Sony A1 autofocus hunting problems, whale photography

(I posted this in open forums, and it was suggested I post here.)

Hey everyone, I"ll start by assuming this is a photographer's error and not the camera, as i've read so many amazing articles about the A1. With that said, I could sure use some advice to correct what is happening. For those that have shot whales, you know it happens in a split second to turn your camera focus and fire. So far I have gotten some amazing shots, however, I missed many excellent shots as well. What happens is: I turn and i'm on the subject, I go to press the shutter, and no shot. It does this several seconds huning, going in out before it comes back. By then it's much to late. I know it's tougher in some fog, but it was relatively clear this day and it did it again. I"d say it happens 20% of the time. Also, I"ve shot wide and it focused on a bird that flew right in front, but I guess 'center focus would be better for that.

What i've been trying:

After a minute or so, the camera goes into power save mode, so once the whales take a dive, I keep pre-focusing out on the water, or farther to the horizon.

My set-up: Sony A1, Sony 100-400 gm.

My (general) settings: 1/3200 F7.1 iso 640, af-c , Mainly wide, but i've tried center focus and tracking wide, same problem. Optical steady shot "off" Mode, i've tried both 1 and 2. No filters

First thing’s first; set your shutter priority to “release”. This way it will always take the shot every time the shutter Is pressed, even if the focus is hunting.

If your focus is hunting, there’s a couple of settings that should mitigate this. Your AF tracking area is a good start; I would recommend Zone area for what you’re shooting. I would also disable any eye detect af if you’re shooting whales, as it’s not really a match for the animal types that Sony has designed it for, and it may add to AF confusion.
I would also suggest opening up that aperture a bit. I’ve noticed that I can quickly, confidently, and accurately grab AF 100% of the time at wide open fast apertures, but stopping down to smaller apertures tends to add af hunting.

That’s all I have for advice. Hope it helps!

Thank you, I actually do have it set to eye detect and it is almost impossible to find the eye on these whales, especially mixed in with all the barnacles. When I go out today, i'll try "zone" , haven't tried that one yet and disable eye.

Spectacular photo! Where is this?

1) MENU → (Focus) → [AF/MF] → [Priority Set in AF-C] → Release

"Prioritizes the shutter's release. The shutter will be released even if the subject is out of focus."

Actually the correct wording should be: "even if the camera THINKS the subject is out of focus", in reality there are a lot of false negatives, which means that the camera thinks it's OOF but it was in focus.

2) shoot at 30fps, to maximize the number of shots, and even if it's hunting, it will take the shots and some of them will be in focus.

Thank you, Monterey Ca, almost the end of season, they then head south, but that means the grey whales will be here.

Marco1ca said:

(I posted this in open forums, and it was suggested I post here.)

Hey everyone, I"ll start by assuming this is a photographer's error and not the camera, as i've read so many amazing articles about the A1. With that said, I could sure use some advice to correct what is happening. For those that have shot whales, you know it happens in a split second to turn your camera focus and fire. So far I have gotten some amazing shots, however, I missed many excellent shots as well. What happens is: I turn and i'm on the subject, I go to press the shutter, and no shot. It does this several seconds huning, going in out before it comes back. By then it's much to late. I know it's tougher in some fog, but it was relatively clear this day and it did it again. I"d say it happens 20% of the time. Also, I"ve shot wide and it focused on a bird that flew right in front, but I guess 'center focus would be better for that.

What i've been trying:

After a minute or so, the camera goes into power save mode, so once the whales take a dive, I keep pre-focusing out on the water, or farther to the horizon.

My set-up: Sony A1, Sony 100-400 gm.

My (general) settings: 1/3200 F7.1 iso 640, af-c , Mainly wide, but i've tried center focus and tracking wide, same problem. Optical steady shot "off" Mode, i've tried both 1 and 2. No filters

Click to expand...

Tracking - Wide doesn't work for whales because of the splashing water is high contrast and will catch the attention of the AF. Tracking - Wide will lessen that tendancy, but still be a problem. I'd go with Tracking - Center Fixed and put the Center points right on the whale's head. ( I doubt that "Eye" mode will cause a problem, but it probably doesn't help with all the water).

