New A6000 owner. Goodbye Canon

I've had the a6000 along with my 5D3 for nearly 4 months by now. And the RX100III for maybe 2-3 months. While I really appreciate the work Sony is doing, I'd never ditch Canon for Sony. And while there are multiple reasons for this, one of the most important ones is Sony's negligence to allow me as the photographer to manually choose my focus point in camera, without having to go through multiple set of buttons. I've understood that this is not an issue in the a7 series. But on a6000... It's beginning irritate me a little bit at times. I just wish Sony would introduce a firmware update solving this.

I have my back center button that enters the focus control and then I move my flexible spot. Not an issue on the A6000.

OoDee wrote in post #17495561
I've had the a6000 along with my 5D3 for nearly 4 months by now. And the RX100III for maybe 2-3 months. While I really appreciate the work Sony is doing, I'd never ditch Canon for Sony. And while there are multiple reasons for this, one of the most important ones is Sony's negligence to allow me as the photographer to manually choose my focus point in camera, without having to go through multiple set of buttons. I've understood that this is not an issue in the a7 series. But on a6000... It's beginning irritate me a little bit at times. I just wish Sony would introduce a firmware update solving this.

As Dagolmaging said, you need to use the flex focus spot mode (mapped to the center button), then you can move it anywhere without taking your eye off camera.

I.e.

(1) press center button
(2) use wheel to move the focus spot anywhere on screen
(3-optional) press center button again to exit the spot location mode (note - you can shoot without doing this but then you need to eventually exit the mode to use the dial wheel).

Takes about as much time as selecting one of the focus point presets on my T3i did.

Amamba wrote in post #17495868
As Dagolmaging said, you need to use the flex focus spot mode (mapped to the center button), then you can move it anywhere without taking your eye off camera.

I.e.

(1) press center button
(2) use wheel to move the focus spot anywhere on screen
(3-optional) press center button again to exit the spot location mode (note - you can shoot without doing this but then you need to eventually exit the mode to use the dial wheel).

Takes about as much time as selecting one of the focus point presets on my T3i did.

Asking this makes me feel a bit stupid, but is there actually a way to set the camera up so that you're free to move the focus spot around the screen or EVF without having to push a button first every time you want to make a new move? And if so, how exactly do you go about setting that up? I couldn't figure it out.

OoDee wrote in post #17502308
Asking this makes me feel a bit stupid, but is there actually a way to set the camera up so that you're free to move the focus spot around the screen or EVF without having to push a button first every time you want to make a new move? And if so, how exactly do you go about setting that up? I couldn't figure it out.

AFAIK there wasn't a way to do it on Canon either, you still had to push the focus point selection button before turning the selector wheel. And just like on Canon, you could continue moving the focus point & taking shots without pressing the button to fix the point, but while doing that you would be unable to use the selector wheel for anything else.

This setup makes perfect sense, being able to move the focus point without pressing a button first (an action that only takes a split second and doesn't require you to take your eyes off EVF) would lead to many "D'uh !" moments.

If you're taking photos of people, and are in situations where you need to keep focus on the face of a moving person like a game, setting the camera to multi-AF with face recognition works pretty well as long as the person's face is not obscured.

Amamba wrote in post #17503120
AFAIK there wasn't a way to do it on Canon either, you still had to push the focus point selection button before turning the selector wheel. And just like on Canon, you could continue moving the focus point & taking shots without pressing the button to fix the point, but while doing that you would be unable to use the selector wheel for anything else.

This setup makes perfect sense, being able to move the focus point without pressing a button first (an action that only takes a split second and doesn't require you to take your eyes off EVF) would lead to many "D'uh !" moments.

If you're taking photos of people, and are in situations where you need to keep focus on the face of a moving person like a game, setting the camera to multi-AF with face recognition works pretty well as long as the person's face is not obscured.

multicontroller direct with canon. When you have the joystick or Dpad, it would move af point without a separate button. Super handy.

I used to shoot Rebels. Don't recall the Dpad moving the focus point, but I didn't use that much anyway, pressing one button with one finger and rotating the wheel with another while looking into viewfinder was easy and fast.

