Major issue with eye autofocus on A7iii?

[ATLshooter]

Hey guys, so I upgraded from the A6500 to the A7iii. I'm very used to using eye autofocus. I'm using the A7iii with the 55mm Zeiss lens.

In my first day of testing, I've noticed that when I take pictures of subjects which are facing me, the camera will say it's focusing on their eye - but the focus ends up being directly on the bridge of their nose in between the eyes.

** The camera SAYS it's focusing on their eye, because when I review the photo and click the zoom button, it immediately goes to their eye. (the camera will automatically zoom to the spot which it thinks it focused on)

So the camera thinks it's focusing on the eye, yet almost 90% of the time it instead focuses on the bridge of the nose. I did not have this problem with the A6500. Also of note, is that when I'm seeing the picture being framed up, it does appear that the eye is in focus. But when I click the shutter button the focus ends up being on the nose.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Is the camera faulty? Here's an example. It thinks it focused on the eye, yet the nose it what's in focus.

Here is a link to a sample of what the camera is doing. The lighting isn't challenging, the settings of the camera are 1/200 F2 iso 1000.

John Davis has shared 1 photo with you!

www.flickr.com

Thanks for any help you can provide. At this point I'm pretty disappointed. Especially because other than the eye autofocus, the camera is amazing. When using focus points the camera nails it almost every time and it is SO sharp. But I have to get the eye autofocus sorted because that's one of the main draws to this system.

 

[JT the Bikeman]

It's probably not this, but you did turn off the Af with shutter correct?

On my a7m3 it came with both the AF--On and shutter controlling AF, if so it will refocus in non eye-AF when you press shutter.

Of course this wouldn't explain the focus point remaining on the eye.

 

[ATLshooter]

It's probably not this, but you did turn off the Af with shutter correct?

On my a7m3 it came with both the AF--On and shutter controlling AF, if so it will refocus in non eye-AF when you press shutter.

Of course this wouldn't explain the focus point remaining on the eye.

I have not tried that, but doesn't the eye autofocus button override the shutter focus command? On my a6500 this is the case.

Regardless, I will give it a shot and report back.

I did just get off the phone with Sony and they had me troubleshoot for a while and even had me reset the camera. Nothing has worked so far.

EDIT: I called sony and confirmed that holding down the eye-af button does in fact override the shutter focus, so that's not it......unfortunately. I was hoping it would be something simple like that.

 

[Goya]

Are you certain there's no movement involved either by the subject or yourself as you're squeezing the shutter button? I don't know about your camera, but I'm noticing the shutter on my A7III is very...intense I guess is a word for it. Someone on another forum said based on how loud it is it doesn't appear to have the same "braking" mechanism in the A9 or 7RII/RIII to reduce shake from the shutter. Not sure about any of that, but also coming from a 6500 it definitely feels like it's slapping harder. You're working at a pretty shallow DOF, maybe some slight motion is the culprit?

Can you try a test where everything is totally stationary? Perfectly still subject, camera on tripod, etc. and see if it still happens? Does this happen with any other lenses?

 

[Denton Taylor]

You are sure that EyeAF is really locking on by seeing the biq square (face detect) turn to a small square on the eye (?)

 

[ATLshooter]

You are sure that EyeAF is really locking on by seeing the biq square (face detect) turn to a small square on the eye (?)

 

[ATLshooter]

Are you certain there's no movement involved either by the subject or yourself as you're squeezing the shutter button? I don't know about your camera, but I'm noticing the shutter on my A7III is very...intense I guess is a word for it. Someone on another forum said based on how loud it is it doesn't appear to have the same "braking" mechanism in the A9 or 7RII/RIII to reduce shake from the shutter. Not sure about any of that, but also coming from a 6500 it definitely feels like it's slapping harder. You're working at a pretty shallow DOF, maybe some slight motion is the culprit?

Can you try a test where everything is totally stationary? Perfectly still subject, camera on tripod, etc. and see if it still happens? Does this happen with any other lenses?

I'm going to go in order of your questions:

- It's not movement. I thought that too, and I got my wife to snap a picture of me with my head up against a wall. No movement of any kind from me, yet the camera did the same thing. She said the little green box appeared over my left eye, yet the focus ended up directly on the bridge of my nose.

- I don't think the shutter is the problem, because the pictures are sharp as a tack......it's just that the area that's supposed to be in focus is not. If it were shutter slap or some effect like that, I wouldn't have tack sharp areas of focus.

- I only have 2 lenses, but unfortunately they are both the same. (long story, bought one for myself and got one as gift) It's the 55mm 1.8 zeiss. Both lenses give the same results.

 

[osv]

It's probably not this, but you did turn off the Af with shutter correct?

On my a7m3 it came with both the AF--On and shutter controlling AF, if so it will refocus in non eye-AF when you press shutter.

