Oct 3, 2013, 09:44
(Oct 3, 2013, 07:39)KeithB Wrote: [ -> ]Hi Peter, how are you getting on with the new A58? I can see from the previous posts in this topic that you have certainly been exploring the possibilities.
Further to Andy's comments about autofocus there are a couple of important points to remember. the autofocus on the SLT range of cameras is very fast and accurate, but like all autofocus systems out there it has shortcomings that cannot be overcome no matter how advanced the technology might be. Regardless of which lens you use, autofocus will depending on your focus settings look for an area of distinct contrast under one or all the sensors and autofocus on that and usually, very well even if its the wrong subject. Hence your problems with blurry subjects.
As Andy rightly points out, if you alter your autofocus setting to spot focus, this can go a long way toward solving the problem ( there are other ways). When composing the image, sit the spot sensor (little white rectangle in the centre of the viewfinder) on the subject or part of the subject you want in focus and half press the shutter. If this point is not in the right place in your composition, either hold the shutter half down or press the AE lock button to hold your exposure settings and re-frame the subject before you shoot.
Also remember that your aperture setting has a big influence on focus. If you use a wide aperture, say, f2.8 the depth of field i.e. the area in focus will be much shorter near to far than if you use a small setting like f22 for example. With wider aperture settings, precise focussing is far more critical. The SLT autofocus system is more than capable of coping. Tell it what to focus on and it will!
Rather than using the camera's auto settings I would recommend that you use aperture priority mode ('A' on the mode dial). This allows you to set an aperture of your choosing and the camera will automatically select appropriate shutter speed, white balance and ISO to complement your choice. If you're not familiar with the effect that aperture size has on your images, try taking several pictures of the same subject at different aperture settings (keep the focal length and lighting conditions constant) and compare results. You will then easily understand which settings are going to give the best results for whatever you are shooting.
With regard to your comments about batteries, go for it! The only thing a duff battery will do is stop the camera working. The cameras power supply is regulated internally regardless of what the battery may or may not do. 35 years in the electronics industry tells me I'm on firm ground here! Amazon's return policy is pretty damn good so there is little or no risk involved.
Let me know how you're getting on. Regards
Keith
Hi Keith, Nice to hear from you. actually I am in a bit of a quandry now about the AF/MF debate. The result I got by comparison a couple of days ago seemed to indicate MF to be far better, but today tying other examples, and the same one again from before, which showed more or less no difference this time! (leads me to think the bit that seemed out of focus by comparison before, was probably not correctly in the focus Zone. Very difficult to be that accurate again).
Taking my cam outside, although it is a dull day, and using the MF I just cannot understand how, if I focus on something quite a way off, focus until it glows as bright red as possible, take the shot and then fix on something very much nearer only to find that is still outlined in red without me altering the focus ring. How could both distances, near and far, be in focus on the same ring setting, but they are, the shot comes out O.K. I can only suppose the auto setting is automatically setting a very small aperture! but when the cam looks at something really close wouldn't it adjust the aperture to large accordingly, without you pressing anything.
Then taking all the same shots again with AF, the AF shots seem if anything a bit better. Sometimes (very occasionally) using the MF the results where not so good like a bit out of focus, say on a cars number plate (which is usually very clear) even though always glowing bright red, whereas nothing in AF seems to fail. Strange isn't it.
Anyway I will try and digest all you say above and work on it. I will try the aperture priority, problem is to sort out which aperture I should be selecting at any one time. Need to study that one.
Regards the battery, thanks for that. I did put another new thread on the forum. To see what others thought about Cheap Amazon batteries, and their experiences with them. Then I went into the Amazon web site and looked at one in England, rather than America, which seems to be billing itself as more or less a gen replacement, for £26.
So I looked at customer reviews and found there are big problems. Mainly the battery refusing to charge a second time (which quite a lot of people found) to the cam refusing to accept it! It seems that Sony cams can recognise a fake and reject it. Have you tried to use one in Sony cam? It's a bit puzzling how others can say it wouldn't charge a second time, if the camera rejected it. Something doesn't add up there does it, obviously those people didn't get it rejected. Anyway so many people seemed to have had an issue with the charging that it doesn't sound too good.
No urgency on that one yet but I do need to pick up another spare battery at some point.
The only downside that I have found to the cam so far is deleting pics from it. It can't be done, it seems, using the computer when connected! and there seems absolutely no provision for a mass deletion, like on all other cams I've had (even though there is provision to protect a picture against accidental erasure!) So if you are like me and snap everything in site, especially when out on an excursion, like when I was visiting the knights Templar villages in France in August, I snapped literally hundreds of shots with the Fuji, you then have to painstakingly select each shot and agree to delete etc., I am not going to like that at all. Do you know any way to delete the card all at once?
Pete.