Reader Comment: “Given up on Sony A7R V automatic focus shift shooting/focus bracketing”
Related: botched design, focus stacking, focusing, Glenn K, imcompetence crisis, optical focus shift, please fix this, please fix this camera, please fix this Sony, quality control, reader comment, Sony, Sony A7R, Sony A7R II, Sony A7R III, Sony A7R IV, Sony A7R V, Sony mirrorless
re: quality control
Glenn K writes:
I have been playing with focus bracketing on the Sony A7R V and am finding that it often doesn't drive the focus all the way to infinity before stopping.
I have tried upping the image count in the bracket settings, but that doesn't seem to work. I know you talked about some issues and was wondering if you had experienced this?
DIGLLOYD: yes, this "stops before INF" bug was one of the first issues with the Sony A7R V. I am still waiting for that and other bugs and problems to be fixed.
Sony A7R V: Focus Bracketing: Multiple Bugs and Failures
Increasing the image count has no effect because the bug is the camera thinking it has reached infinity before it actually does—3 or 5 or 239 frames is the same as 2 frames if the camera thinks INF has been reached on the 2nd frame.
Sony’s last firmware update added what in my and reader’s views is crapware, without fixing any of its half dozen significant issues. Very disappointing that 6 months have passed and nothing is fixed.
I reported the issue to Sony way back in December (and other issues).
Later, Glenn K writes...
I've given up on automatic focus shift shooting/focus bracketing!
I've tried everything and can't get the Sony to focus to infinity. It works better with longer focal lengths, but for anything under 35mm it misses badly.
Neither Nikon nor Sony are smart enough to create a subfolder for a stack sequence, and then return to the main folder for subsequent shots. Sony restarts the numbering which is screwy
I've just programmed a button on the A7R V to start a new folder, and then I use the touch screen focus/shutter to touch at a series of important points in the image. It's fast and I know exactly how many images I am going to get, and where each is focused.
DIGLLOYD: it’s shocking that Sony could implement a feature and fail to give it even rudimentary testing. I can make that claim with confidene, because I found the problem the first time I tried it anbd it’s 100% repeatable failures. Ditto for Glenn K.
What is going on at Sony that straightforward bugs are not fixed with alacrity? Six months and nothing happens on this bug any several others.
