Sony A1 Firmware coming

[Deleted Member 5003]

There are no cameras that focus stack in terms of aligning and blending the stack shots in camera...
The processing power to do this is way beyond that which can be achieved by current cameras

Bracketing and focus stacking, when claimed by. Camera manufacturers amounts to automated shooting of the
Stack shots...the alignment and blending has to be done post with something like photoshop,

HELICON focus, zerene stacker and photoshop are Apps that i have used for for good affect for heavy duty full
Process alignment ,blending and artfact adjustment after blending.

 

[Brownie]

There are no cameras that focus stack in terms of aligning and blending the stack shots in camera...
The processing power to do this is way beyond that which can be achieved by current cameras

Bracketing and focus stacking, when claimed by. Camera manufacturers amounts to automated shooting of the
Stack shots...the alignment and blending has to be done post with something like photoshop,

HELICON focus, zerene stacker and photoshop are Apps that i have used for for good affect for heavy duty full
Process alignment ,blending and artfact adjustment after blending.

All due respect, that is not true.

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Om1 does a maximum of 3- 15 shots only....hardly heavy duty focus stacking

Hardly qualifies as a serious complete focus stacking camera......

Even the most rudimentary focus stacks, at macro DOF, will require many more
than 15 shots...the devil is in the detail, as many on the forum will acknowledge,
when mirroring or heralding camera manufacturers claims.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Ray. Seriously?
I'm not taking sides here, but the OM1 does stack in camera. Even if it was 2 images it would still be stacking, the fact it can do 15 is extremely impressive, and if you've ever bothered to look at some of the images it creates you can't fail to be impressed.
Not everyone wants to invest in or needs to invest in rails, helicon focus and have all the faff of moving the camera a tiny amount, refocussing, and messing about taking 40 or 50 shots. The only way that's even possible is if you nail or glue your subject down, or it's dead. Out in the real world, if you can get a 15 shot stack of a subject without the need for everything else you need to "do it properly", then it's a no brainer to use the feature to your advantage. It's a simple and undeniable FACT!

@Brownie I agree that the file size is the stumbling block that could prevent the feature being added to the A1, though it could be done if they limited the file size on the sensor, a bit like crop mode does.
It's not actually that far removed from what pixel shift does.

 

[Angus Cameron]

I went down the rabbit hole of checking what the existing Sony Focus Bracketing does on the A7RV.

Sony ambassador Mark Galer has an in depth Youtube on it, See - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFdU21iUiQ8
As applied to the A7RV you focus on the closest part of your subject, you are given the opportunity to select the amount of focus shift from a 1 to 10 scale and you choose the number of shots. Focus breathing is unfortunately not taken into consideration. Interestingly Mark states that this feature is likely to be standard on newer models and that it will be added to the A1 as an update, also that the focus breathing could be addressed via an update.

Anyone interested in this feature may also wish to watch this -

Focus Stacking in the field with fungi photographer Stephen Axford and the Sony α7R V​

Focus Stacking in the field with fungi photographer Stephen Axford and the Sony α7R V

Focus stacking can be tricky in the field, battling changes of light, wind, spongy ground under the tripod legs. It requires patience, efficiency and skill. ...

www.youtube.com

@Brownie - The OM system focus bracketing with in camera focus stacking is impressive.
The maximum of 15 shots will make this feature very useful for photographers using this to create focus stacked landscapes. I'm not sure how well it will do when used for Marco, 15 is fairly limited, it will shoot more than 15 within the bracketing feature for stacking in 3rd party software. I noticed also that the feature is limited to a specific list of OM lenses, I suspect these don't suffer from focus breathing.

 

[Angus Cameron]

I should also mention I want AI train subject recognition almost as much as I want AI potato subject registration.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Ban!!!!!!!!

 

[Brownie]

I went down the rabbit hole of checking what the existing Sony Focus Bracketing does on the A7RV.

Sony ambassador Mark Galer has an in depth Youtube on it, See - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFdU21iUiQ8
As applied to the A7RV you focus on the closest part of your subject, you are given the opportunity to select the amount of focus shift from a 1 to 10 scale and you choose the number of shots. Focus breathing is unfortunately not taken into consideration. Interestingly Mark states that this feature is likely to be standard on newer models and that it will be added to the A1 as an update, also that the focus breathing could be addressed via an update.

Anyone interested in this feature may also wish to watch this -

Focus Stacking in the field with fungi photographer Stephen Axford and the Sony α7R V​

Focus Stacking in the field with fungi photographer Stephen Axford and the Sony α7R V

Focus stacking can be tricky in the field, battling changes of light, wind, spongy ground under the tripod legs. It requires patience, efficiency and skill. ...

www.youtube.com

@Brownie - The OM system focus bracketing with in camera focus stacking is impressive.
The maximum of 15 shots will make this feature very useful for photographers using this to create focus stacked landscapes. I'm not sure how well it will do when used for Marco, 15 is fairly limited, it will shoot more than 15 within the bracketing feature for stacking in 3rd party software. I noticed also that the feature is limited to a specific list of OM lenses, I suspect these don't suffer from focus breathing.

