A7SII Focus peaking + Colour?

A

andrew00

Well-known member
Hey,

Thinking of picking up an A7SII, two things I've been reading - firstly some folks saying the focus peaking is inaccurate and secondly that the colour is improved over the A7S.

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the focus peaking accuracy - can it be relied on? I've always found blackmagic's to be really good so was expecting something like that.

Also, does anyone have examples of the colour where they can demonstrate it being improved over the A7S? If it's better that's great but would be cool to see.

Thanks!
 
Blackmagic's focus peaking is awful. Absolutely useless, at least on the pocket, which is the one I've used the most.
Focus peaking on the a7S was awesome, really, really, really useful. I guess on the a7SII it must be at least as good.

Color is indeed improved on the a7S II wrt the original a7S. Check this thread (I linked page 7 but you probably want to read the whole thread).
 
Focus peaking is not accurate enough for me. it does work in most scenes but I've noticed some misses when I thought I was in focus. I still do the back and forward focus to make sure. If I recall correctly, it struggles when there's a high contrast scenario but what you want in focus is in the shadows.
 
Focus peaking is useless in contrasty scenes. Everything will light up with the peaking color and you can't tell what is what. In such situations focus magnifier or manual focus assist is your best friend.
 
Those of you finding it not good enough: have you played with the configuration of the focus peaking? I'm not sure I liked it either out-of-the-box...
 
You can choose how easy it is for something to appear marked as "in focus". I don't remember what setting I settled on, but I remember that I liked one when in full screen mode and a different one when zoomed-in, and the camera wouldn't let me choose "both, one for each case".
 
The electronic viewfinder is nicer than the LCD in back of the camera, so that helps with focus. Also, there are a few easy ways to punch in and check focus.
 
I find peaking very accurate, but it takes a lot of practice - for me anyway - to find the exact point of focus with each Sony body. Spend a lot of time practicing finding your point of focus and then zoom in to check for accuracy. Eventually the visual cues for nailing focus become second nature. I drive my wife nuts sitting on the couch while using her as a practice model for a few days after I get a new camera. I use red and the medium setting and I try to use magnify as much as possible. I use the EVF a lot too, just works better for me. YMMV
 
it helps to put the focus peaking strength on a hot key. Depending on contrast, high or low settings are needed. Aside that I find it very accurate. I shot some macro jewelry stuff today and it was on spot and great to set the wanted focus depth via the aperture ring. ( I use loxia manual lenses 90% of the time so I use the peaking A LOT)

Color is nice if you set the white balance right. To me it seems the main difference to canon (which I used before 1DC and C100) is the less than ideal auto WB. But if you set a WB and expose properly colors are great.
 
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