Sony's foot is way to small. It forms a very poor grip and is too short as some others pointed out. I put a Kirk 5.25" multiuse lens plate on my 400-800 and it is much better for balancing. The Leofoto one is slightly longer so should be good for aiding hand holding of the lens. I do like the padded grip they have on this for carrying. It will be interesting to see how soon they get this out and who else makes similar products.
Mule deer from this afternoon. Very little to no crops, enjoying the extra reach. It's been a fun week with the lens. I still need to adjust to the zoom as I'm shooting too tight at times and the compositions are wonky. More practice
jav_eee wrote:
Anyone noticing a short quick jitter when trying to autofocus? Like, for a split second my lens will jitter then it’ll start focusing again.
I have not. Does it happen if you limit the focal range with the switch or is this all the time?
I need to do some comparisons with the 200-600 in a somewhat controlled test... I thin when I have the 400-800 on the camera struggles with auto ISO, I get wild swings in the view finder with the ISO spiking or dropping vs going up incrementally. Again, I could be looking for issues that don't exist but I don't recall the 200-600 jumping up as often to compensate for the exposure. Anyone else notice this or should I get my head examined?
I haven’t tried limiting focus range and it doesn’t happen all the time. I took some photos at a kids baseball game this weekend and it didn’t do it at all. Come to think about it it’s only done it in what I would consider to be difficult conditions for the lens. Now that I think about it….
hatch1921 wrote:
I have not. Does it happen if you limit the focal range with the switch or is this all the time?
jav_eee wrote:
I haven’t tried limiting focus range and it doesn’t happen all the time. I took some photos at a kids baseball game this weekend and it didn’t do it at all. Come to think about it it’s only done it in what I would consider to be difficult conditions for the lens. Now that I think about it….
Could be the lens opening up to allow better initial focus acquisition. Would happen only when it is somewhat dark. What is your "Aperture drive in AF" set to?
Well I’m shooting wide open so how much more could it go? I do have it set to focus priority but I don’t think it’s that. It’s almost as if it was trying to decide whether to rack in or out for focus. The image was shifting rapidly.
Daran wrote:
Could be the lens opening up to allow better initial focus acquisition. Would happen only when it is somewhat dark. What is your "Aperture drive in AF" set to?
jav_eee wrote:
Well I’m shooting wide open so how much more could it go?
Not far:-D
I do have it set to focus priority but I don’t think it’s that.
Why, if I may ask? There is no benefit for daytime AF-C.
It’s almost as if it was trying to decide whether to rack in or out for focus. The image was shifting rapidly.
Could also be due to heat haze. With enough of that in play there is no sharp image and hence no perfect focus and hence no clear direction to move to. Low light plus heat haze is worse still, as then there is more noise in the PDAF data.
Daran wrote:
Why, if I may ask? There is no benefit for daytime AF-C.
Could also be due to heat haze. With enough of that in play there is no sharp image and hence no perfect focus and hence no clear direction to move to. Low light plus heat haze is worse still, as then there is more noise in the PDAF data.
Well I have it set to focus priority because that is what I consider to be most important to me. Focus. My question, now, is why WOULDN’T or SHOULDN’T I have it set to that? I don’t do video so I’m not concerned about noise during focusing. Is there any benefit to have it set to something else other than focus priority?
And no it wasn’t heat waves/haze. I could see and hear the focus motors cycling very quickly. Again, like it couldn’t make up its mind whether to rack in or out for focus. It only happened with that bird that blended in with the background that I posted earlier.
I have, however, noticed several times where the camera said my subject was in focus (green box) and it wasn’t. I’d have to move off of it, focus, then go back to the subject and focus again to get it to actually be in focus. Not sure if that’s a A7RV issue or a 400-800 issue. I haven’t used any other lens since I got the 400-800 lol
jav_eee wrote:
Well I have it set to focus priority because that is what I consider to be most important to me. Focus. My question, now, is why WOULDN’T or SHOULDN’T I have it set to that?
This is a common theme with settings that have such a poor naming. I have done the same a while back using "lock on" focus priority, which lost me shots. What the setting is about is whether or not to change the aperture during initial AF acquisition. That is it. Pretty much impossible to guess from the name of the setting. BTW, the 400-800G copy I tested at 800mm was sharper at f9 than at f8.
I don’t do video so I’m not concerned about noise during focusing. Is there any benefit to have it set to something else other than focus priority?
Yes, at least when you are not already wide open, you can disable the aperture shenanegans during focus aquisition.
And no it wasn’t heat waves/haze. I could see and hear the focus motors cycling very quickly. Again, like it couldn’t make up its mind whether to rack in or out for focus. It only happened with that bird that blended in with the background that I posted earlier.
I'm not doubting you. Could be that AF doesn't see enough contrast against the background to do it's thing accurately and the green box merely says it is as good as the camera thinks it can make it. I have observed AF pumping in poor visibility though. And it is also a common thing, particularly for photographers that are new to ultra long lenses, to not notice poor visibility. It is usually not visible to the naked eye. You can see it in the field e.g. by using focus magnifier and observing whether there is any visible movement for stuff at a distance that does not actually move (may need to properly arrest the camera to be stable). In your shots it is visible e.g. in the sun reflection in bird eyes turning into all sorts of blotches instead of a fairly well defined circular point. Usually the only way to avoid this is to shoot when the sun is very low.
I have, however, noticed several times where the camera said my subject was in focus (green box) and it wasn’t. I’d have to move off of it, focus, then go back to the subject and focus again to get it to actually be in focus. Not sure if that’s a A7RV issue or a 400-800 issue. I haven’t used any other lens since I got the 400-800 lol
There are many things that can cause this. You'll have to narrow this down. Does it happen for stationary subjects in good light?
