a550 Question - Continous Advance

[Harpooner]

I've spent today on a birds-of-prey photography course at Hardwick Hall. FWIW, I was the only A-mount user, with all but two others (Nikon) using Canon.

Anyway, in AF-C with continous advance (high), is it correct the camera only will only release the shutter when it thinks something is in focus (despite keeping your finger down)? I know that in Speed Priority advanced it locks the focus & exposure which wasn't much use for a fast moving bird.

[David Kilpatrick]

With most Alpha models you can set a menu option to release only when focus is confirmed, or regardless. There's no such item on the Alpha 55 that I can find. That's probably because of the standard and high speed modes. So the answer it - it depends on the camera body and the available settings.

David

[Harpooner]

Thanks David - is that a typo (Alpha 55) as my camera is an A550.

Chris.

[agorabasta]

The a550 has the release priority 'shutter' option in the menu. The a55 has not.
So if you have the a550, consider yourself lucky (in that particular regard)

[Harpooner]

Which menu is it under? I can't find it on my a550...

[agorabasta]

I used to have an a500 which is mostly the same thing as a550. I surely could get it to shoot at shutter priority, I just can't remember exactly how. But that was dependent of the AF mode. iirc.

P.S. I must be wrong. I think I mixed things up with the a300/350. So your only option is to use continuous advance with AF-S, then it only waits to focus the first frame and continues with focus locked.

[twm47099]

I just checked the A500 manual. There appears to be no release priority setting when AF is used with that camera.