awesome job kiara 👍

Very informative! For me, I find it much easier to use Continuous AF + Wide Area (with Face & Eye enabled) to track a moving person regardless of where in the frame they are. That’s my “set it and forget it” setup on my A7R3 for 99 percent of everyday shooting.

Hi David, I am so glad I finally found this video . First of all, Thank you so much for explaining so well about the different AF modes. David I have a request , can you please make a similar tutorial for sony A7iii AF guide for video AF modes and how to get most out of them specially while using it on a gimbal. Thank you in advance.

Thanks David, I love your video, very clear explained, just perfect for me.

Like previous comments this explanation has really helped understand what you can do with the focus. Brilliant.

Your videos are always very helpful.

Thanks David. I rented the camera for a dance recital shoot and your video brought me up to speed very fast. Thanks for doing this!

Great video. Have viewed many videos on this subject but this was definitely the best one. Well presented and short and sweet Thanks, this was extremely helpful

This is very useful for me. Thanks for making this vid.

best focus mode explanation so far , thanks

Wow. Superb explanation. Extremely helpful. Thank you.

She is cute 😻 also thanks for lessons appreciate it

Thank you for the video!

Well done. You got to the point and explained the different modes clearly.

this video was so amazing and so helpful

Great Video David, love straight forward explanations.

Very helpful! Thank you, David!

Really great detail here - thank you for making this video!

This is a very informative and well explained video. I really appreciate the time and effort to make this. Thank you very much.

thank you for sharing it's really helpful for me!

Thanks for the video, now show us how to do the spot exposure. Sometimes my sky gets blown out and my sensor swaps between low gain and high gain mode and I'm trying to figure out how to fix this.

thanks mate great video... this sony camera is a new world

David thank you for the explanation! Question do you notice a little camera/lens jitter or shake right when you lock focus before taking the picture ? Expediting this issue not sure if it’s normal

👏👏 Easy to understand and to the point.

Super helpful!! Thank you kindly.

Do we need to keep the shutter half pressed to keep Af-C both photo n video ?

Cheers David.Getting my A7iii tomorrow!!

Thanks David and Ciara

Thanks for that! Very well explained.

Nice video but why do you have that massive electronic level display showing? Just confuses what focus boxes are being displayed.

really helpfull! exactly what i was looking for. thanks you!

I am using sony a7iii and I want,at 6.50 focus (green vertical box ),in this video,what settings I should use

Thanks for explaining as I have been using wide and continuous AF. I can't wait to replace my kit lense with the 24-105mm G lense since images come out quite soft.

GREAT information. Thanks so much.

So is there no way to have everything in focus?

Fantastic! What's focusing like in low light situation? Appreciate the real world scenario!

really amazing explanation leant allot, i dont know but my joy stick or dial buttons are note moving the big square of zone AF to other side , it just stays what i pre select . nor i can chose lock on: felixable spot focu mode its not avialble. just icon is greyd

omg, jealous of that location. I'm stuck in Arizona :(

Great vid. Thanks.

Can you explain the video features of this camera

I wish that Sony made an update to make the spot red och yellow so I can see and find it faster on the screen, without having to press the fucus button sometimes to see where its's Hideing. I hade a lot of trouble with a wedding, and sometimes the focus jumpt to some person behind the when the bride walked towards me.. even In lock on flexible spot. I thaught my new A7 III was not going to fail me like It did sometimes on my Sony A7 II.

Hello.. thanks for this video. It was very helpful. I wanted to know if the lock-on AF mode will work for a group photo as well

Thanks champ

If you custom the center button on the wheel then you'll have center focus while in wide mode. It overrides wide as long as you press the center button. I use back button af so it's two buttons, af on for wide and center button for center af

Great info, thanks!

Superb 73

Great video! Thanks for making this. I'm currently using the 5d mark iv for wedding videos and the touch screen face tracking is great for situations like brides walking up aisles when there are crowds of faces in the background and people's shoulders' in the foreground as well. How does the A7III handle tracking a moving person when there are many other people in the scene. Does it jump around to other people a lot. And if so, can you quickly tell it to go back to your main subject? With Canon, if the focus box jumps to someone else, I can quickly tap on my subjects face while they are moving and it goes right back.

