Autofocus issue in Xperia 5 II; UPDATE: Shame on you Sony! (Source of the problem)

[palkos88]

Hi there

I have a problem with autofocus during lowlight. The mobile cant focus and what is more, I see green square sign like it would focus succesfully. Any ideas? RGBC-IR sensor works properly. I had Z3 compact and XZ2 compact - I cant remember such a low quality of sharpness. 

Look at the hand

UPDATE:

SHAME ON YOU SONY

You wanted to see that embarrassing comparison  "Xperia 5 II vs Z3 Compact" and here you have it.  During making this comparison, I have found the source of the problem. Xperia 5 II is castrated of TOF sensor, which means it needs better light conditions to auto focus ...or flash lamp, which Z3 Compact is using while it is not equipped in TOF sensor. Z3 Compact blinks (using the lamp) for piece a of second to auto focus during low light. I can understand that Sony wanted to safe piece of dollar by removing TOF sensor, but PLEASE. It is so much embarrassing that they did not deployed so much simple solution of the problem. Just blinking the light. There were few updates and they did nothing with this "Best Camera in the phone for professionals".

PS. You welcome Sony for beeing beta tester and discovering the problem. Gratification would be pleased.

https://youtu.be/akfgwe03MkM

[IamNic]

Hello @palkos88,

the default focus point is in the center (so in this case on the screen which is sharp).

if you want to move it, just touch the screen in the corresponding area.

Then it will focus on e.g. your arm.

- Nic

[palkos88]

Please, it happens many times. Below I attach more evidences. I am just curious if Sony is conscious of the issue and is able to repair it in nearest update or "nothing happened" and should I give back the phone. On the picture you can see that Xperia 5 II "thinks" that sharpness is focused.

Ps. Sorry for the model, but this leg is really good in presenting the problem 😛

Xperia 5 IIiPhone 12 mini

[IamNic]

Hello @palkos88,

have you at least tried to touch the part of the screen the leg is in, otherwise the focus field is simply too big. That combined with you maybe not letting go of the shutter button and half pressing it again after moving your leg into frame might be the root cause (without seing a video of you using the phone and how it reacts that is what I would guess).

Here I made a recording on my Xperia 5 - when you see the "corner-frame" (wide focus field) like in your image above, I use the same focus mode. Once you see the small circle, I set my focus point manually by touching the screen in that area.

If the circle or the corner-pieces are solid green, I keep the button half pressed (you can see the focus does "stick" and not move even when I move the camera over to the other chocolate Nikolaus). If it goes gray and green I let go and half pressed again.

It might be new for you if you used an iPhone before, but it actually gives you more freedom and precision.

- Nic

[palkos88]

Sorry for quality (limited by demo version of recording app), but it is still possible to see that either Sony made step back with autofocus or camera app doesnt work properly. I turned off "tracking object" and after touching display with a finger, autofocus works better, but... I can't imagine that I will have to touch the display every time I want to take a picture (not to mention to ask some random person for taking the picture or using gloves). On the video you can see that camera can't set the focus (without my "magic" finger) looking at book (where is only black and white perfectly contrasting). This proves that during using wider area to set the sharpness, Xperia 5 II is not able to set anything. BTW tracking the object is also useless (included on the video). I had Xperia Ray, SP, Z1 Compact, Z3 Compact and XZ2 Compact. Autofocus of Xperia 5 II brings me feelings that it works worse than in Xperia Z1. In XZ2 also there wasn't a problem with tracking objects. It is just unacceptable for me. I would be pleased to hear that Sony plans to do something with this during next update. I really don't want to activate warranty.
Ps. iPhone belongs to my wife 🙂

https://youtu.be/2ftgwOlU7KM

[palkos88]

On the video you can see another problem: I push the button to the half and white square just blinks without trial of setting autofocus.

[palkos88]

Please check this. Autofocus works like in mobile phones for 100$. 

[IamNic]

Hello @palkos88,

When you have set the focus field to "wide" the image is not in focus, once you do, the focus is spot on (unless in the first example where it is awfully dark), isn't it?

- Nic

[palkos88]

Not dark enough for iPhone (photo was taken in the same place and time). Or... if it is too dark, why the app doesn't turn on the lamp? Why the app doesn't use lamp to focus?

In few days I am coming back home and still have z3 compact in the closet. I will make the comparison with this old phone. I am Sony's only user since ~10 years and first time I am disappointed. I feel that it will be embarrassing comparison for Sony.

[IamNic]

Hello @palkos88,

---

@palkos88  wrote:

Why the app doesn't use lamp to focus?

Because you suppress the flash (little icon with the lightning symbol crossed out).

---

@palkos88  wrote:

I feel that it will be embarrassing comparison for Sony.

---

I don't doubt the Z3s cameras software is made more for casual photo shooting, while the Xperia 5 (II) is more aimed at professional users.

From how your app looks I assume you haven't played around with the settings all that much - have you tried to activate "object tracking"? That allows follow-focus on any object (just as good as the Eye AF build into that phone).

Have you done a comparison of the iPhone and the Xperia 5 with that feature activated? Or with Eye AF and serial shooting?

There you will see that the Xperia 5s camera and software is way more advanced.

- Nic