A6500 AF not working.

[TheSlicingEdge]

Hey all,

 

Im using a Sony a6500 with the signstek lens adapter and a sigma 17 to 50 f/2.8 lens.

 

AF does not work when I switch to mf on the lens I can manually focus and when I switch back there is multiple attempts at focus and then it goes out of focus.

 

Is this a problem with my lens or the adapter? Should I use my Canon made lens when I get home to test if AF is working with canon made lenses? Is it a safer bet to sell the adapter the sigma lens and my other canon lenses and purchase a Sony E Mount lens. 

 

I just got in the lens adapter last night and started using it. I'm currently working on a shoot and need a fix.

[historicalpoultry]

I've never heard of the signstek adapter, my guess is it's not great and therefore doesn't manage to provide the autofocus... I guess try your Canon lens when you're home. Otherwise the Sigma MC-11 adapter should work fine. Maybe get that instead.

[xQubeZx]

My guess is that the adapter is bad. Never heard of it before so I’m guessing it is kinda sketchy. 

[cc143]

No smart adapter will ever be 100% reliable. The metabones IV comes close but that's about it. My experience with the commlite adapter is that depending on the lens, the camera, the weather and the spin of the earth, it may not work at all, i.e. not even allow you to set aperture, allow you to set aperture but only mf, try to AF but never acquire focus, think it has acquired focus but having not... In general, these things are crap. 

 

So in short, yes the best course of action is to buy Sony lenses in the first place. A caveat is sigma lenses on the MC11 adapter, which should work better, but even then, they won't be as good as native glass. 

[TheSlicingEdge]

On 6/1/2018 at 6:19 AM, cc143 said:

No smart adapter will ever be 100% reliable. The metabones IV comes close but that's about it. My experience with the commlite adapter is that depending on the lens, the camera, the weather and the spin of the earth, it may not work at all, i.e. not even allow you to set aperture, allow you to set aperture but only mf, try to AF but never acquire focus, think it has acquired focus but having not... In general, these things are crap. 

 

So in short, yes the best course of action is to buy Sony lenses in the first place. A caveat is sigma lenses on the MC11 adapter, which should work better, but even then, they won't be as good as native glass. 

Yeah, I have looked into  sony glass but its all so expensive. Do you think the sigma f/1.4 16mm is a bad option to start with. Cropped on APSC will be 24mm for shooting music videos and urban photography. 

 

On 5/31/2018 at 10:03 PM, xQubeZx said:

My guess is that the adapter is bad. Never heard of it before so I’m guessing it is kinda sketchy. 

 

[cc143]

4 minutes ago, TheSlicingEdge said:

Yeah, I have looked into  sony glass but its all so expensive. Do you think the sigma f/1.4 16mm is a bad option to start with. Cropped on APSC will be 24mm for shooting music videos and urban photography. 

 

 

I use the 16mm f/1.4 on my fuji for landscapes and cityscapes and its fine 80% of the time. There certainly are instances where I need something wider, but I usually will stitch or just carry my Canon and an ultrawide instead. 

 

For music videos, I'm not sure limiting yourself to a single, and quite wide focal length is the best option. 

 

Honestly, if you need something that will do everything, a standard zoom is the best compromise, especially if you only want to carry one lens. Unfortunately, sony glass is quite expensive for what it is, and 3rd party glass is scarce, especially for APS-C (native APS-C glass is almost non existent as well). 

 

Maybe try that and find a used 16-50mm kit panny pos to carry around if you need to get closer. I wouldn't use it that often, as it is attrocious, but it is the only thing cheap enough to work reasonably fine. If you aren't shooting 4k, or even downsampling to 1080p, sharpness won't be much of an issue anyway. 

 

The best thing for you, and I realise its expensive, but at the same time, its something you should have researched before going into the system, would be a 16-70mm (I'm not entirely sure such a thing exists mind you). Other than that, apart from switching systems or buying a used 16-50mm for Canon and manually focusing its the only option I can see. 

 

I will also add, if you are shooting music videos, and are getting paid in any way for them, don't skimp out. A proper lens, preferrably with a constant aperture should be your top priority. Its much more significant than the camera. 

[TheSlicingEdge]

On 6/15/2018 at 2:02 PM, cc143 said:

I use the 16mm f/1.4 on my fuji for landscapes and cityscapes and its fine 80% of the time. There certainly are instances where I need something wider, but I usually will stitch or just carry my Canon and an ultrawide instead. 

 

For music videos, I'm not sure limiting yourself to a single, and quite wide focal length is the best option. 

 

Honestly, if you need something that will do everything, a standard zoom is the best compromise, especially if you only want to carry one lens. Unfortunately, sony glass is quite expensive for what it is, and 3rd party glass is scarce, especially for APS-C (native APS-C glass is almost non existent as well). 

 

Maybe try that and find a used 16-50mm kit panny pos to carry around if you need to get closer. I wouldn't use it that often, as it is attrocious, but it is the only thing cheap enough to work reasonably fine. If you aren't shooting 4k, or even downsampling to 1080p, sharpness won't be much of an issue anyway. 

 

The best thing for you, and I realise its expensive, but at the same time, its something you should have researched before going into the system, would be a 16-70mm (I'm not entirely sure such a thing exists mind you). Other than that, apart from switching systems or buying a used 16-50mm for Canon and manually focusing its the only option I can see. 

 

I will also add, if you are shooting music videos, and are getting paid in any way for them, don't skimp out. A proper lens, preferrably with a constant aperture should be your top priority. Its much more significant than the camera. 

Yeah that makes sense. I am stuck between 16mm F/1.4(which is such a low aperature I might have to get it) and the 18-105. I think the 18-105 will benefit me in the long run for music videos but it's F/4. Do you think it's a bad idea to buy the 18-105 and try to get a cheap wide low aperature lens. 

[cc143]

1 hour ago, TheSlicingEdge said:

Yeah that makes sense. I am stuck between 16mm F/1.4(which is such a low aperature I might have to get it) and the 18-105. I think the 18-105 will benefit me in the long run for music videos but it's F/4. Do you think it's a bad idea to buy the 18-105 and try to get a cheap wide low aperature lens. 

Well what for?

 

I mean why do you need a wide angle with such a wide aperture in the first place? The 18-105 should be great, if you want to get shallow depth of field in your shots, what shots are we talking about? I mean usually, those would be taken with a longer lens to get more compression.