Thanks David

Great help! Somehow I can't get the focus area to show while i am shooting video....

My animal Eye AF seems to work better on my A6600 than on my A7iii when using the same lens. It could be because the dog's face fills a larger portion of the frame when shooting with the APSC format camera than when I am shooting full frame.

Really appreciate your great work on these videos David. Can you tell me how I would focus to infinity? Thanks you

I thought the a7iii had eye detection not only face detection?

David, Thanks. Appreciated. How about your selections for Video?

I've just had to have a quick chuckle thinking how many reviewers have got the model running left and right to show how far to the edge eye-af works only to see David panning the camera to show the same thing with a lot less fuss :-)

Hi David thanks for posting this very helpful. Of course Sony have now updated the firmware on many of their models so the focusing is a little different and mostly much better. But it’s still complex. I’m using the A9 and A6400 and the touch screen and tracking works really for example following dancers. But I don’t find that face tracking is over ridden with centre mode. In the week I was capturing a group of kids going to their prom. Both cameras picked up the faces and I’d been very happy with those as the focus points. However pressing the shutter and the centre lock on appears and it appears that this then takes over. Any ideas how to over come this? P.s. am in UK summer it was 13degC ! Thinking your 18DegC winter sun sounds preferable 😅😅

Are these Focus modes available in video? You said you were going to explain them in video mode too.

my image through the EVF looks magnified compared to what I see on the LCD on my A7III. any idea why ?

Great video

one more question. i shoot birds. the most diff parts are 1) small bird behind the leaves. i use back button spot meter focus to focus close and then manual fine adjustment. how would A7 work differently? 2) birds in flight where i’m focusing far away with lots of back ground trees and foreground tall grasses. what focusing mode would you use for this one?

Great video! So I’m correct in thinking that wide focus area will be perfect for most situations like family days out weddings?

Thanks for the video! What is the advantage of lock on vs continuous focus in the spot or wide mode? Don't those stay "locked on" as well?

Did you make a video for your setting for the sony a7III? like what you set as your custom keys? please and thank you!

Thank you.

This is great, straight forward tutorial! How would you recommend using the A7iii with FE 1.8/85 lens with more than one person as subject? I notice with the eye detection it only captures and selects one person and so the rest is always out of focus?

Great explanations. I’m trying to track dogs in action and face detect doesn’t work, nor does eye AF. I’ve only ever got one dog in the frame and I’m wondering if you’d recommend zone AF or lock on? Dogs that are black and white, it tends to lock into the white rather than the black, so with wide aperture, their face ends up blurred.

At the 1:00 mark you switch from face detect to eye detect. How exactly is this done? I thought face/eye detect was the same setting?

Thanks for the video! I’m going to Japan in the fall what lens do you recommend to make it easy to shot family pictures?

Thank you for this Video! May I ask you how you get the footage of your electronic viewfinder? What have you done to do this?

Great video thanks! How do I set the lock-on AF:wide when shooting on manual video mode?

In the "lock on AF" setting, what is the role of the other "area" settings (center, flexible spot, etc.) associated with this? Also, with AF set to "continuous" why would you need a lock on area setting? Wouldn't it just "continue" to adjust the focus anyway?

Great video, thanks for taking the time! I am wondering what the AF-C focus and tracking is like with slower lenses, and when stopped down? For example would the tracking still be effective with the 24-240mm 3.5-6.3, or perhaps the small aperture when zoomed in will render the tracking unusable? Any advice or experience would be much appreciated.

Hi David thanks very much! Just a question: in which situations eye detection focus is better than the face detection one?

great video, thank you :D

Thanks for the video! What would you say it is the best setting for wildlife af-c with with other setting? I guess the eye af works only for people as a subject

Great demonstration, thank you. What lens are you using for this focusing demo? I hope the answer is 55mm 1.8. 😊

I was looking for a video like this, thanks! I used Cannon all of my life and it has a single square option that I used by de facto. Is it still practical nowadays with Sony?

