chalkdust
TalkEmount Top Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2015
- Messages
- 609
- Real Name
- Bert Cheney
This is a story of User Error. Soon after I bought my Sony A7m3 (A.K.A. A73, A7iii,A7III) I decided to set up a special button for eye auto focus ( not understanding that it is pretty much default AF on that model). By the way, I really Like that eye auto focus!! Some video tutorial recommended using the AEL button for this. So that is what I did.
I think that video was based upon an earlier A7 model. So for several months, my camera would (somewhat randomly) tell me an irritating message like "This function is not available" when I used my new manual focus lens. Now it would have been nice for that message to tell me what function is not available, but whatever. I thought there was something wrong with my new manual focus lens. Then I thought that was something wrong with my camera. It was an intermittent problem but a relatively frequent one. I feared for a couple of months that I had some strange intermittent problem which I would be a real mess to try to explain to any service or repair department.
Then, one day, as I picked up my camera I looked at the position of my right thumb. BOOM. There was my thumb on the AEL button. I looked at my older A7ii and saw no button in a similar place. So apparently I tend to press the AEL button with my thumb AND NOT NOTICE that I am doing it.
Now I have set that button to something that is OK in either auto or manual focus (I think it called std focus - - it moves the little focus square back to the center). I now longer get that intermittent error message. It is like a wonderful new camera!!! And when I move the little focus square to some special position, it is easy to pop it back to the center. I never use Auto Exposure Lock. Never. Ever.
I think that video was based upon an earlier A7 model. So for several months, my camera would (somewhat randomly) tell me an irritating message like "This function is not available" when I used my new manual focus lens. Now it would have been nice for that message to tell me what function is not available, but whatever. I thought there was something wrong with my new manual focus lens. Then I thought that was something wrong with my camera. It was an intermittent problem but a relatively frequent one. I feared for a couple of months that I had some strange intermittent problem which I would be a real mess to try to explain to any service or repair department.
Then, one day, as I picked up my camera I looked at the position of my right thumb. BOOM. There was my thumb on the AEL button. I looked at my older A7ii and saw no button in a similar place. So apparently I tend to press the AEL button with my thumb AND NOT NOTICE that I am doing it.
Now I have set that button to something that is OK in either auto or manual focus (I think it called std focus - - it moves the little focus square back to the center). I now longer get that intermittent error message. It is like a wonderful new camera!!! And when I move the little focus square to some special position, it is easy to pop it back to the center. I never use Auto Exposure Lock. Never. Ever.