 

Of course on 1 and 2 if I need to switch subject every so often, it really does not matter, the focus will stay in place once the subject moves away.

21 minutes ago, Cameratose said:

I've used the A7 IV/LA-EA5/Minolta 80-200/2.8 APO G to track cars going hundreds of miles an hour. Of course, there's some advantage knowing that the car isn't likely to change directions in short notice, but even that combination tracked reasonably well. A burst of 20 shots results in one OOF. 

 

That's crazy, literally the very set up I started with. You having 90 percent hit rate without PDAF and a screwdriver lens vs me having zero hit rate with a literal black GM II lens, I had the same results (plus freezes) on la-ea5.

 

Given what I've done and what I see around the internet, I draw the conclusion that my camera is faulty. And just as always whenever I get a dud, I keep blaming myself and trying to figure out how to use these things far beyond refund period. And Sony won't cover it either because I bought it in Andorra.

[Cameratose]

Man, that stinks. I still wouldn't give up on settings though. Have you tried doing a factory reset and starting from scratch? What about all of the firmware updates on the camera? 

One other thing, you say you're shooting f/4 and 1/5000. That's pretty quick. What kind of ISO does that result in? These cameras need light to AF so they can see contrasts. Have you tried dropping the shutter to 1/2000, or even 1/1600? You'll gain a couple stops of light to the sensor. 

[MinoltaMaster]

37 minutes ago, Cameratose said:

Man, that stinks. I still wouldn't give up on settings though. Have you tried doing a factory reset and starting from scratch?

Maybe could help but I doubt that the camera will drive the lenses better.

37 minutes ago, Cameratose said:

What about all of the firmware updates on the camera? 

from fw 3.2 the AF was spectacular even with the Minolta 80-200, not even close to a77ii but i was expecting it to be quite lackluster. It was snappy and tracked cars moving at 30kmh towards me without an issue. It was when I updated to 4.0 when I felt like i had to get the Sigma lens, which offers roughly the same experience: good autofocus on slow objects, stays in place or back focused (especially back focusing) most of the shots.

I've tried to see if you can downgrade the firmware, but I've seen negative results.

37 minutes ago, Cameratose said:

One other thing, you say you're shooting f/4 and 1/5000. That's pretty quick. What kind of ISO does that result in?

ISO1250 and that's overexposed, iso800 and the detail remains.

37 minutes ago, Cameratose said:

These cameras need light to AF so they can see contrasts. Have you tried dropping the shutter to 1/2000, or even 1/1600? You'll gain a couple stops of light to the sensor. 

could be, since it's no SLT either you also need the shutter slit to be wide enough to let the sensor do autofocus.

all in all I believe mirrorless cameras are a step back from dslr and SLT cameras The SLT A99II has proven to be the best autofocusing camera in the world and it still is, it's just that the gimmick of the mirrorless cameras can detect the eye of the subject and promise to obtain better action portraits because they focus on the eye or cockpit of the subject.

Because of this I was going to go full onto the A7CII but when I read it can only do 1/4000 and has a single shutter curtain I really felt like that was two fundamental deal breakers. The lack of joystick also made me quack off but the A7IV joystick isn't joyful either, all in all I have realized that going from the A77II to the a7iv had just a single point for which was clear photos at iso 3200, because everything else is a serious downgrade: the battery life, the ergonomics, the button layout, the autofocus responsiveness, the shutter cycle duration (3ms for A77II and 5ms for A7IV) etc.

I wanted an A99II (thus paying only half of what I had to pay to convert to E mount) but all the ones I've seen were outside the EU or in poor condition.

[Cameratose]

The shutter is always open on mirrorless. The first or front curtain closing starts the picture taking process, the second or rear curtain completes it. There is no 'shutter slit' That's why your A7 IV has the option to close the shutter on power-down. Shooting electronic shutter is handled 100% by the processor telling the camera when to start saving what the sensor sees and when to stop, in simple terms.

I've shot SLR, DSLR, SLT, and mirrorless, and mirrorless is by far the best. I shoot film from time to time and still have a couple of old DSLRS, a Minolta Maxxum 5D and a Sony A350. I have gotten to seriously dislike optical viewfinders. I would never shoot SLT again. It may have been the predecessor to mirrorless, but it wasn't great technology. 

