Sony A7IV (eye) autofocus problems - report here
4 months ago
15
Sony A7IV (eye) autofocus malfunction - report here
There is evergrowing evidence that the A7IV seems even a downgrade with regards to eye autofocus.
There are numerous reports of high demanding pros and enthusiasts encountering issues.
Typical problems seem to be
- poor autofocus reliability and speed in low light
- animal eye autofocus working only less than 70% (down to less than 20%) of the time even in situations with extremely common animals such as cats
- differing symptomatic where the EVF claims eye autofocus had aquired an eye, but still the focus plane is on the nose (failed) in the actual photo
- poor handling of backlighted situations
These issues are not restricted in any way to 3rd party glass but also to top price range new Sony lenses.
There is a dedicated facebook group for these AF problems where people already discuss:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/612186480070658
https://www.facebook.com/groups/sonya7m4eyeafissues/permalink/613026996653273
There is also reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyAlpha/comments/rurfs6/sony_a7iv_eye_af_issue/
And even Sony forums:
https://community.sony.lu/t5/alpha-nex-interchangeable-lens-cameras/sony-a7iv-focusing-issues/td-p/3846626
Obviously to try, you need some fast lenses (the fault appeared at least with Sony 135/1.8 and Sony 35/1.4).
Probably fb is not the best place to discuss photo technology so here is a thread to collect the different symptoms and post solutions that have really worked from those who had these issues.
Please stay polite and please only post in this thread if you have firsthand experience with Sony A7IV AF problems.
It doesn't help the people suffering from the AF issue if users spam messages of the "I don't see an issue, it's all your fault" type.
While there is also a number discussions about the AF in general not being more than a incremental improvement vs the A7III, this general AF-comparison topic does not belong here.
The goal is:
- collect symptoms of the problem
- collect scenarios where the problems occur
- ultimately: find solutions / workarounds
Be as scientific as you can in narrowing down the causes.