Sony a7R II Video AF: Face Tracking Comparison vs Canon 5DS & Nikon D810 by DPReview.com
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31 Responses
Yes, eye tracking is really really great, but also notice the serious difference in color between the Sony and the Canon.
Canon’s colors is optimized for portrait but i think sony as a electronic company want capture wider data a.k.a wider gamut, and leave the color correction to the photographer’s liking/taste.
Far easier to correct/adjust color than focus in post-production…and I didn’t think the Sony’s colors were all that off to begin with.
What about those 8 new lenses? 🙂
Impressive advantage for the A7RII.
Sony 35/1.4 showed a bit of breathing which was distracting. The Canon a bit better although not perfect. Capabilities of the Sony was impressive though.
It looks like the ‘toy’ beat the ‘pro’. I guess we should prepare for an onslaught on why the Canikon are still so much better.
Why? I would not consider my D810 for video. In case I need it I use the Sony for that. But still not good enough if I had to use it professionally for video and faster movements. Better to use some larger DOF here.
The same Face Detection algorithm is used for video as for stills. The difference is that for video it is even more challenging because it needs to be fast to react, but still move smoothly.
While Sony did like 90% accuracy but 100% smoothly, it even as well dropped face some points. Nikon instead did huge hunting and got like 10% of the time face focused but was not at all smooth.
Canon was like semi-smooth little jumping here and there but got like 40-60% of the time face in focus.
Yes, Sony is miles ahead, here. However, still not enough if I would need to use it professionally. Give it one more year…
“The same Face Detection algorithm is used for video as for stills.”
Not true for DSLRs. Moderns Nikons have face detection off their metering sensors with mirror down, but in video with mirror up they have to use slow readout from the main sensor (the Sony sensor in D810 has only 5fps full-sensor readout – I would not expect miracles in CDAF or video).
Sony tracking is great, color is ugly. The last Sony camera to have really nice colors off box was A900/A850, don’t know how it is with A99
The Canon and Nikon face tracking is pretty much useless. The Nikon a bit better… but not that good at all. If I would need that function, there would be only one choice. Happy me I am already owning an a7rii 😉
Did we watch the same video here?
The Canon setup blew the Nikon setup out of the waters. The Nikon was by Far the worst of the three. Completely useless Lens noise, the focus motor being imprecise as heck, it was as if the motor caused the entire lens to vibrate out of focus each time it clicked.
Erhh… What? Nikon a bit better?
1. Sony
2. Panasonic
3. Olympus
4. Canon
5. Pentax
6.
…
24. Nikon
Nikon tracking is better in stills, when its PDAF and metering matrices are working with their advanced algorithms. In video, the mirror is up and the sensors are dark, and neither Nikon cameras no lenses can do anything good in CDAF. CDAF is useless for video anyway as it is hunting by definition.
Doesnt look like the Sony is up there quite yet to really use the tracking in Video professionally. Of course, much better then the DSLRs though.
Well, there is clearly only one camera that can do proper tracking!! Only the A7rII is able to keep up with even slow movements.
Tracking is on X and Y axis (Up/Down and Left/Right), Continuous Autofocus is in Z axis (Closer/Further). And which one you think is more important one? Tracking or C-AF?
C-AF because the Focus Plane goes to infinity at X and Y axis, while depth of field just is on one plane and then acceptable level is closer or further from the camera.
I’m pretty sure he ate a space cake before doing this test. Luckily he wasn’t paranoid that the machines were tracking him.
5 stops from ISO 640 is ISO 20480, which he compares to ISO 12800.
It would be interesting to see a face tracking comparaison of A7RII and A7SiII
Not sure if this was a fair test…
They should have repeated the test 3 times each one of them changing the camera thats on the center. The nikon would loose, but not sure if the canon would be so bad.
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I know where to direct my Canikon friends now 😉
The A7RII vs the C300/C100 mk2 would be a more interesting comparison. The Sony would be the underdog by $$$ but I suspect wouldn’t be too far off.
Sony C100 costs less than A7r2, and Canon AF lenses are usually less too (starting from 50/1.8 STM for $125).
As if any serious filmmaker cared about lens system.
The video tracking test is just stupid – neither Canon 5Ds nor Nikon D810 are made for it, even closely. In Canon line, for video with AF you would use 70D or 7DII or at least T6s, and if you are serious, C100, C500 etc. Nikon simply does not make decent video tracking at all, except maybe in Nikon 1 line (I am not sure).
My A77II does face tracking. The only problem I have is it won’t lock on to ugly faces. I tried calling Sony and they told me it’s functioning fine. Said I might want to buy a Nikon for that. Oh well.