The AF issue aside, I think you just need to spend more time with the mirrorless. I know a few guys who went back to DSLR for similar reasons, but they eventually ended up back in mirrorless. Since DSLR is going the way of the dinosaur, your options aren't many. Shoot older cameras or mirrorless.   

[MinoltaMaster]

8 hours ago, Cameratose said:

The shutter is always open on mirrorless. The first or front curtain closing starts the picture taking process, the second or rear curtain completes it. There is no 'shutter slit' That's why your A7 IV has the option to close the shutter on power-down.

what I meant is that the camera closing the shutter during release might be the reason why slits narrower than 1/2000 might keep it away from focusing. On a DSLR the focus works while the image shows on the viewfinder because it's when it's also being diverted onto the AF module. On SLTs the AF is working constantly without any cut because it receives 0.5 stops of light onto the AF system. On mirrorless during a burst the sensor is constantly being covered by the focal plane shutter and having to see through a small slit that takes about 4 miliseconds to go from bottom to top is not an easy task.

8 hours ago, Cameratose said:

Shooting electronic shutter is handled 100% by the processor telling the camera when to start saving what the sensor sees and when to stop, in simple terms.

I've shot SLR, DSLR, SLT, and mirrorless, and mirrorless is by far the best.

I wholeheartedly disagree. While mirrorless is more accurate, it's not granting more in focus shots than a SLT camera with hybrid detection like the A99II. All you have to do is put the AF expanded flexible spot on the eye of the incoming animal and you're done, sure alas, while keeping the focus reticle within place instead of relying on the camera tracking like a mirrorless does.

 

But probably you're actually right because your cameras work and mine does not 💁‍♂️

8 hours ago, Cameratose said:

I shoot film from time to time and still have a couple of old DSLRS, a Minolta Maxxum 5D and a Sony A350. I have gotten to seriously dislike optical viewfinders.

I also dislike them because they get dirty. I still have better light metering skills and subject tracking on an optional viewfinder though. As you and I may experience, EVF at 120fps is not enough to stop seeing the flickering screen.

8 hours ago, Cameratose said:

 

I would never shoot SLT again. It may have been the predecessor to mirrorless, but it wasn't great technology. 

I think it was pretty neat and the A77II and a99ii had superior ergonomics to anything Sony made and will ever make. The mirrorless cameras are also way less powerful, since the A99II could score 30 uncompressed lossless raw files ar 11.7fps with a 100% hit rate and constant exposure while the A7IV with the "brand new exmor rs chip" and six megapixels less is unable to handle uncompressed lossy raw files past 5fps. This and the fact that the EVF on Sony mirrorless cameras has to go from HD to 240P (BELOW the resolution of the a99ii/a77ii evf) tells us that these cameras are not powerful and instead face an endless spinning roulette of bottlenecks. Oh, did I forget that the A7IV has more color noise than the a99ii?

 

Oh another issue i forgot to mention is that my a7iv is inconsistent during exposure, bracketing is off and yet I see a huge difference of about 0.7 EVs up and down between each shot.

8 hours ago, Cameratose said:

The AF issue aside, I think you just need to spend more time with the mirrorless.

TBH mirrorless is not at all superior to DSLR, it's just a new system that is still in development and already catching up until there is a busy background. What makes mirrorless cameras seem focus better is that they can drive more current to the lens motors than DSLR and have eye recognition but keep in mind Sony G lenses still use SSM technology in favor of stepper motors in every single one that is not the G Master line or the G 70-200 4 OSS II.

8 hours ago, Cameratose said:

I know a few guys who went back to DSLR for similar reasons, but they eventually ended up back in mirrorless.

They probably went back to mirrorless for the portability, newer sensors and better lens quality, trust me, autofocus is NOT one of them because you really can't tell me that freezing movement while keeping focus is easy when even you admit that mirrorless cameras need certain exposures to autofocus during continuous drive.

8 hours ago, Cameratose said:

Since DSLR is going the way of the dinosaur, your options aren't many. Shoot older cameras or mirrorless.   

