Animal eye AF

[Sue Mitchell]

I'm wondering how well animal eye af works for wildlife. I've only tried it a time or two on birds and it didn't work so well. Have you tried it and did you have success? What have you found that it works on? The photo of the common nighthawk is without eye af.
Sony A9m2 + 200-600 @ 840mm (1.4), 1/1250, f9, iso 640.

 

[DeeVee]

I've tried it with mixed results
If it works it's a Godsend
But often if the background is busy it could point focus into a different spot it thinks it's animal eyes
By the time, you re-adjust and try to refocus the subject is gone (in most cases birds for me)
For larger animals, it may work better
If it keeps on missing, I'll disable it
Hope the next firmware update will improve upon it

 

[Sue Mitchell]

I've tried it with mixed results
If it works it's a Godsend
But often if the background is busy it could point focus into a different spot it thinks it's animal eyes
By the time, you re-adjust and try to refocus the subject is gone (in most cases birds for me)
For larger animals, it may work better
If it keeps on missing, I'll disable it
Hope the next firmware update will improve upon it

Thanks for your reply. Improvement via firmware update would be awesome.

 

[jhousteniii]

I'm wondering how well animal eye af works for wildlife. I've only tried it a time or two on birds and it didn't work so well. Have you tried it and did you have success? What have you found that it works on? The photo of the common nighthawk is without eye af.
Sony A9m2 + 200-600 @ 840mm (1.4), 1/1250, f9, iso 640.

I’ve noticed that the animal has to be fairly large in the frame for it to pick up on the animal. Some birds, squirrels and bunnies worked for me. Of course it works on my dogs too.

 

[Doug Herr]

kind of hit or miss for myself, it usually works best when the bird is larger in the frame.

 

[Gigi]

I'm not having any luck with my a6500 and the auto eye function.

 

[Wildlifepixs]

On the A9II and wildlife it seems to work. Sometimes also on birds.

 

[ianbarton]

I've noticed not works mostly with mammals, but have been surprised when it activates on birds, but that's when they are larger in frame and have good eye contrast with minimal background business.

 

[Captain1818]

I've tried it with mixed results
If it works it's a Godsend
But often if the background is busy it could point focus into a different spot it thinks it's animal eyes
By the time, you re-adjust and try to refocus the subject is gone (in most cases birds for me)
For larger animals, it may work better
If it keeps on missing, I'll disable it
Hope the next firmware update will improve upon it

Same here. I’ve seen mixed results as well but when it locks it’s awesome.

 

[Jane]

I’ve used it but my results are mixed. I was photographing a black bear (which has small eyes) and eyeAF chose a nostril. I need more practice.

 

[dragonsdreams]

I've tried it in Uganda on various animals and it works on those animals with large eyes unless the long eye lashes get in the way like giraffe. The smaller the animal the less well it seems to work. I personally would like a tracking version and the option on animal eye AF to be able to be assigned to a custom button on the A7R4.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

I have found that Human is just as effective for larger animals, and it allows you to keep the tracking option on all focussing modes, which can be useful. I've not tried it on small birds yet.

 

[shalu]

I’ve used it but my results are mixed. I was photographing a black bear (which has small eyes) and eyeAF chose a nostril. I need more practice.

It's not you. Sony's AI model needs more training to get better

 

[Matthias]

Hi all, i'm using the A6300 but it has no Animal Eye AF. Don't know if the will ever come to this camera.

I'm thinking of getting an additional body in order to get the Animal Eye AF (full frame) for wildlife to combine with the 100-400 gm. Will keep following this topic, for now I think the Animal Eye AF will not bring that much added value.

What do you think?

 

[Tim Mayo]

I'm not having any luck with my a6500 and the auto eye function.

The a6500 doesn't support Animal Eye AF I'm afraid, only human eyes are detected.

 

[Tim Mayo]

Hi all, i'm using the A6300 but it has no Animal Eye AF. Don't know if the will ever come to this camera.

I'm thinking of getting an additional body in order to get the Animal Eye AF (full frame) for wildlife to combine with the 100-400 gm. Will keep following this topic, for now I think the Animal Eye AF will not bring that much added value.

What do you think?

It depends how much wildlife you shoot and how often you look at your shots afterwards and find that the eye is out of focus when you'd rather it was in focus. Right now it works best on mammals, occasionally on birds but I wouldn't buy it for this. It's help me a lot to get shots of foxes in long grass where the AF would normally have just focussed on the blades of grass and I would need to change to manual focus. With animal eye af enabled it locks onto the eyes through the grass. If you are thinking to go full-frame it might be best to wait for the a7 IV and see if this brings any improvements to animal eye af.

 

[Matthias]

It depends how much wildlife you shoot and how often you look at your shots afterwards and find that the eye is out of focus when you'd rather it was in focus. Right now it works best on mammals, occasionally on birds but I wouldn't buy it for this. It's help me a lot to get shots of foxes in long grass where the AF would normally have just focussed on the blades of grass and I would need to change to manual focus. With animal eye af enabled it locks onto the eyes through the grass. If you are thinking to go full-frame it might be best to wait for the a7 IV and see if this brings any improvements to animal eye af.

Thanks!

Will wait for the a7 IV and maybe see if i can rent it out someday to try. Most of my subjects until currently are birds for which I get the focus most of the time right

 

[DaphneW]

I have used the Animal Eye AF for red squirrels, half of the shots worked well, other not. I guess it was just too dark and it didn't know what to focus on.

 

[garuda]

I'm wondering how well animal eye af works for wildlife.....

Sue, a seasoned BIF shooter claims it best to shoot birds with "People AF" selected. He shoots eagles FF w wide wing spans and has good luck w eye-AF. I shoot a7R iv and leave mine on Humans also for birds, animals, dinosaurs, etc.

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

Sue, a seasoned BIF shooter claims it best to shoot birds with "People AF" selected. He shoots eagles FF w wide wing spans and has good luck w eye-AF. I shoot a7R iv and leave mine on Humans also for birds, animals, dinosaurs, etc.

I shoot Human as it gives you tracking options in all focus modes, whereas Animal doesn't. It works well on static subjects that have big eyes.

 

[Jeff A]

Sue, a seasoned BIF shooter claims it best to shoot birds with "People AF" selected. He shoots eagles FF w wide wing spans and has good luck w eye-AF. I shoot a7R iv and leave mine on Humans also for birds, animals, dinosaurs, etc.

Garuda is drinking again!

 

[garuda]

Garuda is drinking again!

Drinking is the only thing that got me through this last four-year administration. Ooops, forgot politics prohibited on this forum. Sorry.