Sorry to have created so many threads about buying, receiving, etc., the new camera. But people have been so great with their input, I want to keep posting.
Now I'm finding things that are really quite cool. I thought about labeling this "Sony A6500 discoveries". But many of these things might apply to other cameras, and may get people searching.
Anyway. One thing that I've always played with is the focus area. On my Canon 7D there were many focus zones, and I got very good at changing the zones quickly and efficiently. On the 6500, the zone is massive. I haven't found a way to pick the zone size I want. There is a flexible spot and expandable spot, but the flexible is too small. I wanted something in between. I'll read up on the expandable, but it seemed like there had to be an easier way.
I thought the touch operations were going to be for more than just focus points, thought it doesn't seem that way so far. But I'm finding it is rather cool. Instead of flipping a couple of buttons/dials like I'd do on the 7D, I can use my thumb and slide it around on the touch pad while I'm looking through the viewfinder to change my focus spot. I'm not sure it's going to be fast enough or convenient enough for fast action wildlife. But it's pretty cool. It's another reason to train my right eye to be the shooting eye.
(I'm having a hard time with this. For things that are far away, I'm seeing two images on top of each other, one large and one small (zoomed in vs wide angle). The large one is the dominant one right now. Not sure how to train the brain to see the wider image which is what the camera is photographing.
I took the time to find shooting w/out card and turned that off. That's what I had to do with the 7D. It's awful taking a boat load of photos only to realize you had no card. Just the same as taking photos without film in the camera. When I got my 7D back from repair, they had set it back to factory specs and I did it again -- shot a bunch with no card.
Seriously -- why do cameras default to being able to shoot without a card?
Cool. It finds peoples eyes and focuses on them when you point the camera at their face.
Why does it even need me to take the photo anymore?
I still want someone just to hook a camera to my brain. I can look at something, double blink and have it take the photo. Come on scientists -- you can do it!
One thing I can't seem to figure out is that when I try to manually focus (whether pushing down the af/mf button and holding it, or setting it to manual focus, it's automatically doing the focus zoom when I turn the focus ring. I'd rather just play with the focus peaking, but I don't seem to be able to get rid of that.
It does have a lot of extra features. I have a different model, but find a great deal of difficulty with the focus functions. Still trying to figure out, and have had the camera since May. Glad you have already discovered so much. I have been happiest with just manual mode with direct manual focus.
One thing I can't seem to figure out is that when I try to manually focus (whether pushing down the af/mf button and holding it, or setting it to manual focus, it's automatically doing the focus zoom when I turn the focus ring. I'd rather just play with the focus peaking, but I don't seem to be able to get rid of that.
On my Sony, in the Custom Settings menu (the icon that kind of looks like a flower) my first choice is something called Zebra. The second on the list is MF Assist. I open that one up and have two choices, off or on. When I turn it off, then the preview no longer zooms. Do you have a similar set up?