The market forces me to stay mirrorless. I will save for the A1 II (also full of bottlenecks that none of Canon and Nikon have) but if I find the same issues with autofocus I will never use a Sony product again.

 

Feel confused? Well, fact of the day: Canon and Nikon are imaging companies selling cameras, Sony Alpha is a product selling a brand.

 

I will tell you later. Going to factory reset the camera.

Thank you in advance.

Edited February 15 by MinoltaMaster

[FunWithCameras]

19 hours ago, MinoltaMaster said:

what I meant is that the camera closing the shutter during release might be the reason why slits narrower than 1/2000 might keep it away from focusing. On a DSLR the focus works while the image shows on the viewfinder because it's when it's also being diverted onto the AF module. On SLTs the AF is working constantly without any cut because it receives 0.5 stops of light onto the AF system. On mirrorless during a burst the sensor is constantly being covered by the focal plane shutter and having to see through a small slit that takes about 4 miliseconds to go from bottom to top is not an easy task.

I wholeheartedly disagree. While mirrorless is more accurate, it's not granting more in focus shots than a SLT camera with hybrid detection like the A99II. All you have to do is put the AF expanded flexible spot on the eye of the incoming animal and you're done, sure alas, while keeping the focus reticle within place instead of relying on the camera tracking like a mirrorless does.

 

But probably you're actually right because your cameras work and mine does not 💁‍♂️

I also dislike them because they get dirty. I still have better light metering skills and subject tracking on an optional viewfinder though. As you and I may experience, EVF at 120fps is not enough to stop seeing the flickering screen.

I think it was pretty neat and the A77II and a99ii had superior ergonomics to anything Sony made and will ever make. The mirrorless cameras are also way less powerful, since the A99II could score 30 uncompressed lossless raw files ar 11.7fps with a 100% hit rate and constant exposure while the A7IV with the "brand new exmor rs chip" and six megapixels less is unable to handle uncompressed lossy raw files past 5fps. This and the fact that the EVF on Sony mirrorless cameras has to go from HD to 240P (BELOW the resolution of the a99ii/a77ii evf) tells us that these cameras are not powerful and instead face an endless spinning roulette of bottlenecks. Oh, did I forget that the A7IV has more color noise than the a99ii?

 

Oh another issue i forgot to mention is that my a7iv is inconsistent during exposure, bracketing is off and yet I see a huge difference of about 0.7 EVs up and down between each shot.

TBH mirrorless is not at all superior to DSLR, it's just a new system that is still in development and already catching up until there is a busy background. What makes mirrorless cameras seem focus better is that they can drive more current to the lens motors than DSLR and have eye recognition but keep in mind Sony G lenses still use SSM technology in favor of stepper motors in every single one that is not the G Master line or the G 70-200 4 OSS II.

They probably went back to mirrorless for the portability, newer sensors and better lens quality, trust me, autofocus is NOT one of them because you really can't tell me that freezing movement while keeping focus is easy when even you admit that mirrorless cameras need certain exposures to autofocus during continuous drive.

The market forces me to stay mirrorless. I will save for the A1 II (also full of bottlenecks that none of Canon and Nikon have) but if I find the same issues with autofocus I will never use a Sony product again.

 

Feel confused? Well, fact of the day: Canon and Nikon are imaging companies selling cameras, Sony Alpha is a product selling a brand.

 

I will tell you later. Going to factory reset the camera.

Thank you in advance.

I understand that you are upset, but you are comparing an entry level full frame camera in the A7 IV with the absolute top of the line A99 II. Does that sound completely fair?

BTW: "uncompressed lossy RAW" is wrong - you can choose uncompressed, lossless compressed, or lossy compressed RAW - if it's uncompressed, it's not lossy; if it's lossy, it's not uncompressed.

If you want compare your A99 II with the current top of the line for speed, you are talking about the A9 III, and that's quite a monster. Capable of shooting 120 frames per second in any format of RAW, with an EVF that has the highest resolution available today (9M dots). It can and does auto-focus between every one of those 120 frames per second. I normally don't run it higher than 60fps, but that's still many times the speed of the A99 II, and with continuous AF and tracking achieving 100% hit rate (user error excluded!).  The autofocus is using the "AI" chip to do subject recognition, and it is a completely different level from any older system.  This is the AF that arrived in the A7RV, but it is in every body since (even the A6700) - it will probably be included in the A7V, too. I like the body shape of the A9 III, and I was happy to see it carried over to the A1 II - I will not be surprised if the A7V also uses the new body design. If you get a chance to try holding one of these new cameras you may find it feels more like the DSLT bodies you like.

