biggles2002 wrote:
Anyone using the Sigma 500/5.6 with the A7R6 ?
The Sigma 500mm/5.6 works great on my A7R6, with the exception when coupled with the Viltrox 2x TC. The same combo on my A7R5 works well but the Sigma 500MM /5.6 with the Viltrox TC on the A7R6 is very erratic to find focus, at least with the settings I've tried so far.
Hello, I own the Sony a7R Vl along with the 300mm f/2.8 and both the 1.4x and 2x teleconverters.
I find the autofocus excellent when a bird is well-separated from the background; it is very precise and locks onto the eye really well.
However, I am disappointed with the initial acquisition against a busier background; I have to assist it using the manual focus ring.
I didn't have this issue with the a1 or the Z8; I think even the a6700 performed better in this regard.
Has anyone else encountered this problem?
Also, regarding the Viltrox 2x teleconverter: how does it perform with the 300mm f/2.8 for still photography compared to cropping the image from the 300mm without a teleconverter? And how is it for video tracking? My Sony 2x teleconverter suffers from a significant loss in image quality—though it works in a pinch—so I'm wondering if the Viltrox might be better.
Thanks, and apologies for the translation—I'm French.
I am seeing this problen withe the 300, 1.4 or 2x extender with the A7RVI and am also disappointed. I would suspect that there may need to be a firmware upgrade to improve the AF performance. It does mean missing many shots because the autofocus simoly isn’t focusing.
I was seeing some of the slow acquisition issues with my A7RVI and 100-400 5.6 GM yesterday when small birds were against busier backgrounds like a stand of pine trees or rocks along a shore. It was just hunting a lot and not able to acquire focus unless I manually helped it out. Weird, as the 70-200 GII lens was not having any issues against the exact same backgrounds.
Experimenting with mono conversion from this cam. Still learning but I am optimistic it's going to be good enough for me I can hold off getting a dedicated mono cam.
PS: last image I added a touch of grain and halation effect.
ILCE-7RM6Viltrox 26mm F2.8 FE lens26mmf/8.01/30s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM6Viltrox 26mm F2.8 FE lens26mmf/2.81/30s500 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM6Viltrox 26mm F2.8 FE lens26mmf/8.01/30s2000 ISO0.0 EV
Jack Flesher wrote:
Experimenting with mono conversion from this cam. Still learning but I am optimistic it's going to be good enough for me I can hold off getting a dedicated mono cam.
PS: last image I added a touch of grain and halation effect.
I think it does a fine job of anything you want to throw at it- Out in Pacific City Oregon this AM watching the grey fade away- Lee Polarizer attached-
My only 2 complaints would be-
1/8000 SS
No Raw in-body video- (this is gonna be the next cycle reason to buy or 32 bit float in body)
Besides those 2 things- Its about as good as a camera gets. Really looking hard to find fault here.
ILCE-7RM6FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II lens34mmf/8.01/160s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM6FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II lens16mmf/2.81/1600s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-7RM6FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II lens21mmf/8.01/125s100 ISO0.0 EV
Used my A7R6 for senior portraits and sportraits tonight with my 50 1.2 and 20-70. It was simply sublime. Autofocus was insane. Almost a 5 hour photoshoot and I still have 30% battery. The smaller file sizes are very much welcomed. Overall the experience and camera was nearly perfect....Only 2 complaints so far (3 if you count 1/8000 limit).
1) The damn rear screen still! Should have been a major upgrade. I still have to show people the EVF when outdoors.
2) Live view. I couldn't get live view to turn off when I had my flash trigger attached, so I had to guess half the time when setting up my flash shots. Will report this to SONY when I get time. It's hit or miss. It worked when I tested it last night before the photo shoot. Luckily I had a good feel for what the settings should be before I dialed them in. Not a disaster, but annoying for sure.
Thanks for the replies.
Let me clarify the tricky autofocus situations.