Of course this wouldn't explain the focus point remaining on the eye.

I have not tried that, but doesn't the eye autofocus button override the shutter focus command? On my a6500 this is the case.

Regardless, I will give it a shot and report back.

I did just get off the phone with Sony and they had me troubleshoot for a while and even had me reset the camera. Nothing has worked so far.

EDIT: I called sony and confirmed that holding down the eye-af button does in fact override the shutter focus, so that's not it......unfortunately. I was hoping it would be something simple like that.

why not just turn off the shutter button focus, and try it? it's a simple menu item.

--
dan

 

[ATLshooter]

It's probably not this, but you did turn off the Af with shutter correct?

On my a7m3 it came with both the AF--On and shutter controlling AF, if so it will refocus in non eye-AF when you press shutter.

Of course this wouldn't explain the focus point remaining on the eye.

I have not tried that, but doesn't the eye autofocus button override the shutter focus command? On my a6500 this is the case.

Regardless, I will give it a shot and report back.

I did just get off the phone with Sony and they had me troubleshoot for a while and even had me reset the camera. Nothing has worked so far.

EDIT: I called sony and confirmed that holding down the eye-af button does in fact override the shutter focus, so that's not it......unfortunately. I was hoping it would be something simple like that.

why not just turn off the shutter button focus, and try it? it's a simple menu item.

 

[Goatruckus]

Your sample photo looks like it was taken very close to the subject, making the DOF very thin. Have you tried the same extreme example with the A6500 and the same lens at F2?

I know that shooting closeups with eye-AF on my A6300 (with Sigma 30 1.4) I do get some misfocus. At just slightly longer shooting distances it is bang on. I always thought it was a Sigma foible, but maybe the eye-AF system doesn't work as well when close to the subject?

 

[Goatruckus]

Your sample photo looks like it was taken very close to the subject, making the DOF very thin. Have you tried the same extreme example with the A6500 and the same lens at F2?

I know that shooting closeups with eye-AF on my A6300 (with Sigma 30 1.4) I do get some misfocus. At just slightly longer shooting distances it is bang on. I always thought it was a Sigma foible, but maybe the eye-AF system doesn't work as well when close to the subject?

Another question....does a small flexible spot get correct focus?

 

[ATLshooter]

Your sample photo looks like it was taken very close to the subject, making the DOF very thin. Have you tried the same extreme example with the A6500 and the same lens at F2?

I know that shooting closeups with eye-AF on my A6300 (with Sigma 30 1.4) I do get some misfocus. At just slightly longer shooting distances it is bang on. I always thought it was a Sigma foible, but maybe the eye-AF system doesn't work as well when close to the subject?

I have not tried this exact framing with the a6500 yet.

Yes! In fact if the subject moves further out, accuracy seems to improve greatly. But my worry is that if I were shooting with something like an 85mm for portraits and I wanted to get close, I wouldn't be able to.

 

[ATLshooter]

Your sample photo looks like it was taken very close to the subject, making the DOF very thin. Have you tried the same extreme example with the A6500 and the same lens at F2?

I know that shooting closeups with eye-AF on my A6300 (with Sigma 30 1.4) I do get some misfocus. At just slightly longer shooting distances it is bang on. I always thought it was a Sigma foible, but maybe the eye-AF system doesn't work as well when close to the subject?

Another question....does a small flexible spot get correct focus?

Yep! The smallest flexible spot will nail focus almost every single time, even with the exact same framing and settings.

I also told Sony this and they were perplexed. Especially because the camera *thinks* it has focused on the eye (and even zooms in on the eye it grabbed when viewing) yet misses to the bridge of the nose every time. Even with different subjects, always the bridge of the nose.

Thanks for the great questions from everyone and all the assistance.

 

[mrbenji]

Hey guys, so I upgraded from the A6500 to the A7iii. I'm very used to using eye autofocus. I'm using the A7iii with the 55mm Zeiss lens.

In my first day of testing, I've noticed that when I take pictures of subjects which are facing me, the camera will say it's focusing on their eye - but the focus ends up being directly on the bridge of their nose in between the eyes.

I would guess the issue is your camera... I would hope it could be fixed by performing an AF Micro Adjust, but it could be a defect in your camera.

My A7III, using the same lens and others (85/1.8, 28-70 kit), is reliably locking right onto the nearest eye and that's where it focuses... it works exactly as I'd expect it to, given the multiple YouTube videos I saw on the function.

My A7II was waaaay worse at this -- it only had Eye AF in single shot mode, and it would only put the green square on the eye once before switching to the box around the face -- focus was usually pretty close to the eye, but not if the subject moved me first hitting Eye AF and me pressing the shutter button.