Yes, the A9 III is "only" 24 Mpixel, but the A1 II is 50Mpixel, and shoots 20 lossless RAW files per second using the same AF as the A9 III (and 30 lossy RAW files/second, if you need that speed). AF accuracy is the same. It's not the AF that your A7 IV uses.  

BTW: there is at least one other G lens using the latest in linear motors for focus - the 20-70mm f/4 G has two linear motors. Older G lenses like the 200-600mm did use DDSSM, but the latest are using XD linear motors - I expect the 400-800, for example, will use XD motors.

I cannot say why you are experiencing such problems, other than to ask if you are using electronic shutter - I'd recommend using mechanical shutter for what you are shooting. I do know people using the A7IV to shoot birds in flight, and having no difficulty doing so. 

[MinoltaMaster]

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

I understand that you are upset, but you are comparing an entry level full frame camera in the A7 IV with the absolute top of the line A99 II. Does that sound completely fair?

trying to answer again because god damnit this forum is buggy and i realized that on Android if you answer the comment is gone the first time.

The A7IV is no longer considered an "entry level full frame camera" due to it's price tag being higher to many other professional grade cameras from Nikon and Canon, we could say so from the A7II being priced around €1500 and having the poor performance it had compared to the other full frame cameras of the time (alas, DSLR vs mirrorless) and the a7iii to an extent.
 

 

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

BTW: "uncompressed lossy RAW" is wrong - you can choose uncompressed, lossless compressed, or lossy compressed RAW - if it's uncompressed, it's not lossy; if it's lossy, it's not uncompressed.

thanks, i got it messed up. Still pitiful that a new mirrorless camera with only 33 megapixels can't do more than 5fps on files beyond compressed raw.

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

If you want compare your A99 II with the current top of the line for speed, you are talking about the A9 III, and that's quite a monster.

The A99II compares directly to the A1 V1, against which has proven to have a superior autofocus in nearly every single scenario (PDAF sensitivity rated as high as minus 4EV whereas both A7IV and A1 are rated -2ev for pdaf and -4ev for cdaf). It also has better signal to noise ratio than both A1, A1ii and A7iv. There's no color noise up to ISO16000.

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

Capable of shooting 120 frames per second in any format of RAW, with an EVF that has the highest resolution available today (9M dots).

The highest resolution EVF is barely a little more than Full HD (3 megapixels)since you have to divide all the dots by three which are the ones composing each pixel (a red bulb, a green bulb and a blue bulb) and it doesn't matter because the EVF will always go down to 5.5 million dots (HD) the moment the camera has to do the smallest effort, even focus peaking. On a stacked sensor, on a camera that costs €6500. And the A1 ii also has the same bottlenecks. Canon and Nikon do not have these performance bottlenecks, not even across the levels of each cameras. And Sony SLT cameras didn't have bottlenecks either. To say that performance bottlenecks on the most expensive usable photo cameras available is unacceptable is falling short. This is Apple levels of gaslighting like when they told you their 8 ram MacBook would surpass a 16 ram custom parts windows PC.

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

It can and does auto-focus between every one of those 120 frames per second. I normally don't run it higher than 60fps, but that's still man times the speed of the A99 II, and with continuous AF and tracking achieving 100% hit rate (user error excluded!).  The autofocus is using the "AI" chip to do subject recognition, and it is a completely different level from any older system.

the a9 III is a 2024 camera, the a99ii is a 2016 camera, and the a99ii and the a1 fulfill the same niche while the A9III is very specific to ultra high speed action with no cropping.

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

 This is the AF that arrived in the A7RV, but it is in every body since (even the A6700) - it will probably be included in the A7V, too. I like the body shape of the A9 III, and I was happy to see it carried over to the A1 II - I will not be surprised if the A7V also uses the new body design. If you get a chance to try holding one of these new cameras you may find it feels more like the DSLT bodies you like.

