Three and a half years ago, Sony made a statement with the Alpha 7 III. The company wanted to plant the idea that its “base model” did not mean basic. At the time, that camera was specced beyond its price, and it hit everyone by surprise. Now, with the Alpha 7 IV, our expectations are much higher. Did Sony do it again?
In a surprise announcement this morning, Sony unveiled the new LA-EA5 lens adapter: a Sony A-mount to E-mount adapter that promises E-Mount autofocus and burst shooting performance when using Sony's older A-mount glass, including lenses without a built-in AF motor.
In addition to the Nikon Z5, a new lens, and two Z-mount teleconverters, Nikon also released a few firmware updates today. The Nikon Z6 and Z7 got some minor improvements, while the Nikon Z50 got a significant new feature: Animal Detection AF.
Wildlife photographer Andrew Beck of Wild Eye recently got the chance to test out an early production unit of the Canon EOS R5 out in the wild... literally. And according to him, the camera's Animal Eye Autofocus is a game-changer.
One of the features that Canon mentioned in passing when it revealed the EOS R5 and R6 was the addition of Animal Eye AF. Combined with the new and improved Dual Pixel CMOS AF II, the feature should work pretty well, but now we have our first real-world tests that actually show it in action.
Canon Australia has just published an aggressive press release that means to "shut down speculation" from detractors who think specs like 8K video are "a fantasy" that will be characteristically crippled by the camera brand.
Nikon has released a major firmware update (Version 3.00) for the full-frame mirrorless Z6 and Z7, adding some focus tracking improvements, additional CFExpress support, and one major new feature: Face and Eye "Animal Detection" autofocus for dogs and cats.
The Sony RX10 IV is one of (if not the) most popular bridge/superzoom cameras on the market, and it just got better. As promised in an earlier announcement, Sony has released a free firmware update that improves the RX10's autofocus by adding Real-Time Animal Eye AF.
If you thought Sony was limiting its best autofocus improvements to the mirrorless alpha lineup of cameras, you'll be pleasantly surprised by today's news. Sony has revealed that it will be adding real-time Animal Eye AF and other improvements to the popular RX10 IV superzoom as well, via a free firmware update coming later this year.
If you own the Sony a9, it's time to head over to the Sony website and download some new firmware. The long-awaited Firmware Version 6.0 has finally been released, adding Eye AF, an Interval Timer, and more to the high-speed Sony sports shooter.