em1 face detection weird

Is it normal for the face detection to grab onto random objects like chairs and lamps. Mine seems to do it a lot. Especially in low light it often automatically focuses on things that are in better light than their surroundings. No problem with FD off, but I capture a lot of family stuff where FD is helpful. Mostly use the 12-40, 75, oly45 or oly17. Doing something wrong?

On my E-M5 face detection only grabs human faces. If no face is detected the AF resorts to using the center small box as it's focus point. (I have the default AF set to use only the small center box.

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Digital **** said:

On my E-M5 face detection only grabs human faces. If no face is detected the AF resorts to using the center small box as it's focus point. (I have the default AF set to use only the small center box.

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Yes, that's how mine is set also, and it mostly works fine. Just a odd grab every now and then.

From what I've seen in demonstration videos online, Panasonic's face detection is more robust than Olympus'. My E-M1 with firmware v1.4 will occasionally lock onto objects such as car wheels and other round or elliptical shapes.

Yes, it already did so on the E-M5 and unfortunately FD doesn't seem to be much improved. I had better FD on a Fujifilm X10 that could even properly detect faces from the side.

You have to look out for malfunctioning FD, because it can spoil your exposure. In ESP/matrix metering mode the camera will meter on falsely detected faces, even if it doesn't focus on them (aka when a face is detected after the focus motor stops).

Here one example of where the E-M5 did see faces:





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Red flash eyes save lives and eye-sight!

ejlksl said:

Is it normal for the face detection to grab onto random objects like chairs and lamps. Mine seems to do it a lot. Especially in low light it often automatically focuses on things that are in better light than their surroundings. No problem with FD off, but I capture a lot of family stuff where FD is helpful. Mostly use the 12-40, 75, oly45 or oly17. Doing something wrong?

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Yes this happens with both my EM5 and EM1, it will randomly "see" faces in things that are not faces. If I'm not going to be doing a lot of portraits I generally turn face detection off.

Where I (and the camera) go wrong on face detection is when it finds a face outside the selected focus area. For instance, when I'm using the 9 center box area, the camera might find a face outside that area, but it will only focus on an item within the area. Thus, the face winds up out of focus.

The E-M1 seems rather dumb about this, as it should have a way to more easily bias bias focus and exposure to faces, when that is the chosen priority mode. Maybe this will be addressed in the coming firmware update.

--
Jim Salvas
"You miss 100% of the shots you never take." - Wayne Gretzky

In my opinion, the correlation between the active AF points and face detection is as it should be. If you want the camera to consider a face anywhere in the frame, don't use 9-point AF.

I have the same problem with my EPL2, and I hope it's fixed (or at least a little better) on the EM10, which should be delivered Monday.

Even if there ARE faces in the frame on the EPL2, the camera will focus on random bright spots whether or not they are faces. "Face detection" is therefore worse than useless; it's actually more likely to ruin a shot than to help it.

This means that the camera can never be set to Auto (for example, to give to a waiter to take a picture, or to loan to my gf). Very sad, really.

Torsten Hoff said:

In my opinion, the correlation between the active AF points and face detection is as it should be. If you want the camera to consider a face anywhere in the frame, don't use 9-point AF.

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Yeah, I know it's my fault, but if the camera doesn't find a face in the focus area, I don't think it should highlight faces outside that area. This makes you (or at least me) forget the face is not in the focus box, as the face priority box is very prominently displayed in the EVF.

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Jim Salvas
"You miss 100% of the shots you never take." - Wayne Gretzky

To tell you the truth I really have not had this problem on my EM-1.. if face detection can't detect faces the green square will appear and I have never had the white square on anything else but faces....I only shoot 3/4 lenses I don't know if that makes any difference.....

You are misinterpreting this. The E-M5/1 does not care for the focus area at all when it detects a face. It focuses on faces anywhere inside the frame, including outside the focus area. The focus area is only used when it does not detect a face (in time).

Now that "(in time)" is the important part. In order for the camera to focus on a face in AF-S it needs to detect the face *before* you half-press the shutter button. A face being detected is shown in a *white* frame!

Unfortunately the camera *does* keep detecting after focusing begins and may thus detect a face when it comes more into focus during AF motor movement. Even when it does not focus on that face it will *expose* for it in ESP/matrix metering mode! A face being exposed for is shown in a *green* frame!

When white and green frame are on top of each other is the only time you get both, focusing and exposure on a supposedly detected face. This is why falsely detected faces can be a problem and why FD is better turned off when not needed. This may also improve focusing times in general as the processor has less work to do.

Using AF-C can help, because then the camera then corrects its focus if a face is detected after first half-pressing the shutter button. This may take longer, though, because when a face is not detected before the camera will again first focus on the focus area and only then correct itself on the newly detected face.

If you have the time then it's best to pre-focus close to the face to help the camera detect it "in time". This is mostly a problem of fast aperture lenses and close distances where depths of field is small.

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Red flash eyes save lives and eye-sight!
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