I did handle an A9III and it felt the same as holding my a7iv but just a little more cushioned. So much so that the grip shapes are literally the same, down to the same volume and shape. The SLT A77II grip has two dents that help you rest the middle and ring fingers while both A7IV and A9iii grips want you to rely on your middle finger to rest the camera and a heavy lens. But all things said, Sony is known for being lazy and pretend like there are unfixable issues when all they do is just cheap out the production costs. I say this looking at the €2500+ g Master lenses with obnoxious focus breathing and chromatic aberration, the grips being the same, the cameras having conditionals in their performance (because they're not really powerful, let's get real, do you believe the A7IV is powerful if it can't shoot more than 5fps uncompressed raw and doesn't have a 15fps electronic shutter mode? do you think that the EVF on the A9iii or A1 ii shall reach below hd resolution from 1.5K the moment it has to work the slightest?)

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

Yes, the A9 III is "only" 24 Mpixel, but the A1 II is 50Mpixel, and shoots 20 lossless RAW files per second using the same AF as the A9 III (and 30 lossy RAW files/second, if you need that speed). AF accuracy is the same. It's not the AF that your A7 IV uses.  

wasn't specified that the A7IV used the same af system as the a1 with the same processing frequency? (120 af calcs per second)

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

BTW: there is at least one other G lens using the latest in linear motors for focus - the 20-70mm f/4 G has two linear motors. Older G lenses like the 200-600mm did use DDSSM, but the latest are using XD linear motors - I expect the 400-800, for example, will use XD motors.

oh the 400-800, i think it's going to be an atrocity. A 2x zoom that goes down to F/8 and is probably going to cost €2700 or more. For a 2x zoom they could at least make it f5.6-6.7 or extend it as a 200-700 to continue the line with the 16-24/24-70/70-200. As I said before, Sony Alpha has gotten lazy. The A1 ii being basically an A1 with flip screen and ai chip being announced as something ground breaking and never seen before already vouches my point enough.

4 hours ago, FunWithCameras said:

I cannot say why you are experiencing such problems, other than to ask if you are using electronic shutter - I'd recommend using mechanical shutter for what you are shooting. I do know people using the A7IV to shoot birds in flight, and having no difficulty doing so. 

i use full mechanical shutter. And my camera certainly can focus on birds in flight, it simply does not track anything moving towards or away from the camera, even if I don't press shutter and leave the camera focus without taking photos.

Edited February 16 by MinoltaMaster

[Pieter]

3 hours ago, MinoltaMaster said:

Canon and Nikon do not have these performance bottlenecks

What bottlenecks are you talking about? Nikons flagship Z9 has a 3.7M pixel EVF. Canon R3 has a 5.7M pixel EVF. The top Sony cameras have a comparable EVF while focussing and a much sharper EVF for all other purposes. In comparison, I only see an advantage for Sony, not a bottleneck...

3 hours ago, MinoltaMaster said:

I say this looking at the €2500+ g Master lenses with obnoxious focus breathing and chromatic aberration

How about give a solid example with Nikon and Canon equivalents? All lens designs are compromises and Sony mostly prioritizes size/weight over those optical defects which can be easily fixed digitally. If anything, Sony is on par with Nikon and Canon lens quality, making different but defendable design choices here and there.

3 hours ago, MinoltaMaster said:

oh the 400-800, i think it's going to be an atrocity. A 2x zoom that goes down to F/8 and is probably going to cost €2700 or more. For a 2x zoom they could at least make it f5.6-6.7

Increasing the aperture at 800mm from f/8 to f/6.7 would increase the entrance pupil size from 100mm to 120mm, which would drastically increase size and weight (and cost). The Canon version does extend the range to 200-800mm but is f/9 at 800mm. Like I said: different design choices and compromises.

[MinoltaMaster]

5 hours ago, Pieter said:

What bottlenecks are you talking about? Nikons flagship Z9 has a 3.7M pixel EVF. Canon R3 has a 5.7M pixel EVF. The top Sony cameras have a comparable EVF while focussing and a much sharper EVF for all other purposes. In comparison, I only see an advantage for Sony, not a bottleneck...