 

[ZeeZMo]

Hey guys, so I upgraded from the A6500 to the A7iii. I'm very used to using eye autofocus. I'm using the A7iii with the 55mm Zeiss lens.

In my first day of testing, I've noticed that when I take pictures of subjects which are facing me, the camera will say it's focusing on their eye - but the focus ends up being directly on the bridge of their nose in between the eyes.

** The camera SAYS it's focusing on their eye, because when I review the photo and click the zoom button, it immediately goes to their eye. (the camera will automatically zoom to the spot which it thinks it focused on)

So the camera thinks it's focusing on the eye, yet almost 90% of the time it instead focuses on the bridge of the nose. I did not have this problem with the A6500. Also of note, is that when I'm seeing the picture being framed up, it does appear that the eye is in focus. But when I click the shutter button the focus ends up being on the nose.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Is the camera faulty? Here's an example. It thinks it focused on the eye, yet the nose it what's in focus.

Here is a link to a sample of what the camera is doing. The lighting isn't challenging, the settings of the camera are 1/200 F2 iso 1000.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139655841@N03/shares/gHiJp4

Thanks for any help you can provide. At this point I'm pretty disappointed. Especially because other than the eye autofocus, the camera is amazing. When using focus points the camera nails it almost every time and it is SO sharp. But I have to get the eye autofocus sorted because that's one of the main draws to this system.

try out another lens if possible, there is another thread where someone is having a similar issue on the a7riii with the 55mm 1.8. Not going to jump to conclusions but maybe theres an issue with the 55mm 1.8 and the new focus systems on the 3rd gen cameras.

 

[ATLshooter]

Hey guys, so I upgraded from the A6500 to the A7iii. I'm very used to using eye autofocus. I'm using the A7iii with the 55mm Zeiss lens.

In my first day of testing, I've noticed that when I take pictures of subjects which are facing me, the camera will say it's focusing on their eye - but the focus ends up being directly on the bridge of their nose in between the eyes.

** The camera SAYS it's focusing on their eye, because when I review the photo and click the zoom button, it immediately goes to their eye. (the camera will automatically zoom to the spot which it thinks it focused on)

So the camera thinks it's focusing on the eye, yet almost 90% of the time it instead focuses on the bridge of the nose. I did not have this problem with the A6500. Also of note, is that when I'm seeing the picture being framed up, it does appear that the eye is in focus. But when I click the shutter button the focus ends up being on the nose.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Is the camera faulty? Here's an example. It thinks it focused on the eye, yet the nose it what's in focus.

Here is a link to a sample of what the camera is doing. The lighting isn't challenging, the settings of the camera are 1/200 F2 iso 1000.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139655841@N03/shares/gHiJp4

Thanks for any help you can provide. At this point I'm pretty disappointed. Especially because other than the eye autofocus, the camera is amazing. When using focus points the camera nails it almost every time and it is SO sharp. But I have to get the eye autofocus sorted because that's one of the main draws to this system.

try out another lens if possible, there is another thread where someone is having a similar issue on the a7riii with the 55mm 1.8. Not going to jump to conclusions but maybe theres an issue with the 55mm 1.8 and the new focus systems on the 3rd gen cameras.

I don't have another lens but I can go to our local best buy that has many Sony lenses for demo. I will give that a shot this weekend.

Thanks for giving me the direction to that thread. I searched and found what I think you're referring to, and that guy is having what seems like they exact same problem as me - except his camera is the Riii.

So that really makes it sound like it's something to do with the lens....

 

[Digital Imaging Technician]

Can't help to think about one of those YouTube videos by Lanier where he praises the AF. Yet the results I'm seeing when he zooms to 100% are front focused.

See here:

https://imgur.com/pNS7lBD

Focus is clearly on her forclock, not on her eyes...

Adapted lenses, should be added though.

 

[SurfFish]

Can't help to think about one of those YouTube videos by Lanier where he praises the AF. Yet the results I'm seeing when he zooms to 100% are front focused.

See here:

https://imgur.com/pNS7lBD

Focus is clearly on her forclock, not on her eyes...

Adapted lenses, should be added though.

Do you have the full size image from Jason or are you judging his result based on the screen grab of his video?

Are you having the same problem like the OP have?

To OP your crop sensor will have more depth of field even at F1.8 vs f2 on full frame. What are the shutter priority set to and af track sense?

 

[Irvz]

I had the same problem at first, it was because I was using single shot AF while trying to use eye AF. It would find the eye easy enough but it locked on at that point and when I went to press the shutter button I would move or the subject would move. Using cont. AF instead.made a world of difference lol

 

[PWPhotography]

I use FE 55 on A9 and A7r II, eye-AF works very reliably. I am sure you know how to use eye-AF function so it works under AF-C not AF-S and you press the button assigned for that function, right?