Moving Focus Point On a6700

[Dennis Bayer]

Hi-

I keep reading that the a6700 doesn't have a joystick to move the focus point. Can somebody please tell me if the procedure for moving the focus point is the same as on the a6500? I have no idea what people are referring to as a joystick! I am fine moving the focus point on my a6500 with the up-down-left-right buttons on the control wheel. I have never used the touch pad on the a6500 and I have no interest in using it so I don't care if the touch pad is better on the a6700. I also rarely do video, so those upgrades don't matter to me either.

I waited a long time for the a6700 and It seems like a nice upgrade, but I was hoping for several features that weren't included, so I am a bit disappointed and on the fence about getting one.

Thanks,

Dennis

 

[Maxzoom]

I have 2 A6500 and one A6700. From your post I don't think the A6700 is for you. The touch screen is my preferred way of setting the tracking point, I also use the control wheel for up/down/left/right as you describe. There is no real change between A6500 and A6700 in that. I too don't understand this obsession with a joystick the control wheel is effectively the same thing just not a full time dedicated control.

 

[Joachim Wulfers]

I just focus and re-compose with my A6600. Don't need a joy-stick nor do I need to use the touch screen or press up-down or side buttons on the rear pad.

 

[José B]

I have 2 A6500 and one A6700. From your post I don't think the A6700 is for you. The touch screen is my preferred way of setting the tracking point, I also use the control wheel for up/down/left/right as you describe. There is no real change between A6500 and A6700 in that. I too don't understand this obsession with a joystick the control wheel is effectively the same thing just not a full time dedicated control.

I have the A6700 on pre-order. If the tracking is anything like my Canon R6MKII I will be more than ecstatic. With the Canon even though it has a joystick----I don't need it. I set subject (human) with the eye-AF and it's like a point and shoot. I only have to press the shutter. Most likely this will be like in the A6700 when I set the focus area to wide. In the A6600 I used the Tracking Expand Spot when shooting tennis and volleyball. But once I get the A6700 I'll just set to wide and let it rip!

 

[Dennis Bayer]

Thanks for the replies.

I never understood why anybody would want to use the touchscreen other than maybe shooting videos with a tripod. I think I tried using the touchscreen for a day when I first got my a6500 several years ago and turned it off the next day. I haven't used it since then.

 

[Martin_99]

I just focus and re-compose with my A6600. Don't need a joy-stick nor do I need to use the touch screen or press up-down or side buttons on the rear pad.

Exactly, I wanted to post the same. The easiest and quickest way.

Use one of the tracking AF modes, leave the focus point in center and just old fashion focus and recompose method.

--
JoWul
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jowul/

 

[Newbie Phewbie]

I, on the other hand, use the touch focus all the time & get frustrated when it doesn't respond sometimes. Most of the time it works very well and I can move the focus point exactly to where I want it very quickly. It is no different than using the touchpad on this notebook.

I'm looking forward to a better touch screen on the 6700. The tracking may make moving the focus point moot on subjects that the camera recognizes, but not all the time - take landscapes or flowers for example. I could still use the focus & then compose style that Joachim mentioned, but I find it easier to move the focus point.

 

[Dennis Bayer]

I have 2 A6500 and one A6700. From your post I don't think the A6700 is for you. The touch screen is my preferred way of setting the tracking point, I also use the control wheel for up/down/left/right as you describe. There is no real change between A6500 and A6700 in that. I too don't understand this obsession with a joystick the control wheel is effectively the same thing just not a full time dedicated control.

If you shoot a burst of let's say 8 frames does the 6700 write any faster than the 6500? One frustration I have with the 6500 is the time it takes for the camera to be ready for another burst.

 

[Maxzoom]

I've just done a test using the A6700 and a V90 SDXC UHS-II card.

Shooting Extra Fine JPEG at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was no sign of buffering.

Shooting compressed RAW at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was maybe 0.25s buffering at the end. Too quick to really think about.

The A6500 was never that fast.

Hope this helps.

 

[Roy55]

Hi-

I keep reading that the a6700 doesn't have a joystick to move the focus point. Can somebody please tell me if the procedure for moving the focus point is the same as on the a6500? I have no idea what people are referring to as a joystick! I am fine moving the focus point on my a6500 with the up-down-left-right buttons on the control wheel. I have never used the touch pad on the a6500 and I have no interest in using it so I don't care if the touch pad is better on the a6700. I also rarely do video, so those upgrades don't matter to me either.

I waited a long time for the a6700 and It seems like a nice upgrade, but I was hoping for several features that weren't included, so I am a bit disappointed and on the fence about getting one.

Thanks,

Dennis

You can use a touchscreen lika a joystick when using EVF, its really good when you use to it.

 

[turke]

Thanks for the replies.