Once the camera starts Tracking you may have to end tracking by double-hitting the joy stick.

--
Dave

You didn't mention it, so just checking, do you have the focus range set to "∞ • 3m" on the 100-400GM?

Thanks Dave, I"ll try the center focus a little more, see what happens

Marco1ca said:

Thank you, Monterey Ca, almost the end of season, they then head south, but that means the grey whales will be here.

Click to expand...

Nice place! I love Carmel! But I never been able to see a whale, probably was there at the wrong time of the year. Or maybe should have taken a boat.

Greetings from Germany.

Impressive picture!

Hunting probably caused by the rapid shifting pattern of splashing white water drops.

Marco1ca said:

(I posted this in open forums, and it was suggested I post here.)

Hey everyone, I"ll start by assuming this is a photographer's error and not the camera, as i've read so many amazing articles about the A1. With that said, I could sure use some advice to correct what is happening. For those that have shot whales, you know it happens in a split second to turn your camera focus and fire. So far I have gotten some amazing shots, however, I missed many excellent shots as well. What happens is: I turn and i'm on the subject, I go to press the shutter, and no shot. It does this several seconds huning, going in out before it comes back. By then it's much to late. I know it's tougher in some fog, but it was relatively clear this day and it did it again. I"d say it happens 20% of the time. Also, I"ve shot wide and it focused on a bird that flew right in front, but I guess 'center focus would be better for that.

What i've been trying:

After a minute or so, the camera goes into power save mode, so once the whales take a dive, I keep pre-focusing out on the water, or farther to the horizon.

My set-up: Sony A1, Sony 100-400 gm.

My (general) settings: 1/3200 F7.1 iso 640, af-c , Mainly wide, but i've tried center focus and tracking wide, same problem. Optical steady shot "off" Mode, i've tried both 1 and 2. No filters

Click to expand...

Set lens to use the max focus range, AF acquisition to responsive, I find delinking shutter press with AF and setting AF to a custom button works well.

Yes, it's best to take whale cruise, sometimes you can see them right off shore, but they move back out the next day. On a whale cruise during the season, you will always see whales. I use "Princess Monterey Whale Cruises".

Thank you

Magnar W said:

Impressive picture!

Hunting probably caused by the rapid shifting pattern of splashing white water drops.

Click to expand...

Thank you, based on the splashing white water, I was just wondering what others may have used for settings for those conditions. So far i've received some great feedback that I am trying out.

marke2005 said:

You didn't mention it, so just checking, do you have the focus range set to "∞ • 3m" on the 100-400GM?

Click to expand...

So what i'm doing is pre-focussing out on the horizon or the water much farther than the whales if I can't see the horizon.

dcstep said:

Marco1ca said:

(I posted this in open forums, and it was suggested I post here.)

Hey everyone, I"ll start by assuming this is a photographer's error and not the camera, as i've read so many amazing articles about the A1. With that said, I could sure use some advice to correct what is happening. For those that have shot whales, you know it happens in a split second to turn your camera focus and fire. So far I have gotten some amazing shots, however, I missed many excellent shots as well. What happens is: I turn and i'm on the subject, I go to press the shutter, and no shot. It does this several seconds huning, going in out before it comes back. By then it's much to late. I know it's tougher in some fog, but it was relatively clear this day and it did it again. I"d say it happens 20% of the time. Also, I"ve shot wide and it focused on a bird that flew right in front, but I guess 'center focus would be better for that.

What i've been trying:

After a minute or so, the camera goes into power save mode, so once the whales take a dive, I keep pre-focusing out on the water, or farther to the horizon.

My set-up: Sony A1, Sony 100-400 gm.

My (general) settings: 1/3200 F7.1 iso 640, af-c , Mainly wide, but i've tried center focus and tracking wide, same problem. Optical steady shot "off" Mode, i've tried both 1 and 2. No filters

Click to expand...

