I won’t be buying any A1 mk2 if they don’t at least sort the bird eye AF out first . Seriously guys more I’m using this camera the more I’m getting annoyed with it . I don’t need new features I just want the damn thing to be as consistent as it was with fw1.20 .
I used to be able to leave eye priority in AF on all the time , now I’m having to faff about turning it on and off . If I leave it on now most of my BIF just are not tack sharp anymore so I just leave it off all the time using it like A9 . Before with fw1.20 it just worked , if it didn’t recognise eye it would grab the head and stay on . Now even if it’s showing locked on most shots just look off . I now also use balanced emphasis instead of release which has helped a little
multibit wrote:
I won’t be buying any A1 mk2 if they don’t at least sort the bird eye AF out first . Seriously guys more I’m using this camera the more I’m getting annoyed with it . I don’t need new features I just want the damn thing to be as consistent as it was with fw1.20 .
I used to be able to leave eye priority in AF on all the time , now I’m having to faff about turning it on and off . If I leave it on now most of my BIF just are not tack sharp anymore so I just leave it off all the time using it like A9 . Before with fw1.20 it just worked , if it didn’t recognise eye it would grab the head and stay on . Now even if it’s showing locked on most shots just look off . I now also use balanced emphasis instead of release which has helped a little ...Show more →
Export settings to SD, factory reset and reload settings, have you done that yet?
nobody23 wrote:
Export settings to SD, factory reset and reload settings, have you done that yet?
Yes, tried both initialise reload settings from SD and initialise do all settings from scratch . Its ok for perched , slow moving but inconsistent for BIF . I'm going to try again with the local urban Peregrines , if it performs like the last few time it may end up chucked in the nearby Reservoir.
Only other time I had issue with this camera was the blackout EVF with strong backlight when I first got it almost couple of years ago, when Sony sorted that its been great , after FW1.31 its just not performing as good as it used to
I'm also getting more annoyed by the day.
I don't know what is going on with this AF. With bare 400GM and 600GM it is still acceptable (although nothing like it was) but if I add TC or use 200-600 (with latest lens FW) it is just embarrassing.
I'm going to try out an A7RV to get a glimpse into the new processor that the A1II will certainly get. But I'm also going to try out a Z9 on latest FW as Nikon is tempting me back.
Seriously, if Sony does nothing to the A1 over the next year (I think A1II will be 2024 Olympic release so late 2023 or early 2024) and the Z9 has improved a lot since I owned it on 1.X FW, I'll be back to Nikon for the 600TC lens and the 400/4.5.
One would hope so considering the sheer number of complaints I’m seeing here and on many other forums (including Sony’s own). I just re-initialized my A1 and will be taking it out with the 200-600 later today to see if it works normally, although the weather’s so gray today that light levels won’t be doing me any focusing favors.
I do worry that, even if they’re on the problem big time, Sony might take a while to issue a fix. I suspect these algorithms are pretty complex to rework and test, but it would be nice to at least hear something from them along the lines of “we are aware and working on a fix”
I also wonder if it’s only birders who are suffering. Anyone else seeing animal or human eye AF misbehaving since v1.31?
I just chatted with Sony service about getting a factory reset. Told them the truth - I have to manually focus my 200-600 on my last trip to Yellowstone. What a pain. I only asked that Sony provide a means to do a factory reset.
j4nu wrote:
Huh, so 200-600 does not work reliably with A1 now
The performance has dropped a lot with firmware 1.31. My spouse's A1 was on firmware 1.10 and her performance was substantially better than mine. Same rigs, same conditions, same basic settings. We were photographing a coyote in the snow - her shots were consistently pinpoint sharp; mine on small and medium spot, including with animal AF, were generally not sharp. Not sure if I got one pinpoint sharp shot. Even my old A7rII would get pinpoint sharpness. This is unacceptable for a $6,500 camera.
I'm not sure what you lot are seeing here. Not saying that you're not but just that I don't appear to have any problems with the A1 + 200-600 on 1.31 and 2. I use eye AF all the time. Never switch it off. I'm just as happy with it as when I got it.
Are you sure it's not just shifting baseline syndrome. i.e. you've got used to how good it is and can now see the differences between shots?
somersettr wrote:
I'm not sure what you lot are seeing here. Not saying that you're not but just that I don't appear to have any problems with the A1 + 200-600 on 1.31 and 2. I use eye AF all the time. Never switch it off. I'm just as happy with it as when I got it.
