It's not good. And we are finally getting to purchase ours next week. These things are really scaring me now.

In Reply To

One advantage to staying a generation behind "the latest and
greatest" software and hardware: let the early adopters
deal with the headaches.

Yeah..but you are like 5 generations behind.

I always shoot full manual and one of the main compositional/setting places I live when shooting is at full tele, fully open iris. What I have found on both Z7s that I have is when you zoom in full tele to pull focus and then zoom out to compose the image gets slightly soft at the right and center and the left side gets very blurry. See screen shot here

So if you zoom into a bridal party or couple from a distance or anything at all to get a shallow DOF the focus plane on the left will be out of focus as you see the tree on the left out of focus. Yes i did do the auto and manual flange/backfocus adjustment but there was still no change in the result. This is EXTREMELY bad for any manual shooters who shoot creatively.

So Z7 users. Put the cam in full manual use ND and or shutter to bring your exposure into range and then zoom in fully to a lineup of subjects that are the same distance away if your iris is wide open it should be at 2.0, ten back out until you see the iris limit go to 1.8. In this range you should see the inconsistency at it's worst. I have already confirmed with another user that his Z7 does the exact same thing but the blur is on the right side.

Here is a short video clip of my closeup cam on a dance performance. You can see where I go in tight to pull focus twice during the clip and zoom out for a head to toe and it gets a little soft and then anytime the performers are in the left side of the frame it gets even blurrier. You can't see it at all on the Z7 LCD, even with peaking it looks to be in focus.

I always shoot full manual and one of the main compositional/setting places I live when shooting is at full tele, fully open iris. What I have found on both Z7s that I have is when you zoom in full tele to pull focus and then zoom out to compose the image gets slightly soft at the right and center and the left side gets very blurry. See screen shot here

So if you zoom into a bridal party or couple from a distance or anything at all to get a shallow DOF the focus plane on the left will be out of focus as you see the tree on the left out of focus. Yes i did do the auto and manual flange/backfocus adjustment but there was still no change in the result. This is EXTREMELY bad for any manual shooters who shoot creatively.

So Z7 users. Put the cam in full manual use ND and or shutter to bring your exposure into range and then zoom in fully to a lineup of subjects that are the same distance away if your iris is wide open it should be at 2.0, ten back out until you see the iris limit go to 1.8. In this range you should see the inconsistency at it's worst. I have already confirmed with another user that his Z7 does the exact same thing but the blur is on the right side.

Here is a short video clip of my closeup cam on a dance performance. You can see where I go in tight to pull focus twice during the clip and zoom out for a head to toe and it gets a little soft and then anytime the performers are in the left side of the frame it gets even blurrier. You can't see it at all on the Z7 LCD, even with peaking it looks to be in focus.

Yeah..but you are like 5 generations behind.

Hey, Bruce, good talking to you Friday evening. For those mesmerized by the wonderful issues of this camera, check this out. It's a still frame from video I captured when talking with Bruce. Notice how the blur is on the right and not the left. Each box of DVD's were equally spaced and the curviture is based on the desk. Oh, and I didn't scale the image properly which is why it's skewed.

Is this the same thing you guys are talking about on a another forum? Here's a response from Sony on April 4th from that thread:
Hello I work for Sony,

All manual lenses normally have some backlash on the zoom servo gear mechanism. These gears are straight-cut so the slider on the bottom can mesh or un-mesh the gears (servo/ manual). Therefore, they cannot be made very tight. Helical gears will not have backlash but would not be able to easily engage and disengage. If you look at other lenses you will find that some costing more than the complete Z7 exhibit backlash too. Most likely you are accidentally hitting the post on the zoom ring. I recommend that you unscrew and remove the post. This is common practice by all ENG, Production and Film camera operators.

Juan Martinez
Senior Manager, Sony Electronics Looks like they're defending the design and you're all screwed. Good luck getting Sony to do anything about it short of a class-action suit which is all they listen to. - RT

In Reply To

That was their justification for the weak auto servo mechanism, which I somewhat agree with because i would prefer a real manual lens vs a good auto lens of course a manual lens with a good servo mechanism would be GREAT, but this issue is new and looks to be the potential deal breaker. I just went out after the 5th flange adjustment on this particular cam and the same thing on all cams. Here is a clip I just shot showing proper focus technique and watch what happens http://www.firstsightpictures.com/Z7blur2.wmv

In Reply To

Bruce when you say deal breaker what are you saying?? Are you going to try to get rid of your cameras? If so I am not even sure who is going to buy them at this point with all these reported problems. I think we are stuck with them. I am sure happy I only bought one. Basically I have to say I absolutely love the Z7 though.

Bruce

Hey, Bruce, good talking to you Friday evening. For those mesmerized by the wonderful issues of this camera, check this out. It's a still frame from video I captured when talking with Bruce. Notice how the blur is on the right and not the left. Each box of DVD's were equally spaced and the curviture is based on the desk. Oh, and I didn't scale the image properly which is why it's skewed.

it really doesn't look like the 3 objects are exactly the same distance from the camera.

---

I saw this too but not being a Z7 user I didn't want to comment about it. The far right box looks appropriate considering it's position on the plane BUT... I would expect to see the 2 left boxes sharing equal focus. (or at the very least, not the difference I'm seeing).

Again, I'm rooting for you guys that have this problem but given the fact this cam is so new, the relatively small user base because it's new, and the operator conditions required to replicate this anomaly... well, good luck. Combine these reasons with the few of you that actually know what you're doing with this thing and you'll probably need more than just luck. Maybe an in-law that works for Sony.

- RT

it really doesn't look like the 3 objects are exactly the same distance from the camera.

---

I saw this too but not being a Z7 user I didn't want to comment about it. The far right box looks appropriate considering it's position on the plane BUT... I would expect to see the 2 left boxes sharing equal focus. (or at the very least, not the difference I'm seeing).

Again, I'm rooting for you guys that have this problem but given the fact this cam is so new, the relatively small user base because it's new, and the operator conditions required to replicate this anomaly... well, good luck. Combine these reasons with the few of you that actually know what you're doing with this thing and you'll probably need more than just luck. Maybe an in-law that works for Sony.

- RT