Sony RX1 street shooting using the macro ring zone focus trick and back button AF

Ray Sachs

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Location
Not too far from Philly
Name
you should be able to figure it out...
In this thread (Zone focus with RX1 - neat little trick...) I discussed a way of using the RX1 for zone focus street shooting using the macro ring as essentially a "mechanical" focus ring. And incorporated Bruce's suggestion to override the manual focus settings using a back button auto-focus setup, using the AEL button in the same manner many of us use the AF-ON button on our Nikon or Canon DSLRs. But most of my shooting since then has been family and scenic stuff where I was just using auto-focus so I didn't really give the camera a FULL workout using this method until yesterday. I took the RX1 in for a day of shooting in Philly and used it this way, and it was brilliant. Just perfect for how I like to shoot and it basically mimics the way my DF works with either a MF lens or one of the newer AF lenses that has a MF override by just turning the focus ring.

So with a full day of shooting how I like to shoot, I'll give this setup, as described above, a full throated endorsement. Here are a bunch of shots, some using the zone focus setup with the macro ring, some using auto-focus with the AEL button set up for back button focus. I left the camera in manual focus mode the whole time, but was able to over-ride with AF using the AEL button. I already loved this camera, now even more so...

In addition to being a great street camera and great all-around camera, now the transition between the two modes for a day in the city is roughly as seamless as with any camera I've used. Also, I do a bit more cropping with street shots than I do with most other shooting, and I'm even starting to warm up to the 42mp on this camera's sensor. I do fine with less, but there's no downside to this and there's an occasional upside...

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr

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by Ray, on Flickr



-Ray
 
I keep reading these posts after a glass of wine and then failing to get my head around it! Sounds really useful so I really must try and get my RX1 set up and give it a try..... it's absolutely my only complaint about the RX1, the slow af!
 
Well, this doesn't speed up the auto-focus, but the zone focus technique pretty much makes it irrelevant it for some types of shooting. I use zone focus for wider angle street shooting pretty much regardless of what camera I'm using. It's just that some gear makes it easier and particularly for moving back and forth between zone focus and auto-focus. The RX1 wasn't bad in that regard, but with these couple of tricks, it's a LOT better...
 
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