Facial Recognition / Flexible spot

[bplet]

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question.  I'm still in the first week of being a Sony owner.  I'm a LONGtime Canon shooter (my other body is a 5D3).  I'm absolutely loving the A7Rii so far, but one hurdle is proving to be perplexing.

 

My question revolves around facial recognition and spot focus, and trying to find the fastest way to toggle between the two.  For example, last night I had a theatre production photo shoot (shooting actors in a pro stage play), so I took the R2 along to see how it would fare in that environment.  Since I'm shooting actors, for the most part, facial recognition was a HUGE help.  When it was working, I loved it.  Made shooting so easy it almost felt like cheating, compared to my 5D3.  But both actors were older, wearing glasses, and/or simply turned away from me enough to make the FR stop working... at which point, the camera would decide to focus on their lap, or the table in front of them, etc... because I had the focus area set to Wide, which seems to work best for FR.  

 

So then I'd have to hit Focus Mode, scroll it over to Flexible Spot, wake up the directional buttons, move the spot over to the side of the actors head (which is MUCH slower than using the Canon joystick)... Just so many steps.  Get a shot or three.  Then next thing I know, FR starts picking up on faces again - but if I'm still in Flexible Spot, that seems to take precedent over the FR, so (if I wanted to let FR start doing it's thing again) I'd have to go back into Focus Mode, switch back to Wide... wash rinse repeat

 

Those of you who've been shooting Sony for a while now: is there a faster way to cycle between these modes?  Or is there a way, while in Flexible Spot mode, to say "OH, you're seeing a face again, great! Ignore the spot and focus on that" with a single press of a button?

 

Dunno if that makes sense...

 

Gotta say though, other than that, this little bad boy actually did SO much better than I expected it to.  In theatre, there's a lot of low light scenarios, and I keep hearing these things don't do very well in low light.  So I figured the R2 would become my new studio portrait camera, and I'd need to hold on to my 5D3 for theatre work... but I had no issues at all with AF in low light last night.  And the KEEPER RATE is SO much higher than the 5D3.  When this thing nails focus, it NAILS IT.  Love it.   It's just the little things like the above that are driving me nuts.  So, any advice would be hugely appreciated

 

A7Rii by b.paulette, on Flickr 

[christer]

When FR doesn't work, why don't you use the Center focus mode with Lock-on AF and then recompose?

[bplet]

I tried that.  Despite the fact that it only eliminates the moving of the spot, which doesn't save me much time, it also doesn't "lock on" as well as I need it to.  It would lock on the person's head, and as soon as I start to recompose, the box around their head would extend to their entire torso and/or the hand they're gesturing with in front of them, and bam, their face is no longer in focus.

 

I shoot wide aperture - so it has to be very exact.  FR is exact enough.  Spot seems to be the only other thing that is as exact

[Apollwnios]

try one with two stops aperture plus

[storyteller]

Have you tried Eye-AF? I'm still wrapping my head around the finer points of the Sony FE AF system but it seems like if you're in flexible spot and activate eye-AF it will latch on to the face behind the flex spot. Almost as if it uses a different logic than the standard facial recognition. I'm still experimenting so don't take my word for it. Yet. 

[bplet]

That's exactly what I'm looking for.  Haha, so simple.  Engaging Eye-AF overrides the spot.  Even if it can't find the eye.  Sweet.  Thanks!

[Sandylp]

Does Eye-AF work on animals?

[kiawui]

But to use eye af, the half shutter focus has to be disabled right? And you will need to set the eye focus at one of the custom key to use it. Tried it before but not very good at it. No sure if anyone has a better experience on this to explain how we can better use this feature.

 

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

[bplet]

Does Eye-AF work on animals?

 

No.  Eye-AF is only available when Facial Recognition is turned on, and it sees a face (box appears around the face), and Facial Recognition doesn't work on animals.

 

 

But to use eye af, the half shutter focus has to be disabled right? And you will need to set the eye focus at one of the custom key to use it. Tried it before but not very good at it. No sure if anyone has a better experience on this to explain how we can better use this feature.

 

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

Yes, Eye-AF does need to be mapped to a button.  I believe it's mapped somewhere at factory default, but can't remember what it was mapped to.  I've changed my button assignments so many times now.  But no, you don't need to disable half-shutter focus.  Much like the way Eye-AF overrides spot focusing, anytime you engage Eye-AF, that takes priority, including priority over engaging AF via half-shutter.   At least that's what I've found.

[kiawui]

No. Eye-AF is only available when Facial Recognition is turned on, and it sees a face (box appears around the face), and Facial Recognition doesn't work on animals.

 

 

 

Yes, Eye-AF does need to be mapped to a button. I believe it's mapped somewhere at factory default, but can't remember what it was mapped to. I've changed my button assignments so many times now. But no, you don't need to disable half-shutter focus. Much like the way Eye-AF overrides spot focusing, anytime you engage Eye-AF, that takes priority, including priority over engaging AF via half-shutter. At least that's what I've found.

That's good news. I will try it again next time. Thank you for the information.

 

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

[bplet]

I've also found that facial recognition has trouble with glasses, scenarios with strong backlight, or even sometimes people with beards or a whole lot of wrinkles.  Occasionally, facial recognition will think it sees a face in things that aren't faces.  There was a car wheel / hubcap that was confusing the heck out of it over the weekend.  I guess the lug nuts were looking like eyes.  heh

[alastc]

I spent ages looking for eye-af, thinking it was a mode you had to turn on.

 

I eventually found it on the centre button (inside the wheel).

 

I just got the A7R2, so I'm sure that's the default.

 

It does seem to work in various af modes, so it is really useful to just engage like that.

[Wesley]

You can also try registering faces into the camera for better recognition.

[bdp]

Have you turned off the 'AF w/shutter' option in custom settings tab 5?

 

I'm still trying to work out the best way to set up my A7r II too, but this is the way I set it up, with back-cutton AF set to C3 for Eye AF, and when there are no eyes I use the AF/MF button for regular focus with one of the other modes like 'Flexible Spot S'.

 

I've mapped the center button to 'Focus Area' so two quick taps of the center button allows me to use the back joystick buttons to move the focus point around fairly quickly.

 

I haven't played with the Center Lock-on AF setting but it sounds intriguing. Does it work a bit like Hasselblad's True Focus? 

 

Ben

[storyteller]

That's exactly what I'm looking for.  Haha, so simple.  Engaging Eye-AF overrides the spot.  Even if it can't find the eye.  Sweet.  Thanks!

 

Something I tried recently and really like is to map AEL to C2 on my A7 (which I believe is C3 and the A7RII) and the AEL switch to Eye-AF with AF-on mapped to the AF/MF button. So flip the toggle up and I get back button AF. Flip it down and I get Eye-AF. Works a treat for my needs and if you shoot mostly people too it might be worth trying.

[Robert Crawford]

Gary Fong explains auto eye focusing.  Go here: 

Sony Alpha a7Rii Amazing Eyeball Focusing In Continuous Mode    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7_Nwq5o9-s