I feel the focus doesn't lock onto the nearest object when the subject isn't highlighted or doesn't take up much of the frame—especially in video.
This is particularly noticeable with birds in flight; yet, against a clear sky, the autofocus is instantaneous.
All cameras perform better against the sky, but I was surprised to find myself having to manually pre-focus on specific spots I know well, whereas other cameras would lock onto the first bird entering the frame.
I compared it with the Z50 II using my 300mm f/2.8 and an ETZ21+ adapter; in the same situation, the Z50 II picked up the bird before the A7R Vi did.
Of course, once the bird is locked on, the A7R V performs much better—though if the bird passes in front of a busy background (like a forest), the A7R Vi loses it again.
What if I disable bird detection via a custom button now and then It seems to work better for video tracking—especially with distant subjects—but is initial acquisition still an issue
I’ll try assigning a button for this, as Andyuk suggested. Thanks.
I should also mention that I ran tests with my daughter running all over the place and heading straight toward me, using the 18-105mm lens on both the A6700 and the A7R Vi. In that instance, the A7R Vi was actually superior and offered excellent tracking—though the subject was clearly visible, and perhaps the algorithm for humans is simply much better than the one for birds.
Tarekith wrote:
I was seeing some of the slow acquisition issues with my A7RVI and 100-400 5.6 GM yesterday when small birds were against busier backgrounds like a stand of pine trees or rocks along a shore. It was just hunting a lot and not able to acquire focus unless I manually helped it out. Weird, as the 70-200 GII lens was not having any issues against the exact same backgrounds.
Is it not finding the subject or is it focus hunting.
Have you set up a second back focus button with a Spot focus point for those situations.
I use two back focus buttons on all my cameras, one with Wide area - usually for birds in flight, and a second one with Spot: XS or similar for tricky situations.
Depending on the situation I will change these - for example if there are lots of birds in a group and I want to make sure focus on on one particular individual I would change Wide to Zone or change Spot: XS to Spot: XL.
Try this in your action custom settings group: Register spot AF and assign it to the AEL button. Now use wide or zone for normal AF. Set crossing to 1, locked on; set speed to responsive 4 or 5. Finally, in this same group, I assign my right lower multi button to AF recognition so I can quickly cycle from bird to animal etc.
Both of those options are more or less how I’m working. I normally use wide AF tracking, then have a button assigned to switch to Spot S and AF-S in case I want to quickly grab a single frame with a lower ISO and SS while I’m using my BIF preset. This also lets me quickly reset the focus point if the AF is not picking up the bird in the focus plane I want.
My issue is that sometimes the birds I’m trying to capture are against a blue sky with no other features for me to refocus on. Then the 100-400 on the A7RVI will struggle to acquire initial focus even though I know I’m pointed right at it and have it in frame for what should be long enough. I can see the blurry bird in the EVF but the lens won’t grab onto it. I’m now playing with DMF and learning to rock the focus ring manually to try and nudge it the right way, but there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve to getting accurate at this.
Fun challenge, but it was surprising to me that the 70-200GII was so much better in this regard. Just newer generation AF motors in that lens perhaps?
Had a bit better luck with the 100-400 today, though it did lose the osprey at the peak moment in its dive once it crossed in front of the foliage on the other shore (last shot). Still, really impressed with the A7RVI compared to the A7CR I was using before (which is also very good at this). The bird AF is definitely much stickier, almost feels like cheating being a noob to BIF and able to get some shots like this. fun!
Tarekith wrote:
Both of those options are more or less how I’m working. I normally use wide AF tracking, then have a button assigned to switch to Spot S and AF-S in case I want to quickly grab a single frame with a lower ISO and SS while I’m using my BIF preset. This also lets me quickly reset the focus point if the AF is not picking up the bird in the focus plane I want.
