I purchased the 24mm f 1.4 from my LCS on Friday. Just a limited amount of time with it so far on my Sony A7R iii. When testing wide open, autofocus is fast and silent. Today, did some limited testing with the lens stopped down, f 5.6-16. In continuous AF, the green focus lock ball is solid. However, there is noticeable vibration when holding focus with the shutter button, and there is a bounce in the viewfinder. This is happening with plenty of light when stopped down beyond f 1.4. Focus point is set at medium spot in center of EVF. Not happening with my other lenses so does not appear to be a problem with the body. Also have upgraded last week to the latest camera firmware. Has anyone else noticed this behavior? Is the lens defective?
I have a 7 day return window from my LCS so easy to deal with. I have another lens from B&H arriving today (too late to stop the order after I purchased the first one) which I was going to return unopened, but now will be able to see if this second lens does not have the problem.
AF system needs good light. In low light AF-C it will just try to quickly focus within some range periodically to catch moving subject using contrast when PDAF is ineffective. It still can work quite well with AF priority.
Try if it also happens in bright light conditions like outdoors during day.
Pulsing/vibration happens with IBIS on or off. This setting does not change the behavior.
Yes, I am aware of the focus pulsing in dark conditions or when focus point is outside of PDAF area. This pulsing with the 24mm is happening in outside daylight with focus point in center, so no issue with low light. It happens 100% of the time when stopped down in AFC. Does not happen in AFS. Also vibration in the lens when the pulsing is occurring. When in the same conditions I switch to 55mm 1.8; 85mm 1.8 or 24-105mm, there is no pulsing or vibration.
I looked at the link. One thing I will try now is switching to AF priority in autofocus. I have it now set at balanced priority. I will provide feedback from this test and also with the new lens when it is received.
Changing AF priority did not change the autofocus issue. Also tried many other settings with no effect. Will report on second copy of lens when I receive and test it within next day or so.
rgreen7777 wrote:
Pulsing/vibration happens with IBIS on or off. This setting does not change the behavior.
Yes, I am aware of the focus pulsing in dark conditions or when focus point is outside of PDAF area. This pulsing with the 24mm is happening in outside daylight with focus point in center, so no issue with low light. It happens 100% of the time when stopped down in AFC. Does not happen in AFS. Also vibration in the lens when the pulsing is occurring. When in the same conditions I switch to 55mm 1.8; 85mm 1.8 or 24-105mm, there is no pulsing or vibration.
I looked at the link. One thing I will try now is switching to AF priority in autofocus. I have it now set at balanced priority. I will provide feedback from this test and also with the new lens when it is received....Show more →
Stopped down how far? AFC focusses fully stopped down, unlike AF-S which compromises.
If you are stopped right down, it tends not to work on most lenses...
(Many folk tend to focus manually in stopped down conditions like landscape by choice, so don't notice).
Really any aperture other than 1.4 exhibits the behavior. Certainly f/4 or smaller. This is in daylight so not a low light issue. Yes I am aware of AFC focusing stopped down but this behavior in this copy of the 24mm is something I have never seen before with any of my other lenses.
rgreen7777 wrote:
Really any aperture other than 1.4 exhibits the behavior. Certainly f/4 or smaller. This is in daylight so not a low light issue. Yes I am aware of AFC focusing stopped down but this behavior in this copy of the 24mm is something I have never seen before with any of my other lenses.
Me neither, certainly not on my GM 24. I vote to return .
To close this out, the second copy of the 24 mm f/1.4 is great and does not exhibit the vibration and bouncing autofocus behavior. Returned the first copy and am a happy camper.
Looks like I have exactly the same problem with the lens I got yesterday. None of my 3 other Sony FE lenses have this problem. I'm sending mine back for an exchange. Hopefully this is not a widespread issue.
rgreen7777 wrote:
To close this out, the second copy of the 24 mm f/1.4 is great and does not exhibit the vibration and bouncing autofocus behavior. Returned the first copy and am a happy camper.
Bought mine from my local camera store. I don’t think they were going to resell it as I turned it in as defective. Looks like Brutus is in a different country.
Any updates on that? Just got the lens couples of days ago and just noticed this behaviour as well. Also tried on 16-35 2.8 and 55 1.8. Oddly, at smaller apertures, the autofocus pulsates on all these lenses with a7RIII.
There is a solution mentioned from another forum, which suggests the behaviour is due to the speed of the lens focus system. Go to menu page 8 I think, select aperture drive in AF/ switch to silent priority. A warning will show that focus speed can be slower than the standard speed.
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