Sony 4D AF versus Canon Dual Pixel AF - the differences explained

[mike_tee_vee]

I still don't understand Sony's crusade against touchscreens.  Yes, you can do pull focus with button scrolling, but why not have a touchscreen for focus point selection in addition to buttons?  Every other manufacturer seems to be implementing touchscreens, so I'm not sure what Sony's business case against them is.

[frontfocus]

Quote

On the Sony A6300 the 425 photodiodes substituted by AF pixels don’t create dead pixels..

425 missing green photodiodes out of the millions on the sensor just need to interpolate from their neighbours a little more.

 

That's not how it works. We are not talking about 425 photodiodes. We are talking about 425 focus points. And it needs more than one pixel for an AF point.

There are hundreds of thousands of half masked pixels on those sensors and yes, it does impact noise performance. 

[/Chop N Shoot Films/]

17 hours ago, VanWeddings said:

i'm pretty sure you have to get sony lenses. i'm starting to get native sony lenses now, especially now that they have f2.8 zooms. shows they are serious about the platform

Yeah those G Master lenses look great but pretty pricey.  Could get the Sigma 18-35mm 1.8 and 50-100mm 1.8 lenses together for the price of the Sony 24-70mm 2.8.

[TheRenaissanceMan]

G Masters are also a tough sell for Sony crop body users, who have been left out in the cold lens-wise.

[tellure]

Yeah I sure wish there were some more crop e-mount lenses available, especially fast zooms.  I was briefly excited by the announcement of the Sigma MC-11 adapter, thinking I might be able to use it with some of Sigma's quality APS-C lenses like the 17-50 2.8, but alas like the Metabones the MC-11 it does not support AF-C, and I can't live without autofocus for video.

Also agree with mike_tee_vee above that Sony needs to do touch-screen focusing.  I'm wondering if they might be holding off just to give themselves a significant feature to add to the next a7 camera.

[Go Scrub]

On February 23, 2016 at 7:26 PM, Tiago Rosa-Rosso said:

The a6300 doesn't have a touchscreen? So how exactly do you pull focus from a subject to another? Do you talk with the camera? I'm just wondering.

Something that i do a lot while shooting UHD is use touch-to-focus to select focus between two (or sometimes more) faces. This can require split-second decisions when the scene is a conversation (vs a scripted interview which I don't do as often). 

Samsung NX1 does this well. Panasonic DVX200 does this well. C300 mkII DOES NOT do this well. Old Canon 70D does this well but is soft HD at best.

Sony FS7 - NO TOUCH SCREEN. Sony A6300 - NO TOUCH SCREEN. Sony A7R mkii - NO TOUCH SCREEN.   No thanks.

For people who claim to prefer buttons please remember cameras with touch screens aren't lacking buttons. They just offer additional interface for those who prefer touch screens.

If the Sony cameras had touch screens I think I would sell everything else and buy-in. The G Master lenses are particularly interesting with their higher resolving capability making them somewhat future proof. 

I really hope Sony finally breaks down and pays to license the touch screen tech that they evidently don't own. Really hard to believe at this point in time Sony doesn't have touch screens. How many devices are there out in the world with touch screens? Billions??

[Arizona Sunset]

The a5100 has a touch screen for focus point selection at minimum, and it's PDAF is similar to the A6000 - it worked awesome, just like the NX1 in my use  

I assumed that it would trickle up to the A7's, but Sony sometimes seems more interested in market share through iteration - the Canikon playbook and all.

[The Chris]

On February 23, 2016 at 0:51 PM, mike_tee_vee said:

I still don't understand Sony's crusade against touchscreens.  Yes, you can do pull focus with button scrolling, but why not have a touchscreen for focus point selection in addition to buttons?  Every other manufacturer seems to be implementing touchscreens, so I'm not sure what Sony's business case against them is.

I've seen "pros don't use touchscreens" posts all the time across forums, I think Sony is buying into that narrative. The a5100 has one and it works great - especially since all the E-mount AF lenses are fly by wire. It's frustrating shooting alongside the A7rII which lacks one, forcing you to constantly magnify the image to get focus. There are interviews floating around where they state it's an entry level consumer cam feature.

I just got my first pair of glasses, my closeup vision is now slightly off. I can get the EVF adjusted properly with the diopter for now, but viewing on the LCD closer than about 18" is now tough for me without squinting or putting my glasses on, in which case everything beyond about 3 feet is blurred. I may need an external monitor just to see where I'm focusing so I don't have to juggle my glasses all the time.

Or I'm moving to cameras with a touchscreen since everything I shoot is more run and gun.