focusing issue of PZ 16-35mm F4 G lens & A7S3 body

Recently I have acquired the PZ 16-35mm F4 G lens, and noticed some focus jump/focus pulse too fast while using this lens with Autofocus enabled on my A7S3 body. I have actually tested this lens at the Sony Store before acquiring this lens, and did not particularly notice this matter, only after when I got it and used it for actual shooting work.

It seems to have the issue when I use gimbal to go in closer to the subject's face, it seems to have that 'zoom pump', but it is actually the focus going error for a very fast milliseconds (or looks like focusing the back of the subject in mine), and then slowly focus back to the subject, and it is quite frequent.

Or sometimes it would just make that whole scene to have the shaking stutter effect for a millisecond.

- The aperture and shutter speed settings are in manual

- Subject Shift Sensitivity and Focus Speed Settings are set to the lowest already

- Camera settings is in Autofocus mode.

Kindly take a look at some of the sample videos that I have attached from google drive link as below, please download and have a look in the widest screen that you have to be able to notice the issues: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oCVRqcoZ1HzupOi44-CK0HlbLBRyvNF7?usp=sharing

For the filename 'sample video 1', please look closely at the table at the lower bottom right. The table was in focus for a few seconds, and then suddenly the focus is throwed off, which makes the whole scene look like stuttering for a few milliseconds. Kindly take note that this particular video clip is not mine, but I manage to find another sample same issue with mine for easy explanation.

For the filename 'sample 2' at timeline 0:26 - 0:29 AND 1:07 - 1:21, the entire screen is actually shaking because the focus seems to jump in and out. It is very obviously seen by comparing with the background and the foreground.

For the filename 'sample 3' at timeline 1:04 - 1:07, the same thing as mentioned (whole screen shaking caused by the focus pump/focus jumping too fast)

For filename 'sample 4' at timeline 3:07 - 3:13, when I pan out of the subject, the whole scene screen is stuttering/shaking and you can the background seems to do that focus pump/focus pump. Same thing when I pan in closer to the subject as well.

Have anyone here met with this kind of issue before? As I am not sure if this is the problem of the lens/body or not anymore. I have searched online and not much people seem to talk about this, or have a solution on it.

Also not forgetting that sometimes when I use the gimbal to dolly go close up to the subject's face OR dolly out away from subject's face, the subject face seems to have a bit of soft focus (defocus?) before focusing back clearly again each time.

Actually this issue is the most obvious whenever I go close to a subject, or move away from the subject.

I have updated the A7s3 firmware to the latest version, turned on the breathing compensation, and I am still faced with the same issues now.

Thank you for your replies, much appreciated.

Edited by lunag - 12 December 2024 at 11:34

QuietOC wrote: The jumping might be the stabilization hitting the end of its range. Turning SteadyShot could eliminate those jumps. You are doing panning motions in many of these and SteadyShot will counteract pans unless you are using an OSS lens with panning mode enabled.

Hello, do you means to turn on or turn off the steadyshot? If turn on then yes my steadyshot setting is the Active steadyshot turned on and it still have these issues.

Or am I suppose to turn the steadyshot mode to ‘normal’ OR ‘off’ totally?

And do you means that only using lens that have OSS will not have the focus jump/pump issue?

Edited by lunag - 13 December 2024 at 01:46

Hello, sorry for late replies.

So you meant to say that this is just a normal behavior with the A7s3 body and the lens itself? What about turning on the focus breathing instead?

Hearing from you soon, thank you.

QuietOC wrote: Sorry, I lost an important word in that sentence: lunag wrote: QuietOC wrote: The jumping might be the stabilization hitting the end of its range. Turning SteadyShot off could eliminate those jumps. You are doing panning motions in many of these and SteadyShot will counteract pans unless you are using an OSS lens with panning mode enabled. Hello, do you means to turn on or turn off the steadyshot? If turn on then yes my steadyshot setting is the Active steadyshot turned on and it still have these issues. Or am I suppose to turn the steadyshot mode to ‘normal’ OR ‘off’ totally? SteadyShot being on is probably causing the jump. So, yes, turning it off will prevent it. And do you means that only using lens that have OSS will not have the focus jump/pump issue? Not generally, but some OSS lenses have a panning mode switch. I believe Sony has also added a SteadyShot panning mode menu option into some recent camera bodies too, but the A7SIII is not one of those. Sony cameras actually detect panning pretty well in the default SteadyShot. I have had much worse panning behavior with other stabilization systems. The gimbal's damping might confuse the camera's panning detection.