HedgehogFarm wrote:
Thanks to you both. I honestly thought the A7Rv would be plenty for this purpose, and it is except for the faster action. Given how completely it seems to fail at this, I wasn't sure if A7Rvi would be enough or if I should just go straight for the A1ii. Sounds like the Rvi would be much better if not the best.
And I completely agree, I am making this harder than it needs to be because I'm trying to use available indoor light, which means wide open a lot of the time to stay in acceptable ISO and SS territory. Where the Rv is failing is in hitting eye AF on erratically moving kids at f/1.4 to f/2.8 in that challenging lighting. Sometimes I use a small strobe on camera or off, which helps manage exposure but doesn't help with AF. Outdoors and stopped down, the hit rate is higher, though still more like 60% than 90%, varying with different lenses.
I did shoot MF film Nikons a long time ago when I was first learning — never tried much action but did practice some zone focusing. Maybe I will give that a try, at least when light permits, before I upgrade! ETA: Or zone focusing with strobe. That's probably the non-$7000 solution...
Remember, some lenses focus faster than others in low light.
Jul 05, 2026 at 08:06 PM
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