When Sony released their A7III mirrorless camera back in February 2018, they introduced it to the world as their “Basic Camera”.
However, it’s most definitely anything but basic. Packing more technology than many photographers will ever take full advantage of, the A7III has probably given executives over at Canon and Nikon a good number of sleepless nights.
With a wide range of accessories available for the A7III, as well as an extensive collection of full-frame lenses, the Sony A7III was the camera to beat in 2018 and is still the camera to beat in 2019.
One of the most impressive and helpful features of the Sony A7III is the Eye AF. This basically tracks the human eye and locks focus on the eye which is closest to the camera, making out of focus eyes a thing of the past.
Eye AF currently works independently of the shutter button; you need to press an additional pre-assigned button to enable it while composing your shot. However, in April of this year, a firmware update will be released for the A7III that will introduce Real-Time Eye AF. This now means that you only need to press the shutter down to enable Eye AF. You can also select whether you’d like to focus on the left or right eye or let the camera decide.
But what’s even more exciting about the new firmware update is that you will now not only be able to track the human eye to help nail razor-sharp images, but you will also be able to track Animal Eyes.
Animal Eye AF as it is called will make wildlife photographers very happy, as well as anyone who loves to shoot photos of their pet dogs and cats. All photographers know that if the eye is out of focus then often the entire image is ruined, and this is a real challenge with fast-moving subjects when the autofocus will sometimes lock onto the nose or eyebrows.
There is no news yet on which animals will be supported, as I’m guessing not every single animal under the sun will be supported at first. But Sony has already provided examples of it working on pets like cats and dogs, as well as larger animals like lions and tigers.
But it’s not only the Sony A7III that will get this new Animal Eye AF update the Sony A7R III will also receive it in March, and then the Sony A9 and A6400 will receive the update at some point during this summer.
Despite that both Nikon and Canon have released their mirrorless cameras recently, neither can track the human eye like the Sony’s are able to, let alone the eyes of animals.
It’s currently a very interesting time in the mirrorless camera market, which many have dubbed “Mirrorless Wars”. This can only be a good thing for photographers as we will hopefully reap the benefits as these companies go head to head and most likely compete by reducing their prices, pushing out new models with exciting new technology, and hopefully, we will also see some big discounts too making these pro cameras more affordable to many.
