Sony A7s Face Detection + Focus Areas Question...

T

The Irish TRex

Well-known member
I've found that the face detection on the A7s works great. I shoot Weddings and it's been awesome so far with these cameras. However, with things like when the bride is coming down the aisle I'd love to somehow set it so that it doesn't detect any other faces outside of the center area. As soon as I pull out and other faces start coming into frame from the guests on the sides, it starts wanting to lock on to other faces even though she's dead center. Any ideas? I could obviously just do it manually, but I'm wondering if there's a way to have all these auto focus technologies work together to ease the stress of getting it right manually.

Thanks!
 
did you ever get anywhere with this? How did you set up face tracking in the first place? I cant seem to find it in the menus!
 
They have a face registration feature (you tell it "this is an important face" and if it finds it on the frame it locks to it), but I'm not sure it works for video.
 
hmm im sure ive got it working in the past where you dont need to register the face.. but I just cant see how to do it now! Maybe I'm thinking of another camera..
 
In the camera menu, page 6 there is "Smile/Face Detect.". Set that to on. That's where you can also register faces. Never tried this though. It seems to work best when set to Focus Area: Wide. (camera menu p. 3). But have been trying to figure that one out as well.

My favourite way of operating is having the camera set to manual focus but with Face Detection on and then hitting the 'Push Auto' (can't remember what it's called on the A7S) to activate auto focus as needed, with the face detection in place. Works really fine.
 
dmitrizigany said:
In the camera menu, page 6 there is "Smile/Face Detect.". Set that to on. That's where you can also register faces. Never tried this though. It seems to work best when set to Focus Area: Wide. (camera menu p. 3). But have been trying to figure that one out as well.

My favourite way of operating is having the camera set to manual focus but with Face Detection on and then hitting the 'Push Auto' (can't remember what it's called on the A7S) to activate auto focus as needed, with the face detection in place. Works really fine.
Click to expand...

ah yes im having a bit more luck now I've used those combination of settings. I'm interested to know what this 'push auto' is you mention. Do you mean just toggling betwee MF and AF?
 
I think it's when you leave it in MF but assign "do AF now" to a button (in my case, the center of the back wheel). I don't remember either how that "do AF now" option is called, but it's on the list of button-assignable functions. It's not the same as "switch to AF" because I want AF to be turned off once I'm no longer pressing the button.
 
Samuel H said:
I think it's when you leave it in MF but assign "do AF now" to a button (in my case, the center of the back wheel). I don't remember either how that "do AF now" option is called, but it's on the list of button-assignable functions. It's not the same as "switch to AF" because I want AF to be turned off once I'm no longer pressing the button.
Click to expand...
That's what it does. It only auto focuses as long as the button is pressed. Can't remember if I had to change things to get it to behave like this but it is working just like the 'Push Auto' on my FS700...
 
Yes, it's working like that on my camera as well. I was just pointing it out because there's another button-assignable setting that switches between AF and MF when you hit the button (I don't really like that so much, because when stressed I tend to lose track of what mode it's on).
 
ooh i like the sound of this.. A single button to AF, however when you release the camera remains on MF. Any idea what its called in the a7sii menu? I just tried assigning pretty much everything that looked like it might be it to the AEL button and nothing works. Apparently focus hold is assigned to the focus hold button but I dont have a clue what that button is! When I assign focus hold to the AEL button nothing happens..
 
Last edited:
tikigod19 said:
ah yes im having a bit more luck now I've used those combination of settings. I'm interested to know what this 'push auto' is you mention. Do you mean just toggling between MF and AF?
Click to expand...
Yes, but only for as long as the button is pressed... And when Face detection is on it focuses on a face if it finds one...
 
tikigod19 said:
ooh i like the sound of this.. A single button to AF, however when you release the camera remains on MF. Any idea what its called in the a7sii menu?
Click to expand...
So, I have the camera set to manual focus. The AF/MF-AEL switch is set to AF/MF.
In Custom Key Settings the AF/MF Button is set to "AF/MF Control Hold".
 
thank you.. this is odd. Mine seems to work in reverse (I can have AF-C selected and then push the button to activate MF for the duration of the button being pushed, but not the other way around...?)
 
could you possibly give me a run down of your settings as I'm not sure why mine only works in reverse. Could you let me know:

1) What lens you're using
2) What position the MF/AF switch on the lens is set to
3) What the camera is set to MF/AF
4) What your AEL custom button is set to
5) What your MF/AF button is set to
 
Sigma 30mm f/2.8 and 19mm f/2.8
The camera is set to MF. I don't use the AEL-AFMF button for this so it's irrelevant where it's at.
My center-of-the-wheel button is set to "AF/MF Control Hold".

The AEL-AFMF button is like two different buttons: one when the lever is in one position, and another one when the lever is at the other position. AFAIK the lever only affects which "virtual button" will be activated when you hit the hardware button.
 
Samuel H said:
Sigma 30mm f/2.8 and 19mm f/2.8
The camera is set to MF. I don't use the AEL-AFMF button for this so it's irrelevant where it's at.
My center-of-the-wheel button is set to "AF/MF Control Hold".

The AEL-AFMF button is like two different buttons: one when the lever is in one position, and another one when the lever is at the other position. AFAIK the lever only affects which "virtual button" will be activated when you hit the hardware button.
Click to expand...

So I've set mine up in exactly this way and when I push the center button (I assigned the same as yours just incase different buttons performed differently) it switches to AF-C for the duration that I'm holding it, however I still need to half push the shutter down in order for it to actually focus. Is that the same as yours or does yours just focus straight away?

EDIT: Ah, I've got it. It was doing it, just REEEEEEEALLY slowly. It also doesn't confirmation flash green when in focus. Is this now the same behaviour as yours Samuel?
 
I'm on M, and it will focus fast and confirm if I'm not recording, and slowly and without confirmation if I'm already recording.
 
yep mine behaves the same in M mode (looooads of focus breathing on the 85mm f1.4 g master lens though!) but in video mode, even when not recording, it does the mega slow focus with no confirmation. I'd prefer it to behave like it does in M mode when in video mode but I remember there were some reasons I shoot in movie mode instead of M mode.. I forget those reasons now..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top