SAR reader Philip sent us this:

Firmware Manual Focus Improvements That Are Easy To Implement – Sony a7II, Sony a7sII and Sony a7rII

I would like to be able to compose the shot and magnify focus at the same time. At the moment, you can only do one of those at any given time.

There are multiple ways to achieve this:

1. Create a small magnified square (like a loupe) around the point the user has selected to focus on and magnify said square when the focus ring is turned
2. Create a small magnified square (like a loupe) in the centre of the frame that magnifies the point the user has selected, this method is similar to the first except the square remains in the centre of the frame at all times
3. Split the screen into two halves and use the left half for composition and the right half for 100% magnification or vice versa

I have a few other ideas to improve the manual focus experience as well:

1. User selectable magnification amount upon the lens being turned i.e. the user no longer has to press a button after turning the focus ring, to magnify the shot further, as it can go straight to 14x magnification when the lens is turned
2. Facial recognition such that the selected focus area goes towards the subjects eye when the manual focus ring is turned and an eye is detected
3. The same focus options available to autofocus should be available to manual focus (where applicable) e.g. if the user wants to have only a few different focus areas to select from, to speed up the process of selecting a focus point, this should be available
4. The manual focus button (usually used for autofocus lenses) should act as a lock and will prevent magnification while the lens ring is turned–this would be particularly useful for video usage when the user simply wants to rely on focus peaking

Also posted on Sony Community