Low light bummer

[takaiguchi]

On my Nex 5n, it's in Setup, then scroll up to the top of the vertical scroll bar. It's the first one, under Shoot Settings.

Perfect. Thanks!

 

[hyena]

The NEX AF is pretty poor (compared to dslr's and the likes of the Pen5) and remember the D.O.F. with the 50mm 1.8 indoors (say 10 feet)on a NEX is pretty small <0.9 feet .. at f2.8 its much easier

... what I do is use the lens in manual mode with the excellent focus bracketing app (which takes a shot either side of your focus point in case you are a bit out this normally gets me out of jail if I am a bit out in focus. If the motion is more predictable you can prefocus on a certain point and shoot when the target goes through that point (again using focusing bracketing)

NEX focus peeking and magnification helps but its not a patch on a manual film camera split screen focusing aid so manual focusing with bright lenses on a NEX is hard

You have the focus lamp off so that should help a bit, you could also make sure your lens has been updated for PDAF (perhaps this is automatic if you connect the camera and lens to the PC if you have the sony play memories stuff installed ?)

remember that the Sigma 60mm has no OIS so video(and the display) will be shakier and you will notice the difference if hand held in low light (less sharp because of more motion blur)

other than that I guess it's just practice ..

 

[Ad Dieleman]

NEX focus peeking and magnification helps but its not a patch on a manual film camera split screen focusing aid so manual focusing with bright lenses on a NEX is hard.

That is certainly not true for me. I find that I can focus more reliably with a NEX and peaking than with a DSLR, even without the use of the NEX's magnification. And in my experience using magnification on a mirrorless camera yields focussing accuracy far superior to that of a DSLR with split prisms/microprisms/whatever. We won't even talk about the DSLR's electronic focussing indicator, that's just a gross indication of getting near optimum focus.

 

[gio]

especially when you forget it,s on and take some candid shots, ha ha, the looks you get, ie gorgeous girls face lights up red

 

[alaios]

Of course, in the hindsight, I could've taken my Kiron 28/2 and pre-focus. I would've missed a lot of opportunities with a manual lens, though.

like what?? I am curious to learn what one misses with no autofocus capability-

 

[alaios]

One "trick" with manual lenses that might help get more in focus is to rock back and forth a bit while firing off a few shots, that moves the focal point up and back so if you are in the general area you will probably get a keeper. Using manual focus is tough especially in low light but I love it.

What if you tried to just see what the focus ring says? I guess that after some experience you can just say my target is at 5 meters, turn fast the ring there and shoot. I am not ofcourse good at it I am just wondering.

Alex

 

[markoneswift]

I'm curious about the environment which the OP was shooting in - indoors in low light with moving subjects. Obviously a tricky environment, but what ISO were the shots been taken at ? More and more recently, I've been using really high ISOs for low light mainly due to the NEX's awesome noise handling. As one article I read pointed out, a noisy sharp photo is better than a noiseless blurred one. Maybe this might be worth thinking about ???

 

[Amamba]

ISO Auto (3200).

The problem wasn't low shutter speed, it was the fact that AF couldn't keep up. Probably because there wasn't enough light. Bumping up ISO wouldn't help with that.

Perhaps using LAEA2 with it's PDAF would be better under these conditions ?

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