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Here are some my tip for AF lens with A7, hope it help with people.
Jochenb wrote:
A general question to all: how well does the focus peaking work? Is it reliable? Does it make the EVF lag? I ask because when I still used Zeiss lenses on Canon I often prefered using a precision focusing screen over zooming in in liveview for each shot.
With FE55, I almost never use manual focus, unless it is at MFD, at that case I found AF focus can focus at any plane inside AF box. In this case, I use magnification with Manual focus. So focus peaking is irrelevant for AF lens. For infinity or long distance focus, I found AF is even better than my MF  , the result matches my CAREFULLY manual focus with Magnification: extreme reliable. I found I can afford the big center box and recompose error if subject distance is more than say 3M even WO. This is the reason I feel f1.8 make sense for usability point of view, the same apply why I love RX1’s f2 aperture. It is very tolerant for slightly focus error still get the content.
Peaking itself doesn't make EVF lag, I can definitely feel the EVF itself lag, so I need change my shooting habit, lower my expectation and more prediction to accommodate lag, which seems OK! As mentioned before, we should be adaptive enough to work with tool
Peaking is not reliable, as the peaking DOF is too thick for high contrast case, but I found for fast glass, you can adaptive with it as well, (I mainly cover shooting at wide aperture, as I feel stop down I am hopeless other than AF or magnification) based on aperture and distance (meaning DOF) with certain lens, you know how much turning focus ring you need after you start seeing peaking happen. (I have been using this way with Nikon's focus green dot years) General speaking, I can get reliable shot most of time, but looking for peaking or alias(flickering) seems delay my thinking process that I miss moment or affect composition itseld. This is the portion I miss my D700 with S-type screen, as I can continuous focusing as well as take the shot, I might miss one or two but catch rest. It is a very natural response.
55FE's fault to me is Bokeh or out of focus rendering at certain distance, especially at night with highlight spot. (this could be from sensor as well) but on the other hand, it is very reliable and predictable, you have freedom to put you subject anywhere at any aperture under any light. It is very light, it focus extreme accurate. So I'd rate this lens very high as a good tool to let you focus on content.
wfrank wrote:
I see what you mean. I have problems with AF & MF in my case the FE55. Out of curiosity, how do you go about with AF? Do you find it optimal/fine working with infiinity, or manually fine tune before shutter. And what about short DOF images, any preferred method? I hear some use a center point and then recompose but I am no big fan of that and find fine tuning/moving the magnification cumbersome.
Very nice blues in the images BTW.
As mentioned above, I almost never do MF with this lens as I feel it is a pain. And this lens AF is extreme accurate for long distance. I did the infinity test and found out AF match or exceed my MF accuracy
For AF with moving subject, I use AFC, put focus box in center most of time. But I use a lot with LCD composing (to be explained later) and isolate shutter from focusing (very important):
1. For center subject or you can afford crop later, in AF-C just use AEL as focus hold and continues hold it, only click the shutter to get the moment. The one of reason you want isolate the shutter with focus is you don't want camera re-active focusing or tying to focusing every time you hit the shutter or I should say after you hit the shutter, especially with subject moving, the camera can get very confused trying to find focusing with moving subject and will be slow down/ hunting a lot, use focus hold to secure subject first and keep your frame and focus with subject inside the box and let camera continues focusing with distance change. This method also applies with subject in 1/3 of frame if you preset focus box at 1/3 of frame.
2. For subject close by, I use LCD focusing a lot more than EVF, as I just hit AE, focus once, recompose, and slightly forward arm or backward arm to compensate focus recompose error depend on your recompose angle AT THE SAME TIME keep the frame as I wanted. I can use this with EVF also, but not as free as this way. Now, you can see that by isolate shutter from focusing, you don't need hold shutter or worry accidentally not holding shutter during process, which will simplify the process make you focus on composition at the same time speed you up.
3. Some time, for subject moving with LCD focusing, I can hit AE hold focus once and let arm or your body moving do the tracking with the same speed as subject and hit shutter. this works very good as well, I might not get 100% focus shot, but with this kind of first order compensation, I get the moment for sure.
This mainly cover subject move toward/away you, sideway is easier.
So much write. Hope this is helpful for people with A7 and AF lens for moving subject. I have used these methods for my two kids and they work very well, I have tons of sample to prove these but I don't want bored people.
Many of these tricks are actually from Manual focus experience.
Long post! Sorry.
Edit: typo and clarify unclear part.
Edited on Feb 18, 2014 at 05:02 PM · View previous versions
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