Sony Peaking at Chickens

[Country Parson]

I cannot overemphasize how useful is the Peaking function on the NEX cameras. Today I put long lenses on the NEX 5N, a 180mm f2.8 Nikon, and a 100mm f2 Zeiss. There is no way I could use these lenses following moving subjects and get consistently accurate focus just by looking at the screen. My eyes are not that good, especially with tri-focal glasses. But the peaking function gave me nearly flawless focus on the chickens running free range around my yard. Here are two examples, one with each lens at ISO 100 and wide open, or maybe one stop down, apertures.

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If the weather permits I will try the same exercise tomorrow with the GXRs version of peaking.

 

[krugorg]

Love it - great stuff! :smile:

 

[stillshunter]

Very nice. Hit that sweet spot on these images. Can I ask your overall keeper rate?

 

[kyteflyer]

Thanks for your posts on this, Dan. I wondered what peaking was, and now I see. What a wonderful idea/implementation. Makes the NEX7 even more appealing, when it comes.

 

[bilzmale]

Nicely done Dan.

 

[Lili]

well done, Dan!

 

[Country Parson]

Very nice. Hit that sweet spot on these images. Can I ask your overall keeper rate?

If we define keeper rate as in focus, it was about 98% for this exercise.

 

[Pelao]

Wow. It clearly works very, very well. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Armanius]

Looking forward to the GXR version of the peaking chicken (as opposed to Peking Duck). Hehe.

 

[Country Parson]

Peaking at chickens and dog

My experiment with the GXR and its version of peaking will have to wait for an adapter. Meanwhile, I went out this morning with the NEX5N and a Pentax FA 77mm f1.8 lens set at 2.8. I tried following our very energetic dog (pictured here) and found it difficult with the peaking feature. My in focus success rate with her was more like 40%. I think my success would not have been much better with my DSLR.

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Back to chickens. This photo illustrates the advantage of manual focus with peaking. Auto focus often has difficulty with a picture like this because it does not know on what to focus. There are work-arounds of course. With manual peaking it is easy to choose the point of focus in this cluttered scene.

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