Would you have a 3.7m (hd) evf that stays 3.7m, or would you have a 3.7 evf that goes down to 1.4 (520p ±) the moment the camera feels a button being pressed on? Yep, that's the A7IV. And suddenly having your image moire out of the nowhere or lose resolution while you're trying to nail critical focus is annoying.

5 hours ago, Pieter said:

How about give a solid example with Nikon and Canon equivalents? All lens designs are compromises and Sony mostly prioritizes size/weight over those optical defects which can be easily fixed digitally. If anything, Sony is on par with Nikon and Canon lens quality, making different but defendable design choices here and there.

I digress. Canon and Nikon glass has always been above Sony, as long ago as back then with Minolta MC mount. And these optical issues are as simple to correct as placing the autofocus module either on the front element or as close to the back as possible like the GM 70-200II did. Take a look at the GM 70-200 I, the focus block is on the middle and it's the reason why it focus breathes so hard.

5 hours ago, Pieter said:

Increasing the aperture at 800mm from f/8 to f/6.7 would increase the entrance pupil size from 100mm to 120mm, which would drastically increase size and weight (and cost).

As if Sony lenses weren't already hard to get due to price😂 the aperture going from 100mm to 120mm is a welcome change if that implies receiving a whole more stop of light and over everything, access to PDAF to all Sony E mount cameras because let me remind you, f/8 at daylight is already -2EV at ISO100 and 1/200, all Sony E mount cameras have a PDAF rating of -1EV for APS-C and -2EV for full frame, so this will render PDAF and consequently 3d tracking nonexistent.

5 hours ago, Pieter said:

The Canon version does extend the range to 200-800mm but is f/9 at 800mm. Like I said: different design choices and compromises.

and the fact it extends prevents it from focal shrinking (reminder that the Sony G 200-600 shrinks down to as little as 300mm when focused at MFD). It's F/9 but it's a well rounded 4x zoom starting from a focal length that makes sense. Also Canon cameras have better Lowlight Pdaf rating (-3EV for PDAF and -6EV for CDAF)

What else would you do with the Sony instead? You'd just get the 100-400 GM and slap the two times teleconverter and get the same results for less money and less glass to carry around, since as you said, Sony's lens making goal is focused on portability.

Having a 300-800 (a stretch, though, instead of a 200-800) would also fit within the sony mentality of portability.

[Pieter]

Out of pure curiosity: if you're that much frustrated by Sony's approach to photography, why on earth are you still here? Stop complaining, sell your Sony stuff and buy whichever brand you like. We don't care, apparently noone here is bothered by these Sony 'bottlenecks' as much as you are. All brands have upsides and downsides. You either make do with the compromises that go with your brand or you move elsewhere, but this is not the right place to find backup for all your gripes. This isn't about fanboyism, it's just that most people here make do with the compromises that go with Sony as those impede their usecase less than the compromises that go with Canon or Nikon or whatever other brand.

[Cameratose]

20 minutes ago, Pieter said:

Out of pure curiosity: if you're that much frustrated by Sony's approach to photography, why on earth are you still here? Stop complaining, sell your Sony stuff and buy whichever brand you like. We don't care, apparently noone here is bothered by these Sony 'bottlenecks' as much as you are. All brands have upsides and downsides. You either make do with the compromises that go with your brand or you move elsewhere, but this is not the right place to find backup for all your gripes. This isn't about fanboyism, it's just that most people here make do with the compromises that go with Sony as those impede their usecase less than the compromises that go with Canon or Nikon or whatever other brand.

Exactly. 

[MinoltaMaster]

On 2/16/2025 at 9:01 PM, Cameratose said:

Exactly. 

I'm here to seek for help, not to be thrown advertisement paragraphs badly disguised as advise.

 

So I did the factory reset and the camera actually behaves worse than ever. Now the tracking simply stops the moment a subject moves even on the horizontal plane.

 

Why don't I sell my sony stuff? Do you think I will make money selling defective gear?

Edited February 18 by MinoltaMaster

[Pieter]

8 hours ago, MinoltaMaster said:

I'm here to seek for help, not to be thrown advertisement paragraphs badly disguised as advise.

