Focus stacking with the A7RV is a game changer!

[Drew_Geraci]

 After a day of playing around with the new 'focus bracketing' features on the A7RV I've found that it's probably one of the best new features and additions to the Alpha lineup. It makes getting complete and total focus for macro photography possible and the results are fantastic!! I was able to do a 12-image stack of this cactus and achieve full focus throughout the entire part of the plant which I've never been able to do. I definitely hope Sony adds this in a firmware update to the other existing cameras out there because it's a game-changer! 

 

What are you going to use focus stacking for? 

[TrekRover]

@Drew_Geraci I am hoping the focus bracketing feature gets released on the other models as well. I tried doing focus stacking with 58 stacks using a reverse lens and extension tube as an experiment and it kind of worked and didn't...

[tonygale]

Very cool, did you use Photoshop or another program to assemble the photos?

[LensBrew]

How much does the focus shifts on each shoot do you reckon? I wondering how to tell the camera that the subject is, for example, 4 inches deep for like a flower. As other times I might want it to focus stack a landscape. And bear with my technical questions. When you tell it how many shots to take, does it go the full range of focus (from furthest to nearest) and normally distribute each shot?

[CarolineJensen]

WOOT! I am so excited about this! I cannot wait until this summer to really put this to the test! 

[DonSmith]

I love it and have been using it regularly over the past 3 weeks here in Iceland. So happy we get the RAWS!

[DonSmith]

Very cool, did you use Photoshop or another program to assemble the photos?

Tony - yes, PS can composite and also Helicon Focus. Must Align photos first in PS before stacking where Helicon is all one click.

[IraBlock]

It sounds amazing,I will give it a try soon.!!

[-AJB-]

Would this replace a “focusing rail” (if that is what its called)? 

[flz47655]

On 1/12/2023 at 9:03 PM, Drew_Geraci said:

 

 After a day of playing around with the new 'focus bracketing' features on the A7RV I've found that it's probably one of the best new features and additions to the Alpha lineup. It makes getting complete and total focus for macro photography possible and the results are fantastic!! I was able to do a 12-image stack of this cactus and achieve full focus throughout the entire part of the plant which I've never been able to do. I definitely hope Sony adds this in a firmware update to the other existing cameras out there because it's a game-changer! 

 

What are you going to use focus stacking for? 

Photogrammetry (3d models reconstruction) is another interesting application for focus stacking

 

On 1/12/2023 at 10:25 PM, TrekRover said:

@Drew_Geraci I am hoping the focus bracketing feature gets released on the other models as well. I tried doing focus stacking with 58 stacks using a reverse lens and extension tube as an experiment and it kind of worked and didn't...

You can do focus bracketing on older camera with your smartphone if bluetooth is supported by your camera