Are you sure it's not just shifting baseline syndrome. i.e. you've got used to how good it is and can now see the differences between shots?
I Photograph urban peregrines in the UK usually in challenging light, with the A1 200-600 fw1.20 the hit rate was fantastic given the conditions , no issues at all and I could rely on it . I simply left bird eye priority in AF on and forgot about it. Now its missing more than getting , just everything looks slightly off with BIF (not just peregrines ). I took it out today , the first hour was same issue , I turned eye priority to off, moved from release again to balanced emphasis and used zone. It got me more shots but still not what I used to get
scrappydog wrote:
The performance has dropped a lot with firmware 1.31. My spouse's A1 was on firmware 1.10 and her performance was substantially better than mine. Same rigs, same conditions, same basic settings. We were photographing a coyote in the snow - her shots were consistently pinpoint sharp; mine on small and medium spot, including with animal AF, were generally not sharp. Not sure if I got one pinpoint sharp shot. Even my old A7rII would get pinpoint sharpness. This is unacceptable for a $6,500 camera.
Hmm. Is that repeatable? I've been in a similar scenario, where one system just produced rubbish and the other was fine. In my case one photographer was hiding behind a bush and the other was hiding behind a car. The car was still warm...
arbitrage wrote:
I'm also getting more annoyed by the day.
I don't know what is going on with this AF. With bare 400GM and 600GM it is still acceptable (although nothing like it was) but if I add TC or use 200-600 (with latest lens FW) it is just embarrassing.
I'm going to try out an A7RV to get a glimpse into the new processor that the A1II will certainly get. But I'm also going to try out a Z9 on latest FW as Nikon is tempting me back.
Seriously, if Sony does nothing to the A1 over the next year (I think A1II will be 2024 Olympic release so late 2023 or early 2024) and the Z9 has improved a lot since I owned it on 1.X FW, I'll be back to Nikon for the 600TC lens and the 400/4.5....Show more →
What annoys me Geoff is that there's some people on Facebook etc claim there's no issue at all . I look at their uploaded shots and most birds they've posted are perched , large things like Herons which almost any camera has no problems with. Faster birds the A1 using fw1.20 even with the 200-600 coped great , obviously not as sharp as the primes but the shots it got was mostly in focus . It was fast and sticky , main thing was it was consistent . Now it reminds me of the DSLR's , you'll get more off shots than in focus.
I'd saved up to get the 600mm f4 but honestly its now put me off , all I want is that consistency back. I'm not spending a huge chunk on the 600mm f4 and then another 6500 on another new camera . Only reason I've not gone Z9 is because of the crazy wait times for the lenses .
I don't often moan and never troll but must admit this is getting frustrating
smpetty wrote:
Has a thread been started about the poor function of the 200-600 on A1 firmware >= 1.31?
I would be interested to see examples from multiple users. I haven't had a problem, but I don't often use the 200-600.
I think this thread has turned into it
I re-initialized my A1 with the 1.31 firmware and just went out to my local park with the 200-600. It was a relatively birdless day, all told, but I was able to confirm that BEAF basically doesn't work for me any more. Four examples, all AF-C, non-tracking, 600mm, non-crop mode, and either spot (small or medium) or zone focus:
1. Screech owl dozing in a hole in a tree about 30ft up, so from my vantage point a ways back from the tree I was probably about 40-50 yards from the little fella and it was pretty small in the frame. BEAF activated but the little square was dancing all over the place and considering the owls eyes were 80% closed and it's body is heavily mottled I'm not sure what the BEAF was actually identifying. At that distance straight on and f/6.3, however, pretty much the entire little owl was in focus anyway so BEAF was not really needed.
2. Flying seagulls in bright sunlight at 20-30 yards. Nada from BEAF, although to be fair I wasn't expecting much.
3. Red-tailed Hawk on a branch in the sun at about 25 yards with catchlights glinting off its big yellow eagle eyes, slightly below my vantage point so I was looking down on it. Large enough in the frame that its head was bigger than the small-spot focus box. This should have been a walk in the park for BEAF and I know it was with prior firmware versions because we have a lot of hawks around here. This time? Nada. The hawk stayed perched for a long time so I was able to play around with different settings and focus modes, but hard as I tried I just could not get BEAF to activate at all. Weird.
4. Nuthatch doing its funny walk on on a tree trunk in the sun at about 5-6 yards. Nice and contrasty. Nothing again from BEAF. Also weird based on my past experience with the A1.
