Speed focus a7iii

[MalthouseMark]

Hi, I’m a wedding photographer. I tend to use the joystick on my A7iii to select focus point and mix two back buttons, one for eye focus one for regular focus.

That’s all fine but when things are moving fast I sometimes want a grab shot and moving focus points isn’t too speedy. I know if I do street photography I have time to think about my focus points. I wonder what photographers in the press world where things are moving fast do for focus for grab shots.

Does anyone have tips for grab shot settings? I would love to set up a user mode that I can just twist and go to for exposure and focus for these scenarios. 

[danardeng · Accepted solution]

When I had worked with A7iii and A7Riii, my setup was similar to your one.

 - always in AF-C mode

 - standard AF (point area) on back AF button

 - eye-AF on back AE-L button

 - AF disabled on half press shutter button

 - AE-L on half press shutter button 

With that setup I was able to:

 - focus on whole screen by moving the point with joystick 

 - focus on face/eye by pointing on the required subject and then recompose keeping the focus

 - when the compensation wheel is not enough, grab a different exposure on other zone with half press shutter button and recompose

 - in superfast situations when no face detection is possible and don’t have the time to move the point, I focus on the subject (with the focus point, wherever it is) , stop pressing AF button, recompose, and shot

An alternative is to use touchpad on the screen, but I found that not reliable.

After I had changed my gear (A7iv and A7c) the game was changed. Follow focus is really strong and reliable, so I use that on half press shutter button and eye-af on back AF button.

That works really well (yes, AF system on A7c is way more advanced than A7iii)

[MalthouseMark]

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@danardeng wrote:

 - in superfast situations when no face detection is possible and don’t have the time to move the point, I focus on the subject (with the focus point, wherever it is) , stop pressing AF button, recompose, and shot

Dan, thanks. For reasons best known to my brain (and not revealed to me) I've always only ever thought of doing focus/recompose with centre focus point in play. I've never thought of doing focus/recompose with the focus spot wherever it happens to be at that instant. Now you've said it out aloud to me it's obvious! That would certainly allow me to suddenly see someone out of the corner of my eye doing something and instantly react rather than faffing with focus points. Grab one shot and then try for a more controlled one if the moment hasn't gone away.

That was a really helpful answer. Thanks.

[danardeng]

💖

Take in mind that in that situation the focus is less accurate. If you work with large aperture probability you don’t have the perfect detail, but you have the shot.

As you say, after first 2-3 shots, you can take the time for perfect focus if the subject is still in the action