Eye Auto focus/Tracking

[stapo49]

This might be a silly question but in regards to eye auto focus/tracking can it still be used with a group portrait or with couples?

If so which eye/s does it lock onto?

 

[smoke665]

If so which eye/s does it lock onto?

The laziest one????? LOL

Assuming it picks the closest one to camera?

 

[stapo49]

And if all the people are equidistant from the camera? lol

 

[smoke665]

And if all the people are equidistant from the camera? lol

It picks the biggest eye????

I'm not really sure. To be truthful I rarely use anything but spot focus, preferring to know exactly where my focal plane is and using my assigned DOF to bring the rest in focus.

 

[stapo49]

And if all the people are equidistant from the camera? lol

It picks the biggest eye????

I'm not really sure. To be truthful I rarely use anything but spot focus, preferring to know exactly where my focal plane is and using my assigned DOF to bring the rest in focus.

And if you are photographing a group of cyclops?
We can do this all day lol.

I wonder how many of the portrait photographers on this forum use a similar method to yours or make use of the auto eye focus?

Is it useful or more of a gimmick?



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[smoke665]

Is it useful or more of a gimmick

To me it's more gimmick. Like many of the additional features I find they cause unnecessary conflict with what I want and what the camera thinks I want.

 

[RVT1K]

This might be a silly question but in regards to eye auto focus/tracking can it still be used with a group portrait or with couples?

If so which eye/s does it lock onto?

Maybe conduct an experiment and tell us the results?

 

[ac12]

IMHO, eye and face recognition AF should be used as appropriate for the shoot.
I might use eye AF for a single person, but my similar experience with face recognition was not good.
Face recognition AF will try to focus on whatever faces it recognizes. And you have no say in the matter. But what if the faces are not at the same distance from the camera? And at parties, it will recognize other faces that I do NOT want in focus. So what does it focus on ???
So with eye recognition, which eye in a couple shoot will the camera choose to focus on?

If you have a kid, who just can't stay still (we have all had that situation), I can see the value in eye/face AF.
In the past, I would use DoF to give me a "buffer" to compensate for some subject movement.

 

[Sharpshooterr]

And if all the people are equidistant from the camera? lol

It picks the biggest eye????

I'm not really sure. To be truthful I rarely use anything but spot focus, preferring to know exactly where my focal plane is and using my assigned DOF to bring the rest in focus.

And if you are photographing a group of cyclops?
We can do this all day lol.

I wonder how many of the portrait photographers on this forum use a similar method to yours or make use of the auto eye focus?
Is it useful or more of a gimmick?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I shoot lots of portraits and I use a single manual focus point directly on the eye on every shot. And no, it’s rarely the center point. I move the point constantly.
I do the same for shooting sports as well.
But I shoot a cano and canons only have eye recognition in live view which is pretty useless.

We’ve all seen the videos of Sony's eye recognition when a person walks back then walks forward and the point stays on their eye. But that’s the easiest shot on the planet!!! I can do that focusing manually.
I’ll admit if it worked flawlessly at all distances and speeds it would be a great benefit.
My Canon 1Dx struggles with difficult focus situations like coming strait at me fast!
John

 

[stk]

On Nikon it will, most of the time, lock on to the nearest eye, but you can then switch to the eye you prefer by using either the joystick or the d-pad.