My issue is that sometimes the birds I’m trying to capture are against a blue sky with no other features for me to refocus on. Then the 100-400 on the A7RVI will struggle to acquire initial focus even though I know I’m pointed right at it and have it in frame for what should be long enough. I can see the blurry bird in the EVF but the lens won’t grab onto it. I’m now playing with DMF and learning to rock the focus ring manually to try and nudge it the right way, but there’s definitely a bit of a learning curve to getting accurate at this.
Fun challenge, but it was surprising to me that the 70-200GII was so much better in this regard. Just newer generation AF motors in that lens perhaps?...Show more →
That's a pretty standard problem for most cameras - if everything is oof they don't know which way to go. Longer focal lengths make this worse - which is probably why the 70-200 seems better. Zoom out to 200mm on the 100-400 and you will probably find it easier to acquire the subject.
I use the 100-400 for small fast birds and it has proven to be better at that than any other lens I have used.
The trick with acquiring birds in flight is to pre-focus somewhere in front of the bird and when it flies into the focal plane to then press the focus button. Too early or too late and chances are the camera will end up focussing on the background or in the case of a featureless sky it will hunt back and forth and get nowhere.
It is much easier to acquire focus at shorter focal lengths and zooming out for acquisition makes things easier.
The DOF of the 70-200 @200mm f/2.8 and 20 meters is about double that of the 100-400 @400mm f/5.6.
Tarekith wrote:
Had a bit better luck with the 100-400 today, though it did lose the osprey at the peak moment in its dive once it crossed in front of the foliage on the other shore (last shot). Still, really impressed with the A7RVI compared to the A7CR I was using before (which is also very good at this). The bird AF is definitely much stickier, almost feels like cheating being a noob to BIF and able to get some shots like this. fun!
Last shot is what I would call "not enough background separation" and the high contrast background means that even if the bird is in focus it's not going to make a great image against that background anyway. You could try modifying some of the subject detection/AF settings but I would think that scenario is a lost cause most of the time. That's where your expertise at finding better locations comes in to play.
Thanks, it’s good to know the issues I’m running into are just part of the game and the challenge.
I appreciate the tips too, this BIF is all new to me. Sounds like I’m mostly doing what you recommend, I just need to practice and get better at it. The 100-400 is definitely capable of getting some great little bird shots, I was just getting frustrated with the consistency of it. Good to know I’m on the right track at least, and that this lens will work well for what I want to do.
duncangr wrote:
That's a pretty standard problem for most cameras - if everything is oof they don't know which way to go. Longer focal lengths make this worse - which is probably why the 70-200 seems better. Zoom out to 200mm on the 100-400 and you will probably find it easier to acquire the subject.
I use the 100-400 for small fast birds and it has proven to be better at that than any other lens I have used.
The trick with acquiring birds in flight is to pre-focus somewhere in front of the bird and when it flies into the focal plane to then press the focus button. Too early or too late and chances are the camera will end up focussing on the background or in the case of a featureless sky it will hunt back and forth and get nowhere.
It is much easier to acquire focus at shorter focal lengths and zooming out for acquisition makes things easier.
The DOF of the 70-200 @200mm f/2.8 and 20 meters is about double that of the 100-400 @400mm@ f/5.6....Show more →
Thanks again for the tips. It’s funny, I actually was thinking about the background separation and real quick lowered my aperature from the F9 I had been using to F5.6 and it backfired on me. But yeah, even if it had been in focus too busy for sure. It was a random moment while walking my dog back from using the camera all morning in another location, wasn’t even thinking there might be osprey in that part of the river. Doh.
duncangr wrote:
Last shot is what I would call "not enough background separation" and the high contrast background means that even if the bird is in focus it's not going to make a great image against that background anyway. You could try modifying some of the subject detection/AF settings but I would think that scenario is a lost cause most of the time. That's where your expertise at finding better locations comes in to play.
Anyone know how a piece of dust could get under the sensor glass? I have a nice little round spec on(under) my sensor glass, noticed in my photos last night. Pretty baffled...and a bit anxious on what this might cost to clean or repair. I cleaned the sensor top several times to no avail. Kicking myself for buying used this time
