With no bias is the R6mkII on par with Sony in eye tracking?

Alastair Norcross wrote:

thunder storm wrote:

Alastair Norcross wrote:

thunder storm wrote:

Alastair Norcross wrote:

Not bold at all, just what DPR themselves said when they tested the updated R firmware. If you’d bothered to read what I said, you’d have seen I was comparing the R updated AF with what was available at the time (2019).

The A7III was available then.

I know. The updated R eye tracking is a match for the 2019 AIII eye tracking.

That's strange, as AF speed is needed in some scenario's to do the tracking. At some point the camera can't recognize an eye if it's too far out of focus, no matter how smart the artificial intelligence is. Needless to say the A7III has the speed whereas the R lacks speed.

All I can tell you is what I experienced using my R for tracking runners outside and dancers inside. In a 5K road race, the R tracked runners perfectly. Whatever speed limitations the camera might have didn't affect it there. Also, dancers in a theatre presented no problem. I don't still use my R for sports, because I have the R7,

I think you got the perfect camera combo for your needs.

which is clearly better. I do still use it indoors and, again, even with dancers, it has no problem tracking.

That's wonderful knowledge. The point is: the A7III focuses faster. With runners coming closer to the camera at some point the R can't track them, whereas the A7III can.

In my experience the R was pretty limiting kids running in the direction towards the camera, whereas the R5 doesn't have problems in these scenarios with the right lenses. The R5 is not the A7III of course. But we do know the A7III focuses faster than the R, and the firmware updates of the R didn't affect the AF speed so much, more the recognition, especially at larger distances.

There's also the around 90 degree angle issue with the R. My R lost the eye too many times with turning away faces.

I do notice that the box switches from the eye to the head when it's in profile, but that has never resulted in an out of focus shot, which is all I (and presumably you too) care about.

That's a huge problem at 50mm & f/1.8 or 105mm f/1.8. Cheek is wrong, nose is wrong, it should be the eye. The R5 is competent in this regard, whereas the R is not. However, even for the R5 there's still some scope for improvement.

Moving the smallest single AF point yourself is a work around, however, you can never match the speed of a camera tracking the eye, so I really want the camera to do that for me. If I was shooting posed portraits only the R would be fine.

From the reviews I've seen the A7III did a better job. I will mention here though not every reviewer did a great job at this point, as a green spot in the viewfinder isn't the same as an eye being well in focus in the actual picture.

Current R model AF is at least as good as any competitors right now. And the tracking, including eye tracking (which is the correct description) is amazingly good.