Focus Peaking: Three Levels, Four Colours, No More Zooming to 100%
What It Does
Focus peaking outlines the edges that are in focus, on the live view on your phone. In the AlphaLuma monitor it has two controls:
- Sensitivity — low, medium, high
- Outline colour — red, yellow, blue, white
That is the whole feature. The rest of this post is how to get the most out of those two settings.
Why Two Controls and Not More
I shoot a lot of manual glass, and the slow part was never turning the ring — it was confirming the focus. Compose, punch in to 100%, nudge, punch back out, find the composition drifted, repeat.
It is three steps on purpose, not a continuous slider. Intermediate values between three usable settings do not give you anything you can act on, and a slider invites you to sit there adjusting it instead of shooting. Three steps you can pick without thinking is the better trade.
- Low — high-contrast scenes in good light. Only genuinely sharp edges get marked, so the outline stays a precise signal.
- Medium — the default, and where most shooting sits.
- High — low light and low-contrast subjects, where a conservative threshold would mark almost nothing.
The trap with high sensitivity is that it will happily outline things that are merely close to sharp. If peaking looks like your whole frame is in focus, come down a level — that is not evidence you nailed it.
The Colour Is Not a Cosmetic Setting
This looks like a preference until the first time it bites you. Shoot a red flower, a brick wall, a subject in a red jacket — with red outlines the peaking is invisible against the exact subject you are trying to focus on.
The rule: pick the colour your scene does not already contain. Snow and white walls rule out white. Blue sky argues against blue. Yellow is the safest default for most natural scenes; red works well for anything cool-toned.
What Peaking Is Not
It is computed on your phone, frame by frame, from the live view your camera sends. It is not a camera setting, it does not appear in the images you shoot, and turning it off returns the view exactly as it was.
It also means peaking reports contrast at edges, not a focus distance the camera measured. A high-contrast texture that is slightly soft can still pick up outlines. Treat it as a fast, strong indicator — which is what it is good at.
It Does Not Turn Off Your Other Tools
Some monitoring tools clear the grid the moment you enable peaking. Mine does not. Judging composition should not require switching off your focus aid. Grid plus peaking plus zebra is a normal working setup.
Try It
Open AlphaLuma, go to Camera Monitor, connect over USB, tap the peaking icon. Start at medium, then set the outline to whatever colour your scene is not.
Requires iOS 16 or later and a Sony body with USB remote control.
If it behaves oddly on your body, email me the model name: sonyalphainfo@126.com