Re: Official: Sony RX1R III Digital Camera announced!
No hunting or stuttering. It does however keep the aperture at F2 during the entire tracking process, and not only to initially acquire AF.
In AF-S it doesn't open up to F2, it keeps the aperture as you set it, up to F5.6. So if you shoot in AF-S at F8, it will open up to F5.6, acquire focus and stop down to F8.
Tariq Gibran wrote:
It's normal with the RX1's.
Here is the explanation from the previous Rx1r RII 2016 DpReview, though I suspect the newer camera does not suffer from the "hunt and stutter problem" but is only slower with the slight delay when shooting at an F-stop other than F2 as you have found.
"Unlike many recent Sony cameras, the RX1R II opens up its aperture to its widest setting to initially acquire AF, allowing it to collect lots of light and take advantage of shallower depth-of-field to determine focus quickly. We did however notice that in AF-C, regardless of your AF area or mode, the camera will then stop the aperture back down again for the actual depth tracking of the subject. For obvious reasons, this isn't great. If you're shooting at, say, F8 for greater depth of field and counting on that to net you more in-focus 'hits,' the smaller aperture and resulting light starvation can cause the camera to hunt and stutter during continuous focus, and results in more 'misses." This contrasts with most other AF tracking systems, which leave the aperture blades completely open, only closing them down for actual image capture. So, counterintuitively, it's best to shoot moving subjects on the RX1R II with a little wider aperture than you might be used to.
Jul 26, 2025 at 07:52 AM
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