I never understood why anybody would want to use the touchscreen other than maybe shooting videos with a tripod. I think I tried using the touchscreen for a day when I first got my a6500 several years ago and turned it off the next day. I haven't used it since then.

because you can instantly move the focus point from one side to another

your proud ignorance isn't impressing anyone, it's just grating

 

[DutchMM]

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere, but you can choose whether the focus point moves beyond the screen margin round to the other side (in both axes, I think). It's called "Circ. of Focus Point". and it is on the Focus Area menu (from Focus tab, as I understand the guide).

This gives you another quick way to move from one side to the other.

HTH

Mike M

 

[Maxzoom]

Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere, but you can choose whether the focus point moves beyond the screen margin round to the other side (in both axes, I think). It's called "Circ. of Focus Point". and it is on the Focus Area menu (from Focus tab, as I understand the guide).

This gives you another quick way to move from one side to the other.

HTH

Mike M

Wow, thanks I wondered what that meant and didn't get to investigate it yet.

 

[Joachim Wulfers]

Thanks for the replies.

I never understood why anybody would want to use the touchscreen other than maybe shooting videos with a tripod. I think I tried using the touchscreen for a day when I first got my a6500 several years ago and turned it off the next day. I haven't used it since then.

Same here, my touch screen is disabled. I just set my "small" focus point on what I want in focus and, as I said, re-compose. It's certainly more accurate then using a finger on a touch screen. Or a greasy nose :-D

 

[José B]

I've just done a test using the A6700 and a V90 SDXC UHS-II card.

Shooting Extra Fine JPEG at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was no sign of buffering.

Shooting compressed RAW at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was maybe 0.25s buffering at the end. Too quick to really think about.

The A6500 was never that fast.

Hope this helps.

Thanks. How about @ 11 fps in high speed burst with Extra Fine Jpegs?

 

[Dave981]

I've just done a test using the A6700 and a V90 SDXC UHS-II card.

Shooting Extra Fine JPEG at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was no sign of buffering.

Shooting compressed RAW at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was maybe 0.25s buffering at the end. Too quick to really think about.

The A6500 was never that fast.

Hope this helps.

Just for comparison, from https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/sony-a6400/sony-a6400A6.HTM for the a6400:

Sony A6400 Review - Performance - Imaging Resource

Sony A6400 Review - A6400 Performance

www.imaging-resource.com

 

[DutchMM]

I've just done a test using the A6700 and a V90 SDXC UHS-II card.

Shooting Extra Fine JPEG at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was no sign of buffering.

Shooting compressed RAW at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was maybe 0.25s buffering at the end. Too quick to really think about.

The A6500 was never that fast.

Hope this helps.

Thanks. How about @ 11 fps in high speed burst with Extra Fine Jpegs?

And without using the silent shutter, so José gets his tennis racquets the right shape, and those of us who shoot BIF don't smear the background?

Cheers

Mike M

 

[Dennis Bayer]

Thanks for the replies.

I never understood why anybody would want to use the touchscreen other than maybe shooting videos with a tripod. I think I tried using the touchscreen for a day when I first got my a6500 several years ago and turned it off the next day. I haven't used it since then.

Same here, my touch screen is disabled. I just set my "small" focus point on what I want in focus and, as I said, re-compose. It's certainly more accurate then using a finger on a touch screen. Or a greasy nose :-D

Welcome to the Proud Ignorance Club.

 

[Dennis Bayer]

I've just done a test using the A6700 and a V90 SDXC UHS-II card.

Shooting Extra Fine JPEG at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was no sign of buffering.

Shooting compressed RAW at silent shutter (8fps) high speed for 60 seconds. There was maybe 0.25s buffering at the end. Too quick to really think about.

The A6500 was never that fast.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for doing that test.

I haven't tried silent shutter to compare, but I will to see if that helps.

Were you using the UHS-ll card on the a6500 as well? I've been wondering if that would help. I shoot raw+jpg almost always and I use the evf 99% of the time.

 

[Maxzoom]

On the A6500 I use SDXC UHS-I V30 (70MB/s write). The A6500 will not get any benefit from a UHS-II card, the limitation is the camera write speed. If I remember correctly the A6500 maxes out at around 30MB/s.

AFIK there should be no difference between mechanical and electronic shutter for burst shooting. On the A6700 I did a couple of burst tests, electronic shutter, at HI+ (11fps) for 60 seconds. In each case, the camera was dropping frames rather than doing any buffering. To be clear I did not see the little buffer indicator at any stage doing these these two tests.

Compressed RAW + JPEG Fine: 393 shots in 60s. The display started blanking after about 10 seconds.

JPEG Fine: 502 shots in 60s. The display started blanking after about 30 seconds.

First thing is why would anyone shoot still bursts for so long and secondly why is the camera not doing any buffering.