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Stackshot or Camranger for 1:1 floral still life?

Started Sep 24, 2020 | Polls thread
Richard Hanson New Member • Posts: 1
Re: Thanks Everyone!

Hi Tokyowalker,

I just bought a Sony a7riv, my first camera in a very long time, I actually bought a Sony 90mm macro lens first while deciding on which body to purchase.

I have used both a macro rail and in camera focus. The 90 mm macro has a short throw on the "manual" focus ring, it is not truly manual and rather limited, but you can change the focus point of the lens by using Sony software, Image Edge Remote Control free software. I am running on a Windows 10 Dell laptop connected to the a7riv with WiFi.

  • The lens must be set to auto focus.
  • Turn in lens stabilization off.
  • I would set the focus range on the lens to full.

You can "manually" control the focus point in the Remote control software by changing from AF to MF in the software, not on the lens. You then get a set of active buttons to change the focus:

<<< << < > >> >>>>

This last weekend I did a panoramic focus stack of an ear of Indian corn that was 7 focus stacked images stitched together from a total of 968 raw 61 mp files. I am using a 2 TB external solid state drive. The final image was 182 mp.

I think I get much better results with changing the focus point instead of changing the camera or subject location.

Sony has all the hardware in place, but the software could be significantly improved for automating the capture of images for focus stacking. Right now, with Image Edge Remote, it is push a focus stack button ">>", move the mouse and push the button to take a picture, move the mouse and push the focus button ">>" .... over and over again.

Sony should, at a minimum, enhance the Image Edge software to remove the repetitive aspects of this process and eventually update the software on the a7riv to do the same. We can hope.

Personally, I would not purchase more hardware to solve a problem which has been reduced to a software feature.

Best Regards,

Richard

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