Sony a1...Everything about the a1 thread...

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Hut2 said:
I tried manual focus using an assigned button and thumb on the 200-600mm yesterday once and it was super easy to re-acquire focus on static object.
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I need to do this NOW! I went out to find my nemesis and there he was smack dab in the middle of a tree hidden by every branch known to man. And here I was trying to manual focus fast. Hahaha. Ended up flipping the mf switch. Almost too late. Bird eye af was on and no way wanted to track those horned owl eyes. Plus I was freezing to death so That viewfinder was wiggling all over the place. I also need to keep a spreadsheet with changes I make. I seem to forget I made a change and I’m all screwed up
 
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lablover27 said:
I need to do this NOW! I went out to find my nemesis and there he was smack dab in the middle of a tree hidden by every branch known to man. And here I was trying to manual focus fast. Hahaha. Ended up flipping the mf switch. Almost too late. Bird eye af was on and no way wanted to track those horned owl eyes. Plus I was freezing to death so That viewfinder was wiggling all over the place. I also need to keep a spreadsheet with changes I make. I seem to forget I made a change and I’m all screwed up
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Thats exactly where I am...forgot I made a change and all screwed up.
Need some serious field time so I can remember....
 
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Hut2 said:
I hear that! Dang job getting in the way of me learning my A1 buttons.....lol
It's so nice to have such customization. I am still moving things around to my liking. If I have trouble finding it or remembering it I can move it or remove it. a work in progress. . .
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Exactly, job, customization...and what I tell myself. Tomorrow, my first bird centric trip. 🙏🏻
 
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LTK said:
Its a shame I can't assign the focus ring to manual focus over ride , I'll try assigning one of the buttons to manual hold
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That is one of my number 1 FW requests to Sony. Give us a camera FW option to allow DMF in AF-C. This is actually one reason I don't use the 100-400 and 200-600 as much anymore because with the 600GM I have DMF all the time (via the lens switch).
I would need to give up one of my custom buttons to have the MF override button somewhere it would be fast to use.
Canon recently did a camera FW that allowed their 100-500 and big primes to do DMF so it should be possible with Sony also. Those new RF lenses suffered from the same problem. I see Sony added a DMF switch to the 70-200/2.8 Mk II but would be nice if they could do it via camera FW for the 100-400 and 200-600.

As far as the problem with the camera not seeing the correct subject MF is really the only option or what you already are doing by aiming at the ground and then back to the bird.

So far my testing of the Z9/500PF and my past ownership of the R5/100-500 showed that they all suffer from this same issue. If the focus is too far off the intended small OOF subject then the camera just can't "see" it to drive focus. It is a MILC, on-sensor AF issue and has been discussed for years. I'm not sure if the Nikon is any better than the Sony for this. The Z9 in general likes backgrounds more than the A1, loses subjects to backgrounds after beginning tracking over clean backgrounds and has difficulty recognizing subjects and eye-af at greater distances. That photo just posted by Hut2 above...the Z9 would never recognize that as a bird....the R5 would.
 
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arbitrage said:
That is one of my number 1 FW requests to Sony. Give us a camera FW option to allow DMF in AF-C. This is actually one reason I don't use the 100-400 and 200-600 as much anymore because with the 600GM I have DMF all the time (via the lens switch).
I would need to give up one of my custom buttons to have the MF override button somewhere it would be fast to use.
Canon recently did a camera FW that allowed their 100-500 and big primes to do DMF so it should be possible with Sony also. Those new RF lenses suffered from the same problem. I see Sony added a DMF switch to the 70-200/2.8 Mk II but would be nice if they could do it via camera FW for the 100-400 and 200-600.

As far as the problem with the camera not seeing the correct subject MF is really the only option or what you already are doing by aiming at the ground and then back to the bird.

So far my testing of the Z9/500PF and my past ownership of the R5/100-500 showed that they all suffer from this same issue. If the focus is too far off the intended small OOF subject then the camera just can't "see" it to drive focus. It is a MILC, on-sensor AF issue and has been discussed for years. I'm not sure if the Nikon is any better than the Sony for this. The Z9 in general likes backgrounds more than the A1, loses subjects to backgrounds after beginning tracking over clean backgrounds and has difficulty recognizing subjects and eye-af at greater distances. That photo just posted by Hut2 above...the Z9 would never recognize that as a bird....the R5 would.
Click to expand...
Oh no! Nikon shooters are going to say you don’t know what your doing it’s not the Z9 fault lol.
 
