Animal Eye Auto Focus for A6400

[donaldsc]

It has now been released by Sony.

 

DON

[pierces]

 

 

[havoc315]

For those wondering, Animal eye-af works but it's usefulness is limited.  You can't keep human eye-af and animal eye-af on at the same time. Meaning, if you keep human eye-AF as the default, you need to go diving into menus to switch it to animal instead. I guess if you are commonly switching between animals and humans, you probably can assign it to a custom button. 

But you'll miss the quick snapshot of you pet doing something cute, by the time you get into the menus and make the change. 

 

 

[donaldsc]

Response to myself. I am going to AK soon.  We will see how it works on bears.  Will report back.

 

DON

[donaldsc]

On 6/14/2019 at 11:32 AM, havoc315 said:

For those wondering, Animal eye-af works but it's usefulness is limited.  You can't keep human eye-af and animal eye-af on at the same time. Meaning, if you keep human eye-AF as the default, you need to go diving into menus to switch it to animal instead. I guess if you are commonly switching between animals and humans, you probably can assign it to a custom button. 

But you'll miss the quick snapshot of you pet doing something cute, by the time you get into the menus and make the change. 

 

 

 

That is what I did.

 

DON

[havoc315]

On 6/15/2019 at 3:37 PM, donaldsc said:

Response to myself. I am going to AK soon.  We will see how it works on bears.  Will report back.

 

DON

For now, it’s only programmed to work on cats and dogs. 

[donaldsc]

6 hours ago, havoc315 said:

For now, it’s only programmed to work on cats and dogs. 

 

I figure that a bear is just a big hairy dog.  We shall see and I will report back.

 

DON

[donaldsc]

Two interesting posts froim DPreview on Animal Eye Focusing

 

A Cow - https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/62793474

A Visit to the Zoo - https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/62794985

 

DON

[govindvkumar]

Looks good to photograph pets. Wonder whether it works for wildlife photography.

[masterdrago]

On 6/15/2019 at 2:37 PM, donaldsc said:

Response to myself. I am going to AK soon.  We will see how it works on bears.  Will report back.

 

DON

My guess is that if you're close enough to a bear to see its eyes, any spot focus will work. I almost always keep my DSLRs on spot focus, aperture priority except for a scenic landscape shot, then roll to AUTO. Watching with interest.

[donaldsc]

14 hours ago, masterdrago said:

My guess is that if you're close enough to a bear to see its eyes, any spot focus will work. I almost always keep my DSLRs on spot focus, aperture priority except for a scenic landscape shot, then roll to AUTO. Watching with interest.

 

Back from AK.  Got some great in focus photos but was never close enough for bear eye auto focus to work.  LOL!!

 

DON

[masterdrago]

I'm certain that "bear eye auto focus" would not have worked on this. I had it on spot auto and was about 50+ yards away shooting through the bus window rather quickly. D7500 500mm 1/1250th @f/8 VR:on Auto ISO 800 Auto WB Denali park road May 20, 2019 11:12ADT. Cropped and resized. Most of my shots of this bear were taken over a 3 minute time frame and in most he had his eyes closed or they were somewhat obstructed by willow or Spruce.

Next time we get to Alaska, we plan on taking some exclusive bear viewing excursions and tours with Alaska Bear Adventures into Katmai National Park and Lake Clark National Park.

[masterdrago]

Forgot the pix