NEX7 AF-MF questions

[Dave Gurtcheff]

Received the NEX 7 yesterday. I am having trouble figuring out the manual focus vs AF with native NEX lenses. When I use auto focus on a subject, I thought I could use the focus ring to manually tweak the focus. It seems like nothing happens when I do this. I must AF on the subject, then push and hold (not very convenient, I am left eyed).the AF/MF button, then turn the focus ring, which enlarges the subject and I can manually focus. Then when I release the AF/MF button, and attempt to take the picture, the lens auto focuses again when I press the shutter button. Also in the setup menue the focus peaking color is "disabled". When I put a legacy lens on via adapter, the red focus peaking DOES work. Does focus peaking only work with non E mount lenses?Any help, advice?
Thanks in advance
Dave in NJ

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi!

My guess is that you need to set the camera to manual focus mode for manual focusing to work as you want. I don't own a NEX-7 so I cannot really tell how.

Best regards
Erik

Received the NEX 7 yesterday. I am having trouble figuring out the manual focus vs AF with native NEX lenses. When I use auto focus on a subject, I thought I could use the focus ring to manually tweak the focus. It seems like nothing happens when I do this. I must AF on the subject, then push and hold (not very convenient, I am left eyed).the AF/MF button, then turn the focus ring, which enlarges the subject and I can manually focus. Then when I release the AF/MF button, and attempt to take the picture, the lens auto focuses again when I press the shutter button. Also in the setup menue the focus peaking color is "disabled". When I put a legacy lens on via adapter, the red focus peaking DOES work. Does focus peaking only work with non E mount lenses?Any help, advice?
Thanks in advance
Dave in NJ

[JohnNewman]

Received the NEX 7 yesterday. I am having trouble figuring out the manual focus vs AF with native NEX lenses. When I use auto focus on a subject, I thought I could use the focus ring to manually tweak the focus. It seems like nothing happens when I do this. I must AF on the subject, then push and hold (not very convenient, I am left eyed).the AF/MF button, then turn the focus ring, which enlarges the subject and I can manually focus. Then when I release the AF/MF button, and attempt to take the picture, the lens auto focuses again when I press the shutter button. Also in the setup menue the focus peaking color is "disabled". When I put a legacy lens on via adapter, the red focus peaking DOES work. Does focus peaking only work with non E mount lenses?Any help, advice?
Thanks in advance
Dave in NJ

Hi Dave

I've been puzzled with a few of the options on the Nex 7 which I only got a week ago.  I'm out at the moment so can't check the camera but, from memory, you need (1) to set the af/mf button on the body to toggle, (2) go into the menus (camera settings) to set focus to either m/f or the other option (not a/f, I think it's something like dmf) and this will also allow you to get at the greyed out options in the focus peaking set-up.  You can then set back to a/f and use the toggle button to switch to m/f.

I'll check when I get home but it's likely to be about 12 hours before I get a chance to post again.

Great little camera but takes a bit of getting used to!

Regards

John

[Dennishh]

 Sony sayes, "Direct Manual FocusUse Direct Manual Focus (DMF) to go directly to manual focusing after autofocus lock-on without having to switch modes to facilitate focus adjustments on the fly - it's perfect for portraits where depth of field may be extremely shallow". I have been playing with this today and have found that the focus mode has to be set to DMF, in the setup menu MF assist has to be on and MF assist time has to be either 2 or 5 seconds. Now when focusing the camera as you push the shutter button halfway down the camera picks a focus point, keep holding the shutter halfway down and twist the manual focus ring, now you get a 10 X magnified view and as you turn the focusing ring you can select your new focus point, after 2 seconds the magnified view will be replaced by full frame view and you can push the shutter the rest the way to take a picture. This seems to work quite well and is an extremely accurate way of focusing. If there's another way of doing this I love to hear it. I called Sony but as usual the tech person didn't have much of an understanding of this either.

[Dave Gurtcheff]

Sony sayes, "Direct Manual FocusUse Direct Manual Focus (DMF) to go directly to manual focusing after autofocus lock-on without having to switch modes to facilitate focus adjustments on the fly - it's perfect for portraits where depth of field may be extremely shallow". I have been playing with this today and have found that the focus mode has to be set to DMF, in the setup menu MF assist has to be on and MF assist time has to be either 2 or 5 seconds. Now when focusing the camera as you push the shutter button halfway down the camera picks a focus point, keep holding the shutter halfway down and twist the manual focus ring, now you get a 10 X magnified view and as you turn the focusing ring you can select your new focus point, after 2 seconds the magnified view will be replaced by full frame view and you can push the shutter the rest the way to take a picture. This seems to work quite well and is an extremely accurate way of focusing. If there's another way of doing this I love to hear it. I called Sony but as usual the tech person didn't have much of an understanding of this either.

Thanks. I did what you suggest, and it DOES work!
thank you
Dave

[Dennishh]

Your welcome. This feature is one of my favorite ones on the camera now. I find myself constantly using it to fine tune the focus so it's almost perfect every time. I've never seen this feature on any other camera, but it should be on all cameras. I have the focusing sent to multi which seems to pick a focus point quite easily and after that it's simple to precisely adjust focus. I have the 50mm 1.8, 55 to 210 and 16mm F2.8 with the 12 mm adapter. The 16mm with the adapter which equals 18 mm is very sharp at F8, very economical wide angle.