I just had a thought - did you check the aperture drive in AF setting in the menus? Newer Sony cameras have this setting where flipping it to silent priority closes the aperture to shooting setting as the camera focuses, focus priority keeps it wide-open and stops down for the shot, and standard uses an intermediate setting. Focus priority produces a bit of noise as the diaphragm blades slam shut, but it significantly improves AF speed by admitting the maximum amount of light into the camera.
SeaFrogs housings for A7C2 or A6700?
- Thread starter ginkgo
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I'll have to dig into the menu on A7C, but off-hand, is that a current menu on that earlier model?
Finding the exact same, normal use, the 90mm is a really nice lens, but I've also done some blackwater off HI with A7C/90mm and see the very same thing. I've managed some decent shots, but the min focus distance really doesn't help cropping with the 24Mp. Thus also thinking about the A7CR. I use the 45 deg view finder which really helps with targeting and focus but it's still a challenge.
I believe this feature was introduced with A7RIII, but in that model it did not have the focus priority option, only standard and silent. The original A9 can do focus priority, but only in e-shutter mode. There were also restrictions on which lenses it worked with. A7IV, A7RIV, A7C, A9II, A1 and newer have full support. I believe A6700 is their first APS-C body with this feature; neither A6600 nor FX30 manuals mention it.
I don’t recall what it was on the A7CR I tested in the Sony store, but I did pass it to the salesperson and asked him to see why it’s focusing slower and he played around with it for ~10min changing various settings but it was still the same outcome. I don’t know if that was just a bad body or what but I would go in store and test side by side, don’t assume A7CR has the same AF as A7R5 despite them telling you it’s the same AI AF.
My A7C has always been on focus priority tho. Plus focus limiter on on the 90.
One added benefit of higher MP R series is when you’re stuck with a wide angle setup and there’s some really cool macro, or viz is abysmal and the guide turns the dive into a macro hunt, then at least you can still crop and get some decent photos. I found myself wishing for this on some dives on the last trip. If I shoot at 60mm end of 28-60+WACP-C I find I can actually get decent composition post-crop but then the image is like an instagram thumbnail at best.
My A7C has always been on focus priority tho. Plus focus limiter on on the 90.
One added benefit of higher MP R series is when you’re stuck with a wide angle setup and there’s some really cool macro, or viz is abysmal and the guide turns the dive into a macro hunt, then at least you can still crop and get some decent photos. I found myself wishing for this on some dives on the last trip. If I shoot at 60mm end of 28-60+WACP-C I find I can actually get decent composition post-crop but then the image is like an instagram thumbnail at best.
Got the A6700 housing. It arrived too late for me to take it to my most recent liveaboard trip - in fact, it was delivered the day I got off the boat - and I haven't taken it diving yet, but I've been playing with it dry, and it's quite interesting.
It's a tiny bit shorter and narrower than the A6xxx Salted Line housing - almost imperceptible; I only noticed the difference when putting the two housing backs against each other. It is quite a bit deeper, however, to accommodate the A6700's big grip I suppose, so considerably more total volume.
The ergonomics are an eclectic mix. As can be seen from product photos, there is no AF-ON thumb lever for back-button focusing, and the shutter trigger is set up to be operated from tray handle. However, I seem to be having issues operating it for shutter half-press - most of the time, I end up doing a full press when intending to do a half. On the other hand, if I forgo the tray grip and hold it by the housing, I can operate most camera functions without moving my right hand at all, which was quite a surprise! I don't have large hands, but I can grip the housing fairly comfortably, with my index finger on shutter trigger, my pinky on the bottom knob (operating the front dial), the ball of my thumb on the rear knob, and my thumb a short movement away from the top knob. I have the camera set up for shutter speed on rear dial, aperture on top dial, and ISO on the front dial, so this lets me adjust aperture with the tip of my thumb, shutter speed with its base, and ISO with my pinky, while zoom is controlled by the fingers of the left hand over the tray handle. The AF-ON button, in this configuration, is within easy reach of the thumb, as is FN and the five-way controller, although playback button if a bit of a reach.
