The Sony RX10 IV bridge camera was released in October 2017 and features a 24-600mm equivalent lens with the capability of shooting up to 24 frames per second with autofocus. Pairing those kind of specs with Sony’s newer Real-time Eye AF for Animals tech makes perfect sense, and now it’s here.
First premiering in several of Sony’s interchangeable lens cameras, Real-time Eye AF for Animals is a continuous focus mode that uses AI-trained algorithms to find an animal’s eyes in the frame and track focus on them. While Sony’s official stance on the current iteration is that it’s meant for dogs and cats, users have found it can work well with many other types of animals as well.
Surprising to me is that Sony has now updated a two-year-old camera with a fairly advanced new feature. With the RX10 IV growing long in the tooth in the context of Sony’s rapid camera refresh schedule, I would have much more expected it to be left for a potential RX10 V release. For years Sony was never known as a company to bring new features to already released cameras, preferring to debut them in new products instead. In 2019, that position seemed to have shifted with major firmware releases that we saw come to the a7 III, a7R III, and a9.
The Sony RX10 IV firmware update 2.0 with Real-time Eye AF for Animals is available to download now.
I can confirm the animal eye AF also works with deers and cows.
Overall a stellar camera despite the 1" sensor and 20 MP resolution.
The fact that they aren't pushing this update to the Sony a99ii is so ridiculous
It doesn't have to be pushed to the a9II. It's already *in* the a9 II.
From the press release.
Additional notable focusing capabilities include Real-time Eye AF with right eye / left eye selection, Real-time Eye AF for animal augmented with a new algorithm, Real-Time Eye AF for movie, Real-time Tracking, selectable focus frame color, Touch Pad focus point control while using the viewfinder and more. AF can also now continuously track even if continuous shooting is greater than F16, providing further accuracy for shots that require slower shutter speeds.
I believe Robert is talking about the a99ii not the a9ii.
Thanks for clarifying. The reason the a99 II doesn’t have real time tracking is that it uses a separate focus sensor, which the SLT mirror bounces light to. It’s not on-sensor AF, so that’s not going to be able to get Real-Time tracking as in the focusing operation it behaves more like a DSLR than a mirrorless camera.
Real time tracking and animal eye af is a function of using the imaging sensor as the focusing and subject recognition sensor, so there isn’t any gap between detection and evaluation of that subject.
And yet no intervalometer.
Cat videos taken to new heights...