"Advice for shooting portraits with A7rii" Update

[MLWolfe]

To those who had been following and offering advice re. The subject topic, which I originally posted last month, especially #EvilTed, #Golem, and #JonathanStewart, I wanted to thank you and give you an update.

 

I ended that post by saying I thought I had a defective 24-70GM. I'm sure most who read it thought, "Yeah, suuuure." I would have!

 

I followed all your excellent advice. Reconfigured to back button focus, eye detection, etc. I immediately loved it with my 55 1.8 and saw a real advantage in shooting that way. Hoping my issues were solved, I then put the 24-70 through the paces. Once again, I had photos using eye detection focus where the eyes looked like I had shot at a really high ISO, as well as another incident where the lens didn't even hunt (as in my wedding experience). Just nothing!. Thank goodness for that warranty! I sent it in and they had to order a new lens block assembly, which appears to be about a $900 part! Just got it back after three weeks. Going to thoroughly test it out tomorrow, but I'm so happy to know it wasn't just some failure on my part!

 

From the first, I couldn't figure out why everyone was so thrilled with that lens. I'm so psyched that I now have the opportunity to see for myself.

 

Thanks again for all your advice. It got me out of my Canon brain and has greatly expanded my comfort with this camera!