Does anyone know if I can turn off the red beam(light)that shoots out of the Sony F717? I was busted doing a candid shot. The person was not mad he just turned around to see where the light was coming from.
As you can tell by the second picture I was shocked when he turn around and looked at me when I was looking through the LCD screen snapping the picture...lol It's blurry.
If I can't turn it off I may want a different camera :(
go in setup mode, and go down to the "hologram AF", which should be set to "auto" .. which means it'll only activate when needed (ie, not enough light to focus), you can set it to off, but you might have trouble focusing.. but atleast that wont warn your candid subjects :)
I think it would have been better if it only worked while you press a special hologram AF button. Now you have switch in on en off in the menu, it's too much work.
When I do candids for with my Video Camera, I put my finger over the light source. that may work for you... I know on my Camera (A40) the beam comes out of the flash lens (I can also turn it off in the setup), but I have never had the need to block it before.
The reason this guy is blurry in the picture with the beam on, is probably because that model is one of the first production Digicams with a problem focusing while using the Hologram AF beam in low ambient lighting.
Another possibility is you may have a UV filter in front of your lens...this will interfere with the fousing...buried in the manual somewhere it says you have to remove any outer lens when fousing with the holiogram AF.
Mine is the newer model... I'm so glad. I don't have any filters yet for this camera, but I will be getting some soon. I've only had this for a couple of months and still getting used to it.
It's so different from my canon g2 but feels more like my Nikon film camera. If that makes any sense...
I think I will do some shopping online... 58mm right..
My list....
IR filter
close up filters
UV filter
polarizing filter