Tracking - Wide doesn't work for whales because of the splashing water is high contrast and will catch the attention of the AF. Tracking - Wide will lessen that tendancy, but still be a problem. I'd go with Tracking - Center Fixed and put the Center points right on the whale's head. ( I doubt that "Eye" mode will cause a problem, but it probably doesn't help with all the water).
Once the camera starts Tracking you may have to end tracking by double-hitting the joy stick.

Click to expand...

100% agree with this recommendation. Center fixed is the way to go. I just did some whale watching in Boston, and tracking AF with the A1 would grab the water the vast majority of the time. When I switched to center fixed, things got much better.

Hi Narcoc1a,

Have you considered varying the AF setting “Shutter release priority” setting from AF-priority to “release” or “balanced (?)” settings ?

My 2cts…

Hope this comes in time/helps…

OK?

Good luck, great photography! Where do/did uou shoot?

G’Day

Gerrit

Marco1ca said:

(I posted this in open forums, and it was suggested I post here.)

Hey everyone, I"ll start by assuming this is a photographer's error and not the camera, as i've read so many amazing articles about the A1. With that said, I could sure use some advice to correct what is happening. For those that have shot whales, you know it happens in a split second to turn your camera focus and fire. So far I have gotten some amazing shots, however, I missed many excellent shots as well. What happens is: I turn and i'm on the subject, I go to press the shutter, and no shot. It does this several seconds huning, going in out before it comes back. By then it's much to late. I know it's tougher in some fog, but it was relatively clear this day and it did it again. I"d say it happens 20% of the time. Also, I"ve shot wide and it focused on a bird that flew right in front, but I guess 'center focus would be better for that.

What i've been trying:

After a minute or so, the camera goes into power save mode, so once the whales take a dive, I keep pre-focusing out on the water, or farther to the horizon.

My set-up: Sony A1, Sony 100-400 gm.

My (general) settings: 1/3200 F7.1 iso 640, af-c , Mainly wide, but i've tried center focus and tracking wide, same problem. Optical steady shot "off" Mode, i've tried both 1 and 2. No filters

Click to expand...

Very nice shot, but it's only 2MP ?

Douglas Brown said:

dcstep said:

Marco1ca said:

(I posted this in open forums, and it was suggested I post here.)

Hey everyone, I"ll start by assuming this is a photographer's error and not the camera, as i've read so many amazing articles about the A1. With that said, I could sure use some advice to correct what is happening. For those that have shot whales, you know it happens in a split second to turn your camera focus and fire. So far I have gotten some amazing shots, however, I missed many excellent shots as well. What happens is: I turn and i'm on the subject, I go to press the shutter, and no shot. It does this several seconds huning, going in out before it comes back. By then it's much to late. I know it's tougher in some fog, but it was relatively clear this day and it did it again. I"d say it happens 20% of the time. Also, I"ve shot wide and it focused on a bird that flew right in front, but I guess 'center focus would be better for that.

What i've been trying:

After a minute or so, the camera goes into power save mode, so once the whales take a dive, I keep pre-focusing out on the water, or farther to the horizon.

My set-up: Sony A1, Sony 100-400 gm.

My (general) settings: 1/3200 F7.1 iso 640, af-c , Mainly wide, but i've tried center focus and tracking wide, same problem. Optical steady shot "off" Mode, i've tried both 1 and 2. No filters

Click to expand...

Tracking - Wide doesn't work for whales because of the splashing water is high contrast and will catch the attention of the AF. Tracking - Wide will lessen that tendancy, but still be a problem. I'd go with Tracking - Center Fixed and put the Center points right on the whale's head. ( I doubt that "Eye" mode will cause a problem, but it probably doesn't help with all the water).
Once the camera starts Tracking you may have to end tracking by double-hitting the joy stick.

Click to expand...

100% agree with this recommendation. Center fixed is the way to go. I just did some whale watching in Boston, and tracking AF with the A1 would grab the water the vast majority of the time. When I switched to center fixed, things got much better.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I"m going to experiment with Center fixed and zone, as I do want to get the birds in focus as well. I will report back