No, you have to press the button first before moving the point.

I did like not having to push the button on my 5Dmk3 before moving the point, but do not find this a big issue using the Sony's.

DagoImaging wrote in post #17503257
No, you have to press the button first before moving the point.

I did like not having to push the button on my 5Dmk3 before moving the point, but do not find this a big issue using the Sony's.

this has been a selling point of the joystick for as long as I've been shooting, you definitely DONT need to push the af first, the option is called multicontroller direct (pretty sure even works with rebels). Start moving the joystick, and the AF point starts moving. Hit the joystick like a button, and it used center. Sony's face detection works more often than not, and if no face involved, I can get other methods to work that the precise AF point has become less and less of an issue.

Okay. So there is no way to make the spot focus work like it does on the 5D3. I'm so used to having as much control over as many aspect of my camera at my finger tips as possible that this handicap actually bothers me on a6000. There's many things I like about it, but I'd never switch over from Canon - even purely because of this lack. The joystic is just incredibly handy. And the alternative work arounds on Sony just don't match up in conveniency. But I would think they could fix this in software and introduce the fix in hardware update. I'm just wondering why they haven't.

It's a compromise. That simple fact did irk me for a long time, but with a stellar EVF, face and eye detection, absolute AF point control has become a distant memory. In the grand scheme of things, getting the shoot matters most.

If I'm sitting people, face detect covers me most of the time, and for objects, I can MF within a fraction of time compared to canon (with high accuracy and precision).

OoDee wrote in post #17504262
Okay. So there is no way to make the spot focus work like it does on the 5D3. I'm so used to having as much control over as many aspect of my camera at my finger tips as possible that this handicap actually bothers me on a6000. There's many things I like about it, but I'd never switch over from Canon - even purely because of this lack. The joystic is just incredibly handy. And the alternative work arounds on Sony just don't match up in conveniency. But I would think they could fix this in software and introduce the fix in hardware update. I'm just wondering why they haven't.

Don't forget that 5D3 is a flagship full frame camera and is priced accordingly.

A6000, feature wise, is a Rebel. But with better sensor and form factor.

Amamba wrote in post #17504415
Don't forget that 5D3 is a flagship full frame camera and is priced accordingly.

A6000, feature wise, is a Rebel. But with better sensor and form factor.

Oh I completely agree. All I'm saying is that I think this particular lack of freely movable focus spot is one which Sony could fix simply through hardware update. I could be wrong, but I assume that it wouldn't be a big issue to change. Not offering the option just feels obscure to me.

And overall, it is indeed a matter of compromise over multiple factors. And I'll be happy continuing shooting with my a6000 as it is.

OoDee wrote in post #17504494
Oh I completely agree. All I'm saying is that I think this particular lack of freely movable focus spot is one which Sony could fix simply through hardware update. I could be wrong, but I assume that it wouldn't be a big issue to change. Not offering the option just feels obscure to me.

And overall, it is indeed a matter of compromise over multiple factors. And I'll be happy continuing shooting with my a6000 as it is.

The problem is, without having a dedicated joystick that is not used for any other function, you'd end up inadvertently moving the focus point and using lots of choice words.

There's a reason Rebels didn't have it either.

Finally picked up the the a6000 a few weeks ago. Really liking it so far, there are just so many settings to learn/adjust to coming from an (Old) Canon Rebel dSLR. Up until a year ago I was waiting for a new Rebel to have compelling enough features to grab my attention (wifi, touchscreen, SOMETHING.) But then with Mirroless taking off and getting better, I realized I wanted the smaller size too. I simply was fed up waiting for Canon to make a reasonable entry into the mirrorless lineup. Still keeping my old 350d around (my son will enjoy shooting with it. And for time being I can see situations where if I have both with me, I might grab it just to be sure I got the shot due to familiarity.)

I've searched Google a few times for 'best settings a6000' and gotten some help there (but as expected with settings of any sort, it obviously comes down to personal opinion.) Anyone have advice on places they've found helpful for this?