Stackshot or Camranger for 1:1 floral still life?

Richard Hanson wrote:

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

Hi Richard, thanks for your reply. Very informative and helpful because it tells me it’s possible to stack those huge 61mp files. Sounds like your weekend was very busy!

I would love to see a scaled down post of your corn panorama!

Sony really gets under my skin but I’m going to buy that camera anyway. I’m aware of Sony’s poor tethering software. It has other “issues” so to speak according to my pro photographer son-in-law. Now you’ve provided one more reason to suspect it. It’s all these reasons I started looking for an outboard solution. And even then I find Sony gets their hooks into your pockets because they require you to have some kind of “SonyPro” ($$$$) firmware to enable you to tether in some software (like Capture One). But then Capture One doesn’t support focus stacking as a software feature. Last but not least to get an English / International menu Sony Alpha camera in Japan you have to pay an extra $1500. I will order the camera from the US. But I digress.

Things I’ve found as options for stacking:

- The Camranger 2 ($350 camranger.com) has automated focus stacking for Sony, although you have to manually input the parameters. They have a video specific to Sony showing its operation. Camranger is hardware but much more than focus stacking though.

- Helicon Remote ($75 - Heliconsoft.com) has a beta in progress with Sony A7 RIII support. Hopefully that will include RIV when it goes to release.

May I ask how much memory and processor specs do you have in your Dell ? Have you considered hires mode with stacking ?

Also this is my first camera in a LONG time haha.

—Brett