Sony A5100 Continuous Shooting Low to High
Continuous-Shooting AF settings for A5100?
I did a quick test just pointing the camera at a stationary object and taking two steps forward while shooting. I tried two lenses, 16-50 pancake and the 35 f/1.4 ZA. Settings were High speed, Lock-On AF Medium. Shutter 1/250s to avoid motion blur. I also made sure I was not within the MFD. The lighting is daytime, indoors. I repeated the test a few times.
In all tests the A5100 failed to adjust focus as I moved towards the object.
My Olympus E-M1 passes this test just fine.
What settings do I need to change on the A5100 to get this working properly? (and I hope the answer is not "trade it for an A6300")
Thanks
Sony FE 35mm F1.4 Sony a5100 Sony a7 II Sony E 16mm F2.8 Pancake Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS +7 more
wb2trf • Veteran Member • Posts: 3,389
Re: Continuous-Shooting AF settings for A5100?
You don't say what AF mode was. You need to be AF-C.
LynniePad • Veteran Member • Posts: 3,605
Re: Continuous-Shooting AF settings for A5100?
Alex Notpro wrote:
I did a quick test just pointing the camera at a stationary object and taking two steps forward while shooting. I tried two lenses, 16-50 pancake and the 35 f/1.4 ZA. Settings were High speed, Lock-On AF Medium. Shutter 1/250s to avoid motion blur. I also made sure I was not within the MFD. The lighting is daytime, indoors. I repeated the test a few times.
In all tests the A5100 failed to adjust focus as I moved towards the object.
I don't understand why you've written "medium". AF should be wide for most tracking modes.
Have you turned "Auto Review" off? ...And yes, AF-C of course.
The a5100 has a lot of AF options, and it's actually a bit more difficult to "drive" than the a6000/a6300 where there are user memories to save favourite settings, and they have to option to partition AF options across the various modes.
There's no alternative but to read the manual, and seek guidance here and elsewhere.
OP Alex Notpro • Senior Member • Posts: 1,013
"Medium" is for the "M" in Flexible Spot mode
There's also Small and Large.
All tests are with AF-C mode, only varying the Focus Area setting.
I got some ok results with Focus Area = Lock-On AF Zone. With these settings the camera seems to be at least trying to adjust the focus as I walk and shoot, and it gets it if I don't move too fast.
Sony FE 35mm F1.4 Sony a5100 Sony a7 II Sony E 16mm F2.8 Pancake Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS +7 more
LynniePad • Veteran Member • Posts: 3,605
Re: "Medium" is for the "M" in Flexible Spot mode
Alex Notpro wrote:
There's also Small and Large.
All tests are with AF-C mode, only varying the Focus Area setting.
I got some ok results with Focus Area = Lock-On AF Zone. With these settings the camera seems to be at least trying to adjust the focus as I walk and shoot, and it gets it if I don't move too fast.
The a5100 was OK for me at 5 frames/sec. when I practiced on an approaching car.
Do you see a bunch of "dancing green squares" when AF is working? Can you "Lock-On" to a particular subject and track it?
Have you seen Gary Fong's videos? he is the least irritating of the YouTube guys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSobrm9J0AM
This is for the a6000, but the a5100 is similar.
OP Alex Notpro • Senior Member • Posts: 1,013
Re: "Medium" is for the "M" in Flexible Spot mode
LynniePad wrote:
Alex Notpro wrote:
There's also Small and Large.
All tests are with AF-C mode, only varying the Focus Area setting.
I got some ok results with Focus Area = Lock-On AF Zone. With these settings the camera seems to be at least trying to adjust the focus as I walk and shoot, and it gets it if I don't move too fast.
The a5100 was OK for me at 5 frames/sec. when I practiced on an approaching car.
Do you see a bunch of "dancing green squares" when AF is working? Can you "Lock-On" to a particular subject and track it?
Have you seen Gary Fong's videos? he is the least irritating of the YouTube guys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSobrm9J0AM
This is for the a6000, but the a5100 is similar.
Yep, I got the "dancing squares" tracking the test subject, but curiously I did not get the large double-lined rectangles shown in Mr. Fong's video.
Sony FE 35mm F1.4 Sony a5100 Sony a7 II Sony E 16mm F2.8 Pancake Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS +7 more
LynniePad • Veteran Member • Posts: 3,605
Re: "Medium" is for the "M" in Flexible Spot mode
Alex Notpro wrote:
LynniePad wrote:
Alex Notpro wrote:
There's also Small and Large.
All tests are with AF-C mode, only varying the Focus Area setting.
I got some ok results with Focus Area = Lock-On AF Zone. With these settings the camera seems to be at least trying to adjust the focus as I walk and shoot, and it gets it if I don't move too fast.
The a5100 was OK for me at 5 frames/sec. when I practiced on an approaching car.
Do you see a bunch of "dancing green squares" when AF is working? Can you "Lock-On" to a particular subject and track it?
Have you seen Gary Fong's videos? he is the least irritating of the YouTube guys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSobrm9J0AM
This is for the a6000, but the a5100 is similar.
Yep, I got the "dancing squares" tracking the test subject, but curiously I did not get the large double-lined rectangles shown in Mr. Fong's video.
