Extend Camera Remote API for adjusting the focus

Question

Could you please extend the Camera Remote API with some function to set and get the focus. This could be used for macro or landscape photography to allow taking pictures for focus stacking. It would be great to have 4 additional calls to be able to implement taking pictures for focus stacking (e.g. for the Sony a7m3).

• setFocusPoint(xPosition, yPosition): Where x and y is the position corresponding to the the display of the camera

• getFocusPoint(): Get x and y

• setFocusDistance(distance): Where distance is specified in meter (float).

• getFocusDistance()

This way you could define a start and end point and how many pictures you want do end up, then calculate the steps in between to get several focus plains you can stack in post processing.

Answer 1

Actually there are many focus options available to you using the Sony Camera Remote API The availability of these options will depend on the type of camera you use. You will also notice endpoints to check which options exist and which options are available. This is to first check to be sure your camera supports a particular option and then check to make sure that your camera is in a mode that supports that option. Here are all of the currently available focus endpoints:

• setTouchAFPosition : This API provides a function to enable touch AF and the position. : options - "Touch", Wide
• getTouchAFPosition : This API provides a function to get current touch AF position.
• actTrackingFocus : This API provides a function to start tracking focus. : options - "xPosition", "yPosition"
• cancelTrackingFocus : This API provides a function to cancel tracking focus.
• setTrackingFocus : This API provides a function to set a value of tracking focus setting. : Options- "On", "Off"
• getTrackingFocus : This API provides a function to get current tracking focus setting.
• getSupportedTrackingFocus : This API provides a function to get the supported tracking focus settings. The client should use "getAvailableTrackingFocus" to get the available parameters at the moment.
• getAvailableTrackingFocus : This API provides a function to get current tracking focus setting and the available tracking focus settings at the moment. The available parameters can be changed by user operations and calling APIs.
• setFocusMode : This API provides a function to set a value of focus mode. : Options- "AF-S" Single AF "AF-C" Continuous AF "DMF" Direct Manual Focus "MF" Manual Focus
• getFocusMode : This API provides a function to get current focus mode.
• getSupportedFocusMode : This API provides a function to get the supported focus modes. The client should use "getAvailableFocusMode" to get the available parameters at the moment.
• getAvailableFocusMode : This API provides a function to get current focus mode and the available focus modes at the moment. The available parameters can be changed by user operations and calling APIs.

Unfortunately there is no current option to set focus distance.