Face detection vs eye Af: can you use/ rely on face detection if you shoot wide open --> 1.4 for instance? Where is the focusing point (nose, eye, cheek)? In which scenarios is face detection the better option than eye af?

Hi David! Thanks for this video. I was wondering what mode you like to use for people moving (i.e. a bride walking down the aisle)? After watching this video, I think I would use continuous with the lock on mode in wide? Thanks in advance for your help!

Hey David, great video, I was wondering how you keep the green focus square continuously on your screen? Mine only appears while pressing the focus button. Thanks you.

What lens were you using for this demonstration? Thanks!

Excellent video David! I just got my a7iii a week ago. Trying to learn as much on AF. Can you advise if eye AF will work on say a moving dog? If it can, how do I set up the camera for this.

Hi David, how do ND filters impact Phase Detection Auto-Focus (PDAF)? In day light, outdoors, working 1.8 apertures to get great shallow depth-of-field, we need a ND8 or higher ND filter. How does this impact to Sony a7III Phase Detection AF?

Not sure if you know this as easily as you do with models/people but any clue what might be the better focus choice for say a product shoot where you are with-in 4 feet of subject and someone is moving around and you want everything to stay in focus and NOT focus breath and try to decide what it should focus on? Some kind of lock on focus perhaps or take off auto?? Thanks for all the videos!

How does A7iii work with the LAEA3 adapter?

Recent Sony Focus tracing in focus area with sony a9 and a6400 is same lock on focus in focus area? does same job. is it right?

What is the best mode when lot of other people in frame but I wanted to track that particular person? During wedding I made a mistake that I kept face detect 'on' and camera locked on someone else face when they came inside frame. In this scenario should I stick to Center or zone with face detect off? Or do I have other option? How do I track then?

What focus area would you use for group shots?

Which mode would you recommend for doing sports groups? I currently use continuous AF on wide mode. Wondering if there is a better setting or if that is the ideal? I used Nikon in the past and I loved being able to move the focus box around freely and would just center the box when doing groups. I understand by your video thats the same as flexible spot which is why I am asking if that setting might be better. Also asking for single shots for still sports portraits. Best mode? I have the A7R III.

Just a point, I just got the A7iii and I was practicing with my dog, but the camera didn’t track it. I guess the face detect is human configured. What focus settings would you use to track a dog running around in the woods and going behind trees etc?

Question: For taking couple photoshoot, what focus modes would you recommend to take sharp photos of two people? I am always struggling on this. Thank you!!!

Hello thank you for your video. In regards to the eye tracking i want to ask can it focus on multiple people. Can you please explain it a bit more. Thank you.

So what is the relationship between a focus zone ( or area) and face detect? If you set the zone for the lower left but it picks up a face in the upper right, where will the point of focus be?

What focus mode do you use for Video?

Struggling with my subject being soft but say...her headband is tack sharp. Any advice?

EVERY FOCUS MODE SEEMS EXACTLY THE SAME lol except for the face detection and center focus

well,i have a7iii with Tamron 28 75 2.8 and i think its very good combination! i research for gimbal those days! check if you like my last video in very dark place,hammam exactly!

Awesome

David, do you know how well these focus modes work with 3rd party lenses? I’m thinking of grabbing a 7iii but keeping my Canon lenses with the Sigma adapter

The problem I have with the zone focusing is that I can't see the corner outlines. They blend in and are very difficult to see. Also if I have this correct, only things within that box will be in focus, correct? I would need to use wide to have the whole screen in focus? Also, do you use multi metering usually?

Mr David, I have a question! If I shoot a wedding ceremony and I am standing at the very front of the ceremony to take pictures of the aisle walk, which focusing mood would be better do you think? Note that there will be a lot of people sitting and I fear that the face detection or eye AF will pick random people rather than the ones in the aisle. I have never shot on this camera and thought to ask this question before I get it.