The viewfinder seems a little different; it's a bit longer and the eye pad feels more securely attached. The old one (on A6xxx) was almost useless, and the eye pad fell off and was lost within a couple dives - I'll see whether or not this one is any better, although I don't have high hopes.
There is no screen shade or pegs for one, so my method of attaching the Nauticam screen magnifier hood is no good anymore. I'll have to 3D print a pair of rails and glue them to the housing. The longer viewfinder will require cutting out an even bigger piece out of its top left corner.
The new zoom/focus gears (I got the 16-50mm and the 90mm one) are made out of hard plastic, rather than flexible rubber, so misalignment issues seem to be a thing of the past. They are also supported by freewheeling cogs on top left and bottom right (the driving cog is on the bottom left). On the downside, mounting the 90mm gear is very annoying - it has to be done just so, because if you push it into the housing for final alignment, it will push the lens focus ring forward, and force manual focus mode (if the ring is kept backwards, AF/MF can be chosen from camera menus, but forward position forces MF). I'll see how useful it actually is - thus far I don't see using it except in supermacro mode, to lock focus at minimal distance and focus on the subject by camera movement.
Moving my Leak Sentinel V5 XB was fairly trivial, but the UWT trigger gave me a surprise - the new housing uses a different reflector board that has wider-spaced mounting holes, which means that if I want to keep using it, I'll have to work with Pavel to get a new LED board. I'm not sure I'm willing to go to the effort and expense of it - my UWT trigger has been giving me issues anyway; in January it up and died in the middle of a liveaboard trip, and I finished the trip by using the pop-up flash on my a6300. I sent it to Pavel in Taiwan, and he replaced the hot shoe plug, which seemed to have revived it - except when I went on another trip, I found that it drains fresh CR1220 batteries within two dives. I got a SeaFrogs trigger with the housing, and so far I'm gonna keep using it - I hardly ever used TTL before, and I suppose I can live without HSS too. The SeaFrogs trigger is actually a tiny Xenon tube flash rather than an LED device, and by all accounts, it has terrible battery life, but I was surprised to see that it is able to sustain burst fire in continuous low mode (it started missing shots in continuous mid). I have ordered a small (60x60x15mm) powerbank and a low-profile right-angle micro-USB cable which should fit onto the trigger's charging socket - the housing has sufficient empty space below the camera to fit a powerbank up to approximately 75x70x18mm in size, so it should work, presuming that the powerbank will supply current on demand, without requiring a button press.
I will have to do something about the crossbar float arrangement that I've been running until now - I mounted a 60x200mm float arm on triple clamps between right tray handle and housing cold shoe, with the other clamp point holding strobe arm and focus light respectively, but now the cold shoe is in the center rather than left edge, so this is no longer viable. Best way forward, I think, is to get two very short (3") arm segments and mount them on triple clamps on both tray handles, facing up and in, then mount the crossbar float between them, and cold shoe ball adapter with a long clamp holding the focus light underneath it. This will give me the float capacity and a mounting point for my backup dive computer.
If I have the time, I'll try to take it diving this Saturday and see how it performs underwater.
It's a tiny bit shorter and narrower than the A6xxx Salted Line housing - almost imperceptible; I only noticed the difference when putting the two housing backs against each other. It is quite a bit deeper, however, to accommodate the A6700's big grip I suppose, so considerably more total volume.
The ergonomics are an eclectic mix. As can be seen from product photos, there is no AF-ON thumb lever for back-button focusing, and the shutter trigger is set up to be operated from tray handle. However, I seem to be having issues operating it for shutter half-press - most of the time, I end up doing a full press when intending to do a half. On the other hand, if I forgo the tray grip and hold it by the housing, I can operate most camera functions without moving my right hand at all, which was quite a surprise! I don't have large hands, but I can grip the housing fairly comfortably, with my index finger on shutter trigger, my pinky on the bottom knob (operating the front dial), the ball of my thumb on the rear knob, and my thumb a short movement away from the top knob. I have the camera set up for shutter speed on rear dial, aperture on top dial, and ISO on the front dial, so this lets me adjust aperture with the tip of my thumb, shutter speed with its base, and ISO with my pinky, while zoom is controlled by the fingers of the left hand over the tray handle. The AF-ON button, in this configuration, is within easy reach of the thumb, as is FN and the five-way controller, although playback button if a bit of a reach.
