Focus difference between A7r and A7r ii (magnified view)

[jpaulmoore]

Hello all,
Just this past weekend I was doing a shoot that needed both my previous A7r and my A7r ii. This is actually the first time I have used my A7r since purchasing the A7r ii. What I noticed immediately, is how much easier and more precise the magnified view focusing is on the original A7r! There are times (on low contrast subjects) when it's difficult to focus precisely with the A7r ii. I have the A7r ii set on (I think) the highest quality setting but it's not even close to the A7r. Am I the only one that finds this a real concern/issue?
Thanks,
J. Paul

 

[Bob Parsons]

No you're not! I find this a source of frustration. There seems to be a "dead focus" zone where rotating the lens focus ring has no visible effect on the sharpness of the image in the viewfinder. That is except in the case where the subject has very fine detail that gives rise to moire or sparklies which appear and disappear with minute changes in the lens focusing while the rest of the image detail appears unchanged. I'm always hoping for a firmware fix but I suspect it's a fundamental issue. This was one of the differences I first noticed between the A7R and A7RII with the viewfinder quality set to high and with maximum magnification. It's almost as if the display information has been passed through a low pass filter with a steep cut off.

ETA: The only partial solution I've found is to rotate either side of focus such that you can see the change in the viewfinder and then rotate back to guess the central in between position. That's not helped by focus by wire which is rate sensitive, you have to turn the focus ring at the same constant rate in both directions while doing this.

Bob.

 

[jpaulmoore]

Bob,
Thanks for your comments and observations. This is not talked about much, but this is a big deal. You would think that the superb and precise magnified view focusing would carry over to the A7r ii. It would be really nice to have this fixed in a firmware update, but you mentioned that this is unlikely to happen.
Regards,
J. Paul Moore

 

[dandrewk]

I think what you are describing is similar to a lot of focus-by-wire. It may have always been there, but it's a bit more noticeable with a higher density sensor.

For me, it varies by lens. A faster lens with the effects setting turned to off will feel/look a lot nicer. And or course, my FE90 (friction focus) is a dream!