A99 is very nice. now i just need to figure out this face detect system. I thought it would track a face anywhere in the fram and focus it but I am nit getting that result
The sony manuals suck!
I am not sure about A99, but when I got my A7 I discovered the following (I will quote my text from another place) :
"...Face Detection frame (
grey or white when face detected) allows a regular (
using shutter button for example) focusing (
white turning into green) when face is around/close to a current flexible spot ( [
Focus Area] =
Flexible Spot ) AF point location within the frame (
the Face Detection frame must touch/intersect with the displayed current AF spot frame to have a white color - once there is no touch the Face Detection frame will become grey... so you might need to either move Flexible Spot AF point within the frame closer to the face or reframe to bring the face closer to that AF point)
OR you need to use [
Focus Area] =
Wide |
Zone instead of [
Focus Area] =
Flexible Spot...
HOWEVER it is still possible to focus using "
Eye AF" button even if the Face Detection frame is grey (it will find an eye and turn a grey frame into a green one) !
Eye AF = Focuses on a person’s eyes when you press the button, even [
Smile/Face Detect.] =
OFF... When the camera focuses on the eye(s) and [
Smile/Face Detect.] is set to [
On], a face detection frame (
big green frame) is displayed around the face
after Eye AF frame is displayed (
small green frame) around the eye(s). When [
Smile/Face Detect.] is set to [
Off], a detection frame (small green frame) is displayed on the eye(s) for a certain time (it disappeares then)... Press the shutter button
while still pressing the
Eye AF key...."
sorry for a long text and possible typos
PS: also if you are using WB = UniWB then Sony's (A7) AF will _NOT_ work under a certain daylight illumination (Blue channel saturation is close to Green channel saturation in raw, Red channel is behind) to detect faces... unlike my m43 cameras Sony (A7, not sure about other cameras) apparently uses also color to distinguish faces, while m43 cameras don't... so if you want to shoot some green/blue aliens with face detection bring another camera brand.