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Focus Settings for Studio: FE70-200 / a7r

cgthanos

New member
As I transition toward using the sony exclusively for my 35mm needs, I'm finding the IQ even with lenses like the 70-200 truly satisfying. In the studio, the colors, sharpness, and resolution are extremely well balanced and remind me of the h3dii-31 that I used to own -- perhaps better.

While I still use my RZ/mfdb for the majority of my headshots/portraits, I've been experimenting with the sony in that role and have been having real issues with focusing on different parts of a face, fabrics, or small details that are no problem with a setup like the 5d3 or even hassy. I've tried different sized AF boxes and found that larger boxes are a lot better, but still there is a significant amount of hunting at close range especially with the 70-200 f/4 beyond about 100 mm, forcing me to focus on something else in the same plane (such as the border between a hat and forehead). The focusing process alone can take a good 3-5 seconds.

I should also mention that I'm using modeling lamps on profoto d1's set relatively high and only coming from the front of the model -- any forward-facing modeling lamps are turned off.

Has anybody developed a useful method to overcome this delay and hunting aside from using manual focusing? Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
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cgthanos

New member
Haven't tried that yet -- it sounded gimmicky to me but I'll give anything a shot at this point. Thanks for the suggestion
 

Smoothjazz

Active member
My limited experience thus far has me setting the following parameters for the 70-200/f4 for better autofocus of people in unposed situations, including my kids:
Focus Area- Wide
Lock on AF- On
Smile/Face Detection- On
Drive Mode- Continuous Shooting
Focus Mode- DMF

And of course Optical Steady Shot set to On
on the lens barrel, if you are shooting hand-held.

I found that the autofocus hunts a lot more if I set the Focus Mode to Continuous AF.
 
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