focus questions - need advice

[mlevin77]

Alpha 6000. I have a problem with focus. Sometimes (especially with a telephoto lens trying to photo clouds, or with a macro lens trying to catch bugs on plants) the autofocus doesn't lock - it just keeps going back and forth. Half-way through this, it passes through the point where the focus is perfect and I just wish I could hit the shutter and have it take the photo, but it won't do it. I'm normally on DMF; is there a way to force it to take a picture when I click the shutter, regardless of where it thinks the focus is?

 

Now, I realize I can do manual focus, but what really annoys me about manual focus is that the minute I touch it, it goes into some sort of magnified mode on the LCD which is very distracting for the telephoto shots, because manually rotating the focus ring means the object in view is moved (I'm not using a tripod). Is there a way to shut that off?

 

Finally: I like the SCENE mode of "sunset", but when I use it, all kinds of settings (like continuous shooting, different focus areas, etc.) are disabled. Is there a way to get the same sunset mode but allow continuous shooting and other settings?

[Guest all8]

Possibly Not.

 

Yes, check the manual.

 

Yes, engage the "scene" and then look at the various settings, then, apply them yourself.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

The boring and potentially unhelpful-seeming reply to all your questions is that you are trying to work against your camera rather than with it. Aspire to learn the camera to understand why it does certain things, then work within its parameters. The good thing about A6000 is that it is a very popular camera and therefore has a lot of printed books and online tutorials available.

[tinplater]

It appears to me that all you are describing is focus "hunting" where the camera is unable to achieve focus due to low light, low contrast, etc.  Some lenses work better than others in this regard.  For shooting clouds, use manual focus at infinity and see how that works for you.

Unfortunately you cannot set "shutter priority" as opposed to "focus priority" as you can on other Sony models so the camera will not fire in auto focus if the camera has not yet achieved focus.  But the a6000 is a wonderful camera, but it does have a rather steep learning curve.  I recommend youtube tutorials such as Gary Fong.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

It appears to me that all you are describing is focus "hunting" where the camera is unable to achieve focus due to low light, low contrast, etc.  Some lenses work better than others in this regard.  For shooting clouds, use manual focus at infinity and see how that works for you.

Unfortunately you cannot set "shutter priority" as opposed to "focus priority" as you can on other Sony models so the camera will not fire in auto focus if the camera has not yet achieved focus.  But the a6000 is a wonderful camera, but it does have a rather steep learning curve.  I recommend youtube tutorials such as Gary Fong.

Even with shutter release priority, it would be impractical to try to override the lens while it's hunting. It would only be a question of how much out of focus the shots were. To me, the important thing to understand is why the lens hunts and how to avoid it.

[Username]

Learn back button AF. 

   

But also learn MF which will handle everything.

[Guest Jaf-Photo]

Learn back button AF. 

   

But also learn MF which will handle everything.

Who, me?

[Username]

Who, me?

 

Woulda quoted you if for you ...     

 

It's for OP plus anyone else reading here

who might be reading the thread to solve 

a similar/same issue for themself. Is that

you ? Does it really matter ? Thinking not. 

Free advice is a take-it-or-leave-it deal.