Taking Photos In the Blink of an Eye
The short version of this story is a crowd of peers singing happy birthday to my dear friend and colleague, David Schloss, at a Sony Press Event dinner for the new a6300 and G Masters lenses.
The extended version is that this photo took a collaborative effort by a dining room full of camera journalists to figure out how to use the Eye AF function of the Sony RX1R II. That’s how I got the shot in challenging conditions AND after a couple drinks. Once working, Eye AF is a remarkable tool to get the shot in focus. Why are such useful camera features like Easter Eggs on Sony cameras? Well, the operating and menu systems of modern cameras, and that’s all of them, haven’t quite kept up with ever-more features and functions, like continuous Eye AF. Through a combination of custom settings, a focus mode dial, and simultaneously pushing two buttons, a photographer can continuously track a subject’s eyes. The feature totally works, once you figure out to use it.
Because pro-camera digital image quality is so good now — rivaling film — camera makers are now focused on making sure a photographer gets the shot with more and faster focus points, facial recognition, and eye tracking. Earlier this year, at the Nikon D5 launch, photographers were promised that they could shoot in the moment, be creative, and not worry about focus. During his opening remarks in New York, the president of Sony USA told us the intent of the Alpha Series cameras was Kondo and loosely translated from Japanese that means, “being in the moment, present with expressive technology.” In other words, if you compose the shot, the camera will take care of the rest. As a blogger who got into journalism, and now with a foot in the photography world shooting with pro cameras, I’m deleting fewer images off SD cards. Unless it’s out of focus, over/under exposed, or poorly composed, it’s really hard to take a bad shot with a pro camera.
In 2011, Wired predicted that future cameras would focus as fast as the human eye, and 5 years later it seems the tech has arrived. Locking focus on a subject in as little as 0.05 seconds, the a6300 is the world’s fastest AF acquisition time. In their recap of the launch, the Verge found the camera was tracking the subjects faster than the photographer’s eye could. Nikon and Canon’s top autofocusing systems are between 0.25 and 0.5. If Sony’s specs are accurate, that’s nearly a 10-fold faster focusing system in a compact body, and with new lenses to match.
Given that I captured the image of David and friends using an Rx1R II without Sony’s fastest focusing system, just imagine what the a6300 can do. The birthday song singing wasn’t planned, but a spontaneous moment during dinner when the chef invited guests into the kitchen to help plate the desserts. During the first verse, I grabbed the camera off a table crowded with glassware and dishes, and it took care of the rest — capturing a split second of emotion and joy.
Now, if only we had an easier-to-use camera operating system that didn’t take so much effort to engage a truly useful feature. Considering Sony is on a 6-month release cycle, I expect that’ll happen soon, this year or maybe next.
For more of my take on mirrorless cameras, find my articles on Digital Photo Pro, Digital Photo, Sony Mirrorless Pro and in Bike Hugger’s magazine. Here’s another moment. It’s from the streets of New York, as we walked back to the hotel.