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Still have difficulty focusing on small birds in trees/shrubs using small spot when the eyes are not clearly visible. Will it help to turn of eye detect in these situations via a custom button.
 
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uday592 said:
Still have difficulty focusing on small birds in trees/shrubs using small spot when the eyes are not clearly visible. Will it help to turn of eye detect in these situations via a custom button.
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Are you using Small Spot Tracking or just Small Spot?

If you are using Tracking I would first just try using non-tracking Small Spot and you can keep eye-detect on it will only find/track an eye within that small spot area.

I keep all my selectable AF modes in the non-tracking versions (I limit this selection to just 4 AF modes). I then use my AF-ON button to change into the Tracking version at any time by holding in the button ("Tracking On" option in the Custom Key menus). I can then use non-tracking Small Spot and if it detects the eye properly I can hold in AF-ON and then it tracks it across the entire frame and if I purposely or accidentally move the Small Spot off of the head/eye area it will keep tracking it.

I do have a button set to turn off Face/Eye detect (I use left direction on the lower wheel) but most of the time I don't have to turn it off. If eye-detect is finding other things and thinking they are eyes then it can be helpful to turn it off. I get that on occasion.
 
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Bird eye AF worked great yesterday :)

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I’m sure adding this feature is possible, they managed optical zoom with the focus ring so surely this feature wouldn’t be an issue for them . I think many people would find DMF incredibly useful with the 200-600 and 100-400 . No need to waste one of our buttons as a hold just enable it as an on/off in menu and it activates soon as you rotate the focus collar far enough .
When it comes to the focus there’s not a lot I can fault with the A1 , I only really get this issue sometimes with birds close when in reeds/bulrushes or shrubbery . If it sees the bird it usually has no problem grabbing onto the eye , if it grabs the wrong part I quickly tap eye priority off and the flex spot S or expandable grabs what I want

arbitrage said:
That is one of my number 1 FW requests to Sony. Give us a camera FW option to allow DMF in AF-C. This is actually one reason I don't use the 100-400 and 200-600 as much anymore because with the 600GM I have DMF all the time (via the lens switch).
I would need to give up one of my custom buttons to have the MF override button somewhere it would be fast to use.
Canon recently did a camera FW that allowed their 100-500 and big primes to do DMF so it should be possible with Sony also. Those new RF lenses suffered from the same problem. I see Sony added a DMF switch to the 70-200/2.8 Mk II but would be nice if they could do it via camera FW for the 100-400 and 200-600.

As far as the problem with the camera not seeing the correct subject MF is really the only option or what you already are doing by aiming at the ground and then back to the bird.

So far my testing of the Z9/500PF and my past ownership of the R5/100-500 showed that they all suffer from this same issue. If the focus is too far off the intended small OOF subject then the camera just can't "see" it to drive focus. It is a MILC, on-sensor AF issue and has been discussed for years. I'm not sure if the Nikon is any better than the Sony for this. The Z9 in general likes backgrounds more than the A1, loses subjects to backgrounds after beginning tracking over clean backgrounds and has difficulty recognizing subjects and eye-af at greater distances. That photo just posted by Hut2 above...the Z9 would never recognize that as a bird....the R5 would.
Click to expand...
 
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LTK said:
I’m sure adding this feature is possible, they managed optical zoom with the focus ring so surely this feature wouldn’t be an issue for them . I think many people would find DMF incredibly useful with the 200-600 and 100-400 . No need to waste one of our buttons as a hold just enable it as an on/off in menu and it activates soon as you rotate the focus collar far enough .
When it comes to the focus there’s not a lot I can fault with the A1 , I only really get this issue sometimes with birds close when in reeds/bulrushes or shrubbery . If it sees the bird it usually has no problem grabbing onto the eye , if it grabs the wrong part I quickly tap eye priority off and the flex spot S or expandable grabs what I want
Click to expand...
I’m confused about your comment “ they managed optical zoom with the focus ring”. Is this a thing? Zooming with the focus ring?
 
