Animal Eye AF is here, but... (Sony a7 III/a7R III Firmware Update)

READ THE PINNED COMMENT OR DESCRIPTION SONY FANBOYS

We test the new animal eye AF feature added in the latest firmware updates to the Sony a7 III (http://sdp.io/a73) and Sony a7R III (http://sdp.io/a7R3). It works, but it's also flawed. If you just want to try it out, rent the cameras at http://sdp.io/rent (coupon code 'northrup'). I also give a quick overview of human eye AF and the new intervalometer for timelapses.

Music: http://share.epidemicsound.com/Tony

SONY FANBOYS: I didn't only use the example of "black eyes on a black furry face with backlighting". I also used a big yellow dog with dark brown eyes. I tested both dogs in every possible lighting condition and summarized the results. The viewfinder captures I show were not the only tests; I worked on this for many hours. I often put the focusing point directly on the dogs face and tested animal eye AF. I tested more than a dozen different species, in varying lighting conditions, using still images. I tested up-close with a fast lens in order to determine the accuracy of animal eye AF; if you use an f4 lens from further away and don't have shallow depth-of-field, you won't notice that it's focusing on the dog's nose or fur. Yes, other types of animals will be easier to focus on-I made that point in the video.

If you're attempting to answer the question, "Can you make animal eye AF work accurately in ideal lighting with ideal specimens?" The answer is, of course, yes. If you're asking, "Is this new and really cool?" Yes, it is.

I'm attempting to answer the question, "For serious pet photographers shooting a variety of subjects in real-world conditions, is the feature practical, reliable, and consistent enough to spend $2-$3k on?" The answer to that is no.

The challenge of animal eye AF is that animals, even just dogs and cats, have far more visual diversity than people. Many animals have black fur with dark eyes. Many animals have fur on their face that will overlap the eye from certain angles, or noses that project in front of their face and fall under the same focusing point as the eye.

There is room for improvement. Right now, animal eye AF seems to be only the focus point selection process. The next generation could integrate the focusing process to use contrast detection after PDAF to identify when the iris of the animal was in focus, rather than just focusing on the nearest subject (fur/nose) under the focusing point. We really need that for humans, too, because human eye AF often focuses on eyelashes, glasses, etc. I'm confident that will be their next evolution of eye AF, but it will probably require years of additional work.

Sony a7 III: http://sdp.io/a73 & Sony a7R III: http://sdp.io/a7R3 or rent them at http://sdp.io/rent (coupon code 'northrup').