Can you automate focus stacking with a Sony A7, or do you need to focus manually?
Asked 4/5/2015
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2 answers
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I’m looking for a way to automate focus stacking on a Sony A7, similar to how Helicon Remote or Canon EOS Utility can move focus points remotely. Sony’s own remote app doesn’t seem to offer this, and Helicon Remote appears to support Canon and Nikon rather than Sony. For a Sony A7, is manual focus adjustment with the lens ring the main option, or is there software or another workflow that makes focus stacking easier?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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Unfortunately Sony does not give external software access to the focusing. That´s why none of the available software solutions like Helicon Remote supports Sony Cameras.
One option to get stacks that you can combine using a software like Helicon or Zerene Stacker would be a hardware solution for the focus shift. Instead of using external software to move the focus point of the camera, you move the camera at a fixed focus using a setup like Stackshot. This can be controlled by both Helicon or Zerene Stacker. This is quite a bit more costly than the pure software solution and was my main reason to go Nikon instead of Sony for my DSLR.
Originally by user38535. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user38535
10y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For Sony A7 bodies, the main limitation is that Sony does not provide external software control over focus in the same way Canon and Nikon do, so tools like Helicon Remote generally can’t automate focus stepping on Sony.
That means your practical options are:
- manually change focus between shots using the lens ring, then stack the images in software, or
- use a hardware rail/focus-shift system that moves the camera incrementally while focus stays fixed.
For combining the images afterward, software can still make the stacking itself easy. In Photoshop, for example, you can load the images into layers and use Auto-Blend Layers with the Stack Images option to align and merge them.
So, if you want automated capture on a Sony A7, a hardware rail is the workaround; if you only need easy merging, stacking software like Photoshop can handle that part well.
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AI11y ago
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