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arbitrage said:
Are you using Small Spot Tracking or just Small Spot?

If you are using Tracking I would first just try using non-tracking Small Spot and you can keep eye-detect on it will only find/track an eye within that small spot area.

I keep all my selectable AF modes in the non-tracking versions (I limit this selection to just 4 AF modes). I then use my AF-ON button to change into the Tracking version at any time by holding in the button ("Tracking On" option in the Custom Key menus). I can then use non-tracking Small Spot and if it detects the eye properly I can hold in AF-ON and then it tracks it across the entire frame and if I purposely or accidentally move the Small Spot off of the head/eye area it will keep tracking it.

I do have a button set to turn off Face/Eye detect (I use left direction on the lower wheel) but most of the time I don't have to turn it off. If eye-detect is finding other things and thinking they are eyes then it can be helpful to turn it off. I get that on occasion.
Click to expand...
I use small spot (non tracking) with Af-on for BBAF. "Tracking on" is assigned to a separate custom button and use it when necessary. Focus is right on when eye Af comes on. But when eye AF dos not come on (especially with low contrast situations) focusing can be difficult. Have assigned a custom button to the 4 area modes which I can toggle. Flexible small spot seems to be somewhat better in these tough situations..
 
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arbitrage said:
Are you using Small Spot Tracking or just Small Spot?

If you are using Tracking I would first just try using non-tracking Small Spot and you can keep eye-detect on it will only find/track an eye within that small spot area.

I keep all my selectable AF modes in the non-tracking versions (I limit this selection to just 4 AF modes). I then use my AF-ON button to change into the Tracking version at any time by holding in the button ("Tracking On" option in the Custom Key menus). I can then use non-tracking Small Spot and if it detects the eye properly I can hold in AF-ON and then it tracks it across the entire frame and if I purposely or accidentally move the Small Spot off of the head/eye area it will keep tracking it.

I do have a button set to turn off Face/Eye detect (I use left direction on the lower wheel) but most of the time I don't have to turn it off. If eye-detect is finding other things and thinking they are eyes then it can be helpful to turn it off. I get that on occasion.
Click to expand...

Do you use “tracking on” or“tracking on + AF on” on the back button? I am thinking I’ll try the latter as I really struggle with not using bbf now… wondering which way you went.
 
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I have to say I love the a1 more and more each time I use it. I captured just a few quick shots with the a1 and 600GM of this little guy while in Florida. He came out of no where, I quickly threw the camera up to my eye and hit the af-on button and bam! nailed it! I wish the background was something cool but its a pretty cool bird! Anyone care to take a guess as to what bird it is? I will give the answer below the image. It has a big bug in its claws.

PS I didn't need a red dot sight to get on target. Years and Years of shooting clays sure has its advantages in photography as well.

Sony A1, 600GM F4 1/4000 ISO 200 AF mode: Zone Tracking Bird Eye AF On
_Dav8398-Edit-2.jpg
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Answer to the subject: Black-crowned Night-Heron.
 
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Here is a heavily cropped image of the same bird. This would be a 80% crop and the detail the 50MP a1 sensor delivers with the 600GM is just mind blowing!
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dtibbals said:
I have to say I love the a1 more and more each time I use it. I captured just a few quick shots with the a1 and 600GM of this little guy while in Florida. He came out of no where, I quickly threw the camera up to my eye and hit the af-on button and bam! nailed it! I wish the background was something cool but its a pretty cool bird! Anyone care to take a guess as to what bird it is? I will give the answer below the image. It has a big bug in its claws.

PS I didn't need a red dot sight to get on target. Years and Years of shooting clays sure has its advantages in photography as well.

Sony A1, 600GM F4 1/4000 ISO 200 AF mode: Zone Tracking Bird Eye AF On
View attachment 32187

















Answer to the subject: Black-crowned Night-Heron.
Click to expand...
The bright red eyes were a giveaway 😊 I think I’ve only seen them fly a couple times and it was always in the direction away from me. Cool shot for sure.
 
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The Roseate Spoonbill is one of my favorite birds. Colorful, large, and awkwardly beautiful.

Sony A1 Sony 600GM

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