The viewfinder seems a little different; it's a bit longer and the eye pad feels more securely attached. The old one (on A6xxx) was almost useless, and the eye pad fell off and was lost within a couple dives - I'll see whether or not this one is any better, although I don't have high hopes.
There is no screen shade or pegs for one, so my method of attaching the Nauticam screen magnifier hood is no good anymore. I'll have to 3D print a pair of rails and glue them to the housing. The longer viewfinder will require cutting out an even bigger piece out of its top left corner.
The new zoom/focus gears (I got the 16-50mm and the 90mm one) are made out of hard plastic, rather than flexible rubber, so misalignment issues seem to be a thing of the past. They are also supported by freewheeling cogs on top left and bottom right (the driving cog is on the bottom left). On the downside, mounting the 90mm gear is very annoying - it has to be done just so, because if you push it into the housing for final alignment, it will push the lens focus ring forward, and force manual focus mode (if the ring is kept backwards, AF/MF can be chosen from camera menus, but forward position forces MF). I'll see how useful it actually is - thus far I don't see using it except in supermacro mode, to lock focus at minimal distance and focus on the subject by camera movement.
Moving my Leak Sentinel V5 XB was fairly trivial, but the UWT trigger gave me a surprise - the new housing uses a different reflector board that has wider-spaced mounting holes, which means that if I want to keep using it, I'll have to work with Pavel to get a new LED board. I'm not sure I'm willing to go to the effort and expense of it - my UWT trigger has been giving me issues anyway; in January it up and died in the middle of a liveaboard trip, and I finished the trip by using the pop-up flash on my a6300. I sent it to Pavel in Taiwan, and he replaced the hot shoe plug, which seemed to have revived it - except when I went on another trip, I found that it drains fresh CR1220 batteries within two dives. I got a SeaFrogs trigger with the housing, and so far I'm gonna keep using it - I hardly ever used TTL before, and I suppose I can live without HSS too. The SeaFrogs trigger is actually a tiny Xenon tube flash rather than an LED device, and by all accounts, it has terrible battery life, but I was surprised to see that it is able to sustain burst fire in continuous low mode (it started missing shots in continuous mid). I have ordered a small (60x60x15mm) powerbank and a low-profile right-angle micro-USB cable which should fit onto the trigger's charging socket - the housing has sufficient empty space below the camera to fit a powerbank up to approximately 75x70x18mm in size, so it should work, presuming that the powerbank will supply current on demand, without requiring a button press.
I will have to do something about the crossbar float arrangement that I've been running until now - I mounted a 60x200mm float arm on triple clamps between right tray handle and housing cold shoe, with the other clamp point holding strobe arm and focus light respectively, but now the cold shoe is in the center rather than left edge, so this is no longer viable. Best way forward, I think, is to get two very short (3") arm segments and mount them on triple clamps on both tray handles, facing up and in, then mount the crossbar float between them, and cold shoe ball adapter with a long clamp holding the focus light underneath it. This will give me the float capacity and a mounting point for my backup dive computer.
If I have the time, I'll try to take it diving this Saturday and see how it performs underwater.
tangerinedream
New
It looks from the picture that the AF-ON button is supported now. Did they change it?
It's always been supported, but whereas many housings (including SeaFrogs' new metal ones) extend it with a thumb lever, so that you can hold the housing by tray handle, press the shutter lever with your index or middle finger and AF-ON with your thumb, this housing keeps it as a regular button. This means that if you hold it by tray handle, it's not really reachable, and you have to use half-press focusing. So far I've opted to put my right hand on the housing and left hand on tray handle.
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