So basically I have concluded that with the 200-600 at least BEAF for me is simply not working at all. Most of the time it's not even activating. I'd call that pretty broken and very disappointing. I hope they can fix it before migration season starts otherwise it'll be like the olden days before eye AF existed at all
I am one that thinks everything is fine with the latest firmware on the A1 for me. I am not saying people aren't having issues. I just can't tell if the latest is any better or worse than prior versions. I have updated with each firmware version as they came out. My main targets are birds and wildlife.
I used the 200-600 a couple days ago and didn't notice any issues with hummingbirds and warblers. I mainly shoot the 600GM these days though. I've also shot coyotes, deer, and elk with the new firmware but nowhere near as often as birds.
I do wish they gave a way to downgrade firmware. There is always a risk they introduce a bug that affects someone's settings or worse makes it a brick.
Conclusions are great but how about everyone posting an Af issue here upload all their AF settings for comparison? That would be a good start
wordfool wrote:
I think this thread has turned into it
I re-initialized my A1 with the 1.31 firmware and just went out to my local park with the 200-600. It was a relatively birdless day, all told, but I was able to confirm that BEAF basically doesn't work for me any more. Four examples, all AF-C, non-tracking, 600mm, non-crop mode, and either spot (small or medium) or zone focus:
1. Screech owl dozing in a hole in a tree about 30ft up, so from my vantage point a ways back from the tree I was probably about 40-50 yards from the little fella and it was pretty small in the frame. BEAF activated but the little square was dancing all over the place and considering the owls eyes were 80% closed and it's body is heavily mottled I'm not sure what the BEAF was actually identifying. At that distance straight on and f/6.3, however, pretty much the entire little owl was in focus anyway so BEAF was not really needed.
2. Flying seagulls in bright sunlight at 20-30 yards. Nada from BEAF, although to be fair I wasn't expecting much.
3. Red-tailed Hawk on a branch in the sun at about 25 yards with catchlights glinting off its big yellow eagle eyes, slightly below my vantage point so I was looking down on it. Large enough in the frame that its head was bigger than the small-spot focus box. This should have been a walk in the park for BEAF and I know it was with prior firmware versions because we have a lot of hawks around here. This time? Nada. The hawk stayed perched for a long time so I was able to play around with different settings and focus modes, but hard as I tried I just could not get BEAF to activate at all. Weird.
4. Nuthatch doing its funny walk on on a tree trunk in the sun at about 5-6 yards. Nice and contrasty. Nothing again from BEAF. Also weird based on my past experience with the A1.
So basically I have concluded that with the 200-600 at least BEAF for me is simply not working at all. Most of the time it's not even activating. I'd call that pretty broken and very disappointing. I hope they can fix it before migration season starts otherwise it'll be like the olden days before eye AF existed at all ...Show more →
Maxxus46 wrote:
Conclusions are great but how about everyone posting an Af issue here upload all their AF settings for comparison? That would be a good start
I'm not sure that would be helpful since everyone probably uses slightly different settings in slightly different conditions, and you'd need a lot of data to draw any meaningful conclusions. Whether it's a factor with certain lenses might be worth knowing, however. I'm planning to try out my 100-400, for example, to see if it has the same poor results as the 200-600.
I think personal accounts from people who have known and used BEAF on the A1 are plenty useful enough to conclude whether there's a problem or not. Then it's Sony's job to acknowledge and fix it (or enable us to go back to v1.3 or below). I've been using BEAF since I bought the A1 almost two years ago and what I'm seeing now is far from what I've come to consider "normal" behavior -- it's much worse than it used to be for me. But clearly YMMV and since we're still in the depths of winter I've yet to try it on all the birds I normally do.
arbitrage wrote:
I'm also getting more annoyed by the day.
I don't know what is going on with this AF. With bare 400GM and 600GM it is still acceptable (although nothing like it was) but if I add TC or use 200-600 (with latest lens FW) it is just embarrassing.
I'm going to try out an A7RV to get a glimpse into the new processor that the A1II will certainly get. But I'm also going to try out a Z9 on latest FW as Nikon is tempting me back.
Seriously, if Sony does nothing to the A1 over the next year (I think A1II will be 2024 Olympic release so late 2023 or early 2024) and the Z9 has improved a lot since I owned it on 1.X FW, I'll be back to Nikon for the 600TC lens and the 400/4.5....Show more →
If Nikon makes a light weight version of the Z9, I am not going to say I won't be tempted to sell one of my A1s and the 600 G to get that Nikon body and their 600 TC. I know I will probably spend $5000+ extra for the Nikon Combo.
