In a couple of phrases: not perfect, but OMG-level of awesomeness when it works!
Many of the new enthusiast-level DSLRs and the mirrorless equivalents have had some implementation of face detection. The GX85 was also able to detect eyes and attempt to ensure that the focusing point locks in accurately on it. The eye-tracking though wasn’t always reliable and could be fooled. The most recent Sony Alpha cameras – including this A7 Mark III – has significantly enhanced its eye detection and focusing technology. Sony’s Eye AF seems adept in not just picking up the eyes of your photographic subjects from some distance, it can track it quite well even.
That said, that these are full-frame cameras with their inherently shallow depth of fields can occasionally work against you. Eye AF, and the thin depth of field will mean no room for error – e.g. when it picks something other than the eye.
Still, I’ve been getting a lot more keepers with Eye AF once I set it up properly – basically Continuous AF + assigning the rear AF-ON button to Eye AF. And both the new Samyang 35mm f2.8 and Sony FE 50mm f1.8 work with Eye AF too. Here’s a quick and dirty example I took while the kids were watching Pixar’s Cars and using the Sony FE 50mm f1.8 lens at 1/80s, f2.8, and ISO1600.
There are some reports though that Eye AF doesn’t play well with AF-C, sometimes: and specifically, that in close distances, the focusing point you end up with isn’t quite exactly what Eye AF reportedly says it should be. I haven’t observed this anomaly yet on my A73, but it’s still nonetheless something to watch out for.
The series of Sony A7 III posts:
Sony A7 III – Part 1 – Journey to Alpha-verse
Sony A7 III – Part 2 – Lens Sense Making
Sony A7 III – Part 3 – Early Impressions
Sony A7 III – Part 4 – Eye AF
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