bensonga
Well-known member
Hi folks,
I have a friend with an A7 and now an A7r II. He enjoys using some Leica M mount type lenses on the cameras and takes a lot of photos of people, including his young children. We were talking about techniques for manual focus on the A7 series and he told me that on the A7r II, he no longer uses focus assist (neither focus peaking or focus magnification) when taking photos of people, because unassisted manual focusing with the A7r II is so much better than on the original A7. I asked him to describe it and he said on the A7r II, as he turned the focus ring on the lens, there was a "sparkle" to the image that clearly indicated when it was in (or out) of focus and that as a result, his "hit rate" was much higher on the A7r II than on the A7, even without the use of focus assist.
I had never heard of this before, so tried to find some info in various reviews or on forum threads here, but haven't had any luck. I haven't had a chance to actually look thru an A7r II for myself to see what my friend is trying to describe.
Are any of you familiar with this "sparkle" (his description) or some other indication in the EVF that really helps you get accurate manual focus, without the use of focus assist (whether peaking or magnification)?
I'm still on the fence re whether to get an A7r II or not someday. Living with my A7 for now.
Thanks!
Gary Benson
Eagle River, Alaska
I have a friend with an A7 and now an A7r II. He enjoys using some Leica M mount type lenses on the cameras and takes a lot of photos of people, including his young children. We were talking about techniques for manual focus on the A7 series and he told me that on the A7r II, he no longer uses focus assist (neither focus peaking or focus magnification) when taking photos of people, because unassisted manual focusing with the A7r II is so much better than on the original A7. I asked him to describe it and he said on the A7r II, as he turned the focus ring on the lens, there was a "sparkle" to the image that clearly indicated when it was in (or out) of focus and that as a result, his "hit rate" was much higher on the A7r II than on the A7, even without the use of focus assist.
I had never heard of this before, so tried to find some info in various reviews or on forum threads here, but haven't had any luck. I haven't had a chance to actually look thru an A7r II for myself to see what my friend is trying to describe.
Are any of you familiar with this "sparkle" (his description) or some other indication in the EVF that really helps you get accurate manual focus, without the use of focus assist (whether peaking or magnification)?
I'm still on the fence re whether to get an A7r II or not someday. Living with my A7 for now.
Thanks!
Gary Benson
Eagle River, Alaska