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AF Sony A vs FE lenses options missing

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I have the Sony A 85 and 135 A mount lenses with the Sony 4 adapter and with the A lenses I am seeing a lot of options missing using the A glass over the FE 55mm lens. First I have no adjustment as to the size of the AF size of the box like small,medium and large like the FE glass. Also there are less movement in the box as to placement. On the FE lenses I can on a vertical move the box pretty far up. On the A glass I get barely 3/4 up. Plus several other options between them. Am I missing some kind of setting for the A glass as I see no reason why they should be diffrent at all.

Is this normal to you folks as these functions on the FE glass I want on my A lenses. Is there some firmware maybe I'm missing or what. What are your thoughts. I would like to figure this out, I feel like I'm missing some sort of menu item as I heard no one bring this up yet.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I have a all day shoot in the morning shooting clothing with full body shots and the 85 is perfect for this but love to get the AF box higher up on vertical shooting
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Thanks Mike I'll check it out. Funny no one has brought this up or better said made it a major issue. Screw the shutter vib stuff this is far more important to fix
 
Based on the stuff I just read, I don't think it's fixable; it's just a design limitation. Bummer, as I was just thinking of buying one of those adapters.
 

D&A

Well-known member
I have a all day shoot in the morning shooting clothing with full body shots and the 85 is perfect for this but love to get the AF box higher up on vertical shooting
I know exactly how you feel Guy! Not all that long ago on a shoot, two of my primary larger pro cameras were required elsewhere, so and I had to quickly spring a D600 into action and the lack of spread of AF points for fast paced vertical shooting became a hindrance with constant AF, recompose and shoot.

I'm weighing pro and cons of the Sony system for my requirements and I do hope there is some resolution to what you described.


Dave (D&A)
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Yea surprised Sony was not able to make a adapter with the new design elements needed for it. Now it's not bad but the FE glass gives you more movement and options for sure. It will work fine but until we get more FE glass we just have to wait.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
The good news I could even shoot the FE 55 if it comes down to a focusing issue. Full body should be fine getting down to 55mm.

Okay thanks folks I thought I was just missing some type of menu item.
 

Cindy Flood

Super Moderator
I found this same limitation, but I have come to a really nice solution. I put the camera in MF all of the time (not DMF). I moved the AF to the AF/MF button, and made it AF/MF Control Hold.
Now with a Sony A or FE lens, you can aim at your subject and AF with the AF/MF button. That focus will hold till you hit AF/MF again. You don't have to hold the shutter in a half press. Hit the C1 button to present the red box, and you can move the box anywhere (or have it where you want it) and magnify and fine tune the focus. The third press of C1 or half-press of shutter takes you back for a re-compose and there will be no change of the AF when you hit the shutter button.
With and FE lens, you use the AF/MF button to focus. A turn of the focus ring will magnify, or you can use C1 and move the box around and then magnify.
 
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Godfrey

Well-known member
Sounds like Sony's adapter-based focusing is more limiting than the Oly E-M1's PDAF on-sensor implementation. It's odd that so few people have spoken of it, I agree ...

The Oly DSLR community is up in arms that the E-M1 isn't exactly like an E-5 and better, they whine about it to the point where I don't bother reading much of their posts anymore on some other forums.

I'm kinda glad that I only use manual focus lenses on the A7. There's so much less complication and so many fewer expectations to deal with this way. ];-)

G
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
I found this same limitation, but I have come to a really nice work-around. I put the camera in MF all of the time (not DMF). I moved the AF to the AF/MF button, and made it AF/MF Control Hold.
Now with a Sony A or FE lens, you can aim at your subject and AF with the AF/MF button. That focus will hold till you hit AF/MF again. You don't have to hold the shutter in a half press. Hit the C1 button to present the red box, and you can move the box anywhere (or have it where you want it) and magnify and fine tune the focus. The third press of C1 or half-press of shutter takes you back for a re-compose and there will be no change of the AF when you hit the shutter button.
With and FE lens, you use the AF/MF button to focus. A turn of the focus ring will magnify, or you can use C1 and move the box around and then magnify.
I have that for normal operation. Here I won't be able to use that operation as easily so have to stay in AF. Too much movement so have to rely on AF
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Sounds like Sony's adapter-based focusing is more limiting than the Oly E-M1's PDAF on-sensor implementation. It's odd that so few people have spoken of it, I agree ...

The Oly DSLR community is up in arms that the E-M1 isn't exactly like an E-5 and better, they whine about it to the point where I don't bother reading much of their posts anymore on some other forums.

I'm kinda glad that I only use manual focus lenses on the A7. There's so much less complication and so many fewer expectations to deal with this way. ];-)

G
Agree surprised I have yet to read about it until now.
 

Cindy Flood

Super Moderator
It is just a matter of figuring out the settings. I can focus very quickly now and fine tune in a second. I got caught up in the DMF (which I thought was the correct setting). It took me quite a while to try all of the permutations before I finally got it to work with my MF lenses, A lenses and FE lenses.
 

Cindy Flood

Super Moderator
I have that for normal operation. Here I won't be able to use that operation as easily so have to stay in AF. Too much movement so have to rely on AF
But you still have full AF with every press of the AF/MF button. You can AF just as fast as before. My thumb is on AF/MF and my finger on C1 or shutter. Give it a try and you will be surprised.

It is actually easier for me than when I had to keep the shutter half-pressed. That was difficult because I have small hands.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Yea I'm setup just like you. I'll try it in the morning when I test out the set. I actually like that setup . I'm using the vertical grip as well so it should work
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Well turns out I could not go high enough on the vertical AF point with the AF and cloths that are gowns with no break for AF to read , I just went manual with my strobes bumped focus peaking up to medium shot about a thousand frames and missed the most 3 shots. Shot with the ZA 85 1.4. BTW all day 8 am till 4 pm with a break for batteries at lunch , I went though 3 batteries. That's dang good considering everything on.

I should also add here shooting wired tethered to remote control on Mac with a hot folder in C1 not ONE issue at all. That blew me away. About 3.5 seconds to preview in C1 and it took a buffer pretty good too. This impressed me

Don't tell anyone but best color tone I have seen since my Medium format backs. Here is the bottom line for me, sure I may have to fight some technical battles here with the A7r like this one in this thread but I will not give up the files I am getting. I may have just found my resting spot. I do need too see some more FE lenses but they need to equal the ZA 85 and 135. So I hope Sony gets serious here and starts giving us Pro level glass in the FE mount and if not I may get a Sony DSLR if they can match the tech like the A7 if I have too. But this is worth my efforts and manual focus is just too damn good.
 
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