Just bought the lens. Noticed on my A7RIII shooting at F5.6- F16 in daylight and using AF-C the focus pulses quite a bit. Is this a normal behavior for this lens? Shot some at F1.4- F4 and did not have the issue. Any thoughts?
Alex W wrote:
Just bought the lens. Noticed on my A7RIII shooting at F5.6- F16 in daylight and using AF-C the focus pulses quite a bit. Is this a normal behavior for this lens? Shot some at F1.4- F4 and did not have the issue. Any thoughts?
I usually shoot it at either f/1.4, or f/8-f16 for landscapes, haven't noticed that on my copy.
Mine does the same in AF-C, though I notice it mostly around f8 in good light (maybe it happens earlier when the light is worse). I switch to AF-S then.
StephenLowell wrote:
Mine pulses on af-c. Went thru 2 copies.
Interesting. Did you end up just keeping the last one regardless? In AF-S no issues on mine but AF-C yes. The dealer offered to order me a new one . However as long as it might take to get one and knowing a new one may be the same I do not know. Maybe I should just return it. The images seem good though. The comment above yours says no issues. So not all copies have the issue I guess.
My copy only pulses in AF-C when my focus point is in an area of shadow that is too underexposed for the camera to find contrast. For example: after selecting a touch focus point for one shot, then quickly reframing to a new shot without resetting the focus point/area. I also had it happen with a static shot dominated by a large area in shadow. In both cases, I was shooting outdoors at 1.4 in bright daylight in highlight priority mode.
When the focus area settings are correct, and the subject isn't in deep shadow, AF-C is working great - it finds subjects in motion and stays with them. Don't know if it makes any difference, but I'm shooting with A9.
Is your copy pulsing with moving subjects who are well exposed? That would be a problem for me.
maxmoss wrote:
My copy only pulses in AF-C when my focus point is in an area of shadow that is too underexposed for the camera to find contrast. For example: after selecting a touch focus point for one shot, then quickly reframing to a new shot without resetting the focus point/area. I also had it happen with a static shot dominated by a large area in shadow. In both cases, I was shooting outdoors at 1.4 in bright daylight in highlight priority mode.
When the focus area settings are correct, and the subject isn't in deep shadow, AF-C is working great - it finds subjects in motion and stays with them. Don't know if it makes any difference, but I'm shooting with A9.
Is your copy pulsing with moving subjects who are well exposed? That would be a problem for me....Show more →
No not so much. Just took some photos of my dog running slowly and it kept up fine with no pulsing. I was shooting at F2 through 4 in both the sunlight and in shade. However when I try to focus on a static object at a little distance in sunlight or shade, even on my house at F4- F16 it pulses. Af-S no issue. Will try my A9 tomorrow. I will say one thing though, pulsing or not the lens produces beautiful images and I love the rendering. If it is just normal behavior I may just keep it. But if not I am not sure.
Agreed on the images and rendering. I should add I don't have a lot of experience with the lens as I just got a copy this week, so I'll try to test mine a bit when next I shoot to see a bit more clearly when the AF-C pulsing occurs. If I notice anything more/different, I'll post again about it.
I experience AF pulsing like you describe with my Tamron 17-28 in AF-C on my A7rII. Only happens when stopped down a bit like you said. Switching to AF-S causes the lens to only acquire focus once and then stay locked.
What are you trying to focus on? I reached out to Sony when I saw my copy doing this and she told me it would always happen if using AF-C on a stationary subject, especially closer stationary subjects.
Alex W wrote:
Just bought the lens. Noticed on my A7RIII shooting at F5.6- F16 in daylight and using AF-C the focus pulses quite a bit. Is this a normal behavior for this lens? Shot some at F1.4- F4 and did not have the issue. Any thoughts?
Alex W wrote:
Interesting. Did you end up just keeping the last one regardless? In AF-S no issues on mine but AF-C yes. The dealer offered to order me a new one . However as long as it might take to get one and knowing a new one may be the same I do not know. Maybe I should just return it. The images seem good though. The comment above yours says no issues. So not all copies have the issue I guess.
Hi Alex,
The second copy was swapped for the original within days. And this was months ago (I have a very very good relationship with my brick and mortar dealer here in Toronto, so I was lucky not having to wait while they still had remaining stock on the shelf).
I decided to keep it as after two copies and no factory recall I'm guessing it is a design "feature". Not. Yes, in AF-C (it's fine in AF-S). There is more "pulsing" or less depending on subject matter, size of AF target and size of area you want to have in focus.
If you go with a new copy, please let me know if the behaviour is different!
-Stephen
The second copy was swapped for the original within days. And this was months ago (I have a very very good relationship with my brick and mortar dealer here in Toronto, so I was lucky not having to wait while they still had remaining stock on the shelf).
I decided to keep it as after two copies and no factory recall I'm guessing it is a design "feature". Not. Yes, in AF-C (it's fine in AF-S). There is more "pulsing" or less depending on subject matter, size of AF target and size of area you want to have in focus.
If you go with a new copy, please let me know if the behaviour is different!
-Stephen...Show more →
I certainly will. Going to do some further testing tomorrow including some landscape shots. The dealer is closed until Tuesday anyway but I have already informed him of what is going on. Hopefully we can get it sorted out because I really like the images the lens produces. If he can get one quickly I may swap but from what others are reporting it sounds as if it may be more common than not.
Alex W wrote:
Just bought the lens. Noticed on my A7RIII shooting at F5.6- F16 in daylight and using AF-C the focus pulses quite a bit. Is this a normal behavior for this lens? Shot some at F1.4- F4 and did not have the issue. Any thoughts?
In AFC only, after f8, which is totally normal as PDAF is then replaced by CDAF. If you focus outside the PDAF area, you get pumping, too, due to the same reason.
If light levels are too low, then pumping can happen, too. But around f5.6 I never experience pumping in AFC.
Been having these issues with my a7ii but NOT with my a6400. So I tried again in very blustery conditions in my garden with the a7ii.
No issues at all using AF-S from 1.4 to F16.
Whilst using AF-C I started experiencing pulsing at about f9, I've previously experienced pulsing wider open! I think that light is very important whilst running these tests, I'm glad I did this today cause now I know there's nothing faulty with my gear =)