Your thread started off with a sound request for advise but soon turned into a sour off-topic tirade against anything that has to do with Sony. I totally understand your frustration about a seemingly defective camera, but all the other dirt you throw is totally irrelevant to that point.

[MinoltaMaster]

On 2/18/2025 at 8:45 PM, Pieter said:

Your thread started off with a sound request for advise but soon turned into a sour off-topic tirade against anything that has to do with Sony. I totally understand your frustration about a seemingly defective camera, but all the other dirt you throw is totally irrelevant to that point.

Well we have to consider that Sony Alpha achieved to make their userbase nothing but a cult. We have to know that Sony Alpha was never popular until 2020 when Sony paid content creators to start making gear promotions. I don't mean artisans, they're good photographers. I mean people like That Icelandic Guy, North Borders etc. And regarding my camera, it seems like it's so slow it can't even detect movement. Human eye AF is also inconsistent, even at firmware 4.0, my only explanation is that it had a chip swap for a normal bionz chip elsewhere, I don't even see any gap in the camera parts though... you can't trust Andorra market anymore, I simply couldn't afford to pay €2700 body only and my A77II repair bill would cost €890.

[Pieter]

8 hours ago, MinoltaMaster said:

Sony Alpha achieved to make their userbase nothing but a cult.

Ok... Should I take this as an insult? I'm confused...

[Cameratose]

I've been on forums for a very long time. Guitars, guns, motorcycles, photography, even RVs. It takes quite a bit for someone to make it to my ignore list. If I think back, it's only happened maybe 3 or 4 times in over 25 years, and the majority of those people eventually came off the list. 

One sure fire way to irritate people is to attack those who are trying to help you. I stopped responding because quite frankly, your attitude sucks. So, while it takes quite a bit to make the list, pat yourself on the back, you have achieved it with flying colors. 

Buh-Bye. 

[MinoltaMaster]

23 hours ago, Cameratose said:

One sure fire way to irritate people is to attack those who are trying to help you.

Quote: "You must be. I have an A7 IV and an A1, and while the A7 IV isn't nearly as fast as the A1, it is actually more tenacious. I have never had a problem with any kind of action shooting at all"

Well duh, you are so unaware of yourself that you do not identify that the one that came in flaming hot and insulting is you. I'm not saying you called me names, I'm saying that you have the audacity to say "check internet, you're the only one to blame/the only one with the issue" in spite of a single internet search on a7iv af problems will flood your results with thousands o people having the same issues.

23 hours ago, Cameratose said:

I stopped responding because quite frankly, your attitude sucks.

So doth for thee who doesn't see thine attitude, huh? Rude, no self awareness and the nonchalance of the narcissist.

23 hours ago, Cameratose said:

So, while it takes quite a bit to make the list, pat yourself on the back, you have achieved it with flying colors. 

More verbose from our local master.

23 hours ago, Cameratose said:

Buh-Bye. 

Rude at the start, rude at the end. Don't feel surprised when you receive the same of what you give.

"I've been on forums for a very long time. Guitars, guns, motorcycles, photography, even RVs. It takes quite a bit for someone to make it to my ignore list. If I think back, it's only happened maybe 3 or 4 times in over 25 years, and the majority of those people eventually came off the list. "

May I add a couple of zeroes to these figures because you act like you're actively looking for people to ignore.

Ignore me as you want, the answers stay and so do your comments that vouch for that pitiful attitude of you.

[MinoltaMaster]

On 2/21/2025 at 6:20 PM, Pieter said:

Ok... Should I take this as an insult? I'm confused...

Depends on the attitude you have towards the brand.

I'm not saying you should be as bitter as I am, I'm saying I've legit met so many people that think Sony is the best camera company in the world with no flaws and that they're the best for video even four years after Nikon bought Red and made 16 bit 8k full frame raw video their motto of creativity.

[MinoltaMaster]

OK so after further investigation I've seen that when a lens is older firmware than the body it will certainly cap off the camera's processing speed hence why it will stop tracking the moment the subject starts moving. I've tried with a Sony 16-50 F2.8 which is considerably slower to autofocus and yet it tracks every single movement and has 90 percent hit rate on birds in flight even dead close to the camera.