So I check out the Sony camera rumors at (where else?) sonyalpharumors.com pretty regularly. So what do I see today?
RUMOR: Sony A7IV firmware update 2.0 is coming end of February! https://t.co/Eh1Ad85BlS
— orionscoldfire (@orionscoldfire) February 24, 2023
And at the bottom of the short article it says
One reliable source told me that the Sony A7IV will get a new firmware update 2.0 within the next couple of days! Another source told me that the new firmware update will include Focus Stacking.
Now focus stacking is a wonderful option for a macro-photographer. Instead of hooking up some hokey laptop program or a manual focus advance trigger you just select the focus stacking option and let the camera do the work. Now Olympus gave this option to its customers years ago. But Sony, this giant electronics powerhouse isn’t up to the simple firmware update it would take. So seeing this really got me excited.
But sonyalpharumors is called rumors for a reason. I’d say the chance of focus stacking being in the update is 10%. But hope springs eternal. So fingers crossed.
If it happens, that will be exciting. With a macro lens, depth of field is such a PIA that I find myself shooting with a tall lens and cropping in.
I’ve played with stacking software and, like you, find it to be too cumbersome. Wonder how Sony would handle the functionality, have you set innermost and outermost focus points and define how many increments between or just pull the trigger and have the camera just shoot a certain number of increments in and out from the focus point?
That would be something I’d really like to play with.
I think it will be like the focus bracketing in the new A7R V. I found this description of it.
https://www.colbybrownphotography.com/the-complete-setup-guide-for-the-sony-a7r-v/