A family member now uses the a5100, but I borrowed it for a test. As far as I know, all the settings are default, and I was able to track and shoot some passing cars.
The double-lined rectangles comes from Centre-button lock-on ("select subject closest to centre"). If I recall from the Fong video, he sort of forgets to mention how he selects the skier of interest.
Note that you need the various settings that Fong mentions, plus continuous drive shooting (fast, 6 frames/sec.) and make sure that you don't have the zoom control into the "digital zoom" range, where you lose any feed-back from AF modes.
Here's a few other things that are important...
- Pre-AF Off
- Disp. Cont AF Area On
- Centre Lock-on AF On
The a6000 has a "Lock-on w/Shutter" option that Fong may have been using. Not available on the a5100, if I remember correctly.
The menu system of most Sonys is difficult to navigate and understand, and there are a few interactions. It must be particularly hard if you are generally unfamiliar with cameras.
OP Alex Notpro • Senior Member • Posts: 1,013
I'm still not seeing it
LynniePad wrote:
A family member now uses the a5100, but I borrowed it for a test.
Thanks for taking the time to help out.
As far as I know, all the settings are default, and I was able to track and shoot some passing cars.
I'm able to track and shoot but I see dancing squares, not the double-edged rectangle.
The double-lined rectangles comes from Centre-button lock-on ("select subject closest to centre"). If I recall from the Fong video, he sort of forgets to mention how he selects the skier of interest.
My center button when set to Standard function, just performs similar to the "AF On" button found in most DSLRs. No rectangle.
Note that you need the various settings that Fong mentions, plus continuous drive shooting (fast, 6 frames/sec.) and make sure that you don't have the zoom control into the "digital zoom" range, where you lose any feed-back from AF modes.
Here's a few other things that are important...
- Pre-AF Off
- Disp. Cont AF Area On
- Centre Lock-on AF On
Checked.
The a6000 has a "Lock-on w/Shutter" option that Fong may have been using. Not available on the a5100, if I remember correctly.
Curiously, I am able to lock and track with the shutter, but not the center button. The center button just focuses at the selected area, with no tracking. The shutter half-press follows the subject around with dancing squares.
The menu system of most Sonys is difficult to navigate and understand, and there are a few interactions.
It's not bad. I find Sony's menus are more logically organized than Olympus, for instance.
It must be particularly hard if you are generally unfamiliar with cameras.
I own 4 cameras right now and I have years of experience with Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony cameras. It's still particularly hard
Sony FE 35mm F1.4 Sony a5100 Sony a7 II Sony E 16mm F2.8 Pancake Sony E 10-18mm F4 OSS +7 more
LynniePad • Veteran Member • Posts: 3,605
Re: I'm still not seeing it
Alex Notpro wrote:
Thanks for taking the time to help out.
I'm able to track and shoot but I see dancing squares, not the double-edged rectangle.
The double-lined rectangles comes from Centre-button lock-on ("select subject closest to centre"). If I recall from the Fong video, he sort of forgets to mention how he selects the skier of interest.
My center button when set to Standard function, just performs similar to the "AF On" button found in most DSLRs. No rectangle.
Curiously, I am able to lock and track with the shutter, but not the center button. The center button just focuses at the selected area, with no tracking. The shutter half-press follows the subject around with dancing squares.
The menu system of most Sonys is difficult to navigate and understand, and there are a few interactions.
It must be particularly hard if you are generally unfamiliar with cameras.
I own 4 cameras right now and I have years of experience with Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Panasonic, and Sony cameras. It's still particularly hard
You probably need to reassign the center button to "Center Lock-on". The action of the center button is context-sensitive; i.e. even when it's assigned to something useful like Lock-on, it still retains its "OK" functionality, and other functions as required.
I didn't mean to imply that you were a beginner. I was also familiar with Nikon and Panasonic before tackling the Sonys and, while it was handy to have previous experience and know what functions should be available, it was still quite an exercise to get everything working. Wrangling the a5100 makes it easier to tackle the more advanced members of the Sony line.
You'll find that BBF isn't standard on the a5100; you can't disable "AF w/Shutter", so traditional BBF isn't available. It seems that continuously holding the BBF button over-rides shutter AF, but I'm not certain about that. The a6000 and a7xx allow you to disable AF w/Shutter, but it has to be a separate menu operation (i.e. you can't assign that option to a special button, or record that option in one of the memories). On the a5100, you could use AF/MF toggle, but I find that rather clumsy.
One thing you can do (and this gives you an extra "customisation"), is to leave the Menu button default on some feature. e.g. If I want to control AF w/Shutter, I just leave to menu button on that setting, and this persists if the camera is turned off.
Unfortunately, there's a big gap between the brilliant design of the Sony gear, and the way that the user manuals are written and managed. There's about 4 documents available for the a6000, for example, and some of them are hopeless. Even the full PDF version is quite difficult to navigate by usual PDF standards. Only the brief guide that comes in the box lists the menu items, and nowhere are the full option lists given in detail (you have to scroll though them on the camera). Most people seem to make up there own list of settings/notes.
Source: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3987959
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