Yeah, we had a pretty good debate (whine session?) when it was introduced and we learned it needs a computer to do the stacking. Many of us expected it to be more OM-like. Still, it's a neat feature. I think if they implemented an automatic in-camera system as well, with a limited number of frames and perhaps limited file size as Kev suggests, it would be a nice option. The user could then choose between many frames and doing it in post, or a smaller set in camera.

Even though some don't feel 15 frames is enough for their own use, it's plenty for some types of photography like landscape and real estate where f/8 and a half-dozen shots satisfy the need.

 

[Brownie]

I should also mention I want AI train subject recognition almost as much as I want AI potato subject registration.

Hey, maybe someone in Idaho or Ireland would find it helpful!!

 

[iain clyne]

Sony uk was contacted about A1 firmware, this I what they said,



I'm afraid that we don't have any information about an upcoming update for this model, or when it will be released exactly.


So make what you want of that.

 

[Brownie]

Sony uk was contacted about A1 firmware, this I what they said,



I'm afraid that we don't have any information about an upcoming update for this model, or when it will be released exactly.


So make what you want of that.

It's coming, they sure as heck aren't going to tell everyone that calls!

1. The firmware should be released in February. The previous official announcement said it would be available “from March or later”.

 

[Angus Cameron]

Waiting for the update is like listening to the wind and watching the tumbley tumbleweed tumble by .....

When the 10th of Feb passed by (pfffft at the alpha rumours guy), I thought OK the timeline was March. They will want this out the way prior to the Photography Show 16-19th March Birmingham UK. It seems not, there's going to be some Sony sales staff going onto the stand knowing that they will be getting earache about updates.

 

[spudhead]

Waiting for the update is like listening to the wind and watching the tumbley tumbleweed tumble by .....

When the 10th of Feb passed by (pfffft at the alpha rumours guy), I thought OK the timeline was March. They will want this out the way prior to the Photography Show 16-19th March Birmingham UK. It seems not, there's going to be some Sony sales staff going onto the stand knowing that they will be getting earache about updates.

Sony as per usual! Christmas is coming but that is months away!

 

[Brownie]

And not a word more on the rumor site. All he's posting is bullshit reviews and commercials.

 

[iain clyne]

The way Sony have worded it, it could be anytime from now to Christmas.

 

[Brownie]

The way Sony have worded it, it could be anytime from now to Christmas.

Yeah, any Christmas!

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Sony are truly awful at this stuff.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Jam tomorrow...

 

[iain clyne]

The photo show starts tomorrow but I’m not holding my breath over the next 4 days for the firmware to appear.
If it wasn’t that the A1 is so good and I’ve now got a lot of Sony glass I might have gone back to Nikon.

 

[iain clyne]

Nikon 2 v Sony 0
Nikon has just brought out another firmware update for the Z9 while we still wait for one for the A1.

 

[Brownie]

Nikon 2 v Sony 0
Nikon has just brought out another firmware update for the Z9 while we still wait for one for the A1.

Not only that, but Nikon's updates included some nice feature additions, that's how it should be done. Too bad their cameras are so big, they just don't appeal to me.

 

[iain clyne]

If the Nikon had got its focusing issues sorted out earlier I would probably still be Nikon. To change back now there would be a considerable cost.

 

[iain clyne]

The Photo show has been and gone and no firmware. I wonder what the next big show is.

 

[Brownie]

I saw a post about something going on April 16th-ish.

 

[iain clyne]

Hope you don’t mind if I don’t hold my breath.

 

[Brownie]

Hope you don’t mind if I don’t hold my breath.

No, but if you decide to, please post a pic!

 

[iain clyne]

 

[Brownie]

HERE WE GO!

Another post from the rumor site with absolutely ZERO new information other than a wild rumor!

Wild rumors about a firmware update launch on March 28 – sonyalpharumors

www.sonyalpharumors.com

Just posting a link. No need to click it, it says nothing more than a wild rumor that it will be released March 28th that some customer got from his local camera store. He said, she said, rumors and innuendos.

 

[AlphaWorld]

Why I've been saying that I have low expectations for the update. The new bodies all have a new chip dedicated to AF so it is unlikely that anything that chip does would make it into the update, which really limits what we might get. Don't see why precature can't happen though.

The A1 has 759 focus points covering 92% of the frame and the A9iii has 759 focus points covering 95.6% of the frame, this would lead me to believe that the A1 has smaller focus points. Do you have anything showing what the smaller focus points are?

The Extra Small and Extra Large things that were added to the A9 III are Focus Areas, not Focus Points. So instead of having Spot Focus Areas in S / M / L, you have XS / S / M / L / XL. They can be tracking, like all the other focus areas.

I don’t use Spot much, so I am not a good judge of the utility of these, but I have seen a few people quite keen on this change. I have no idea of whether these require extra hardware to support.

I think it was mentioned that the XS Spot is about the size of the Eye Autofocus box, which is definitely quite small.

I don’t know if the buffer memory used for Pre-Capture is different from the regular buffer memory. If it isn’t, we might hope to see Pre-Capture in the A1 - I think I’d like that.

 

[AlphaWorld]

Didn’t the rumor site say there would be a firmware update on the 26th? Of course, there was, but it was bug fixes to the A7RV, A7CR, A7C II, …

I, too, refuse to hold my breath for the 28th