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Archive 2019 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Chaliel
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p.7 #1 · p.7 #1 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Fred Miranda wrote:
For your runway shows where the models are moving fast, you should get the 55/1.8 ZA or FE 85/1.8 instead. I know you don't like their rendering but they are both very sharp lenses and you would not have issues with AF tracking.

Can someone explain me what's wrong with the rendering of the FE 55MM f1.8...?
I also have the Batis 85mm, and the Loxia 50mm..., but I prefer the 55!
Rendering? If you use raw, you make the changes as you like them best... In Capture One I prefer to bring back all colors in most files (-9)

Very happy with the new firmware policy from Sony! This makes you will go for the new model camera, as it means it will really bring something new that was not possible by firmware..., so new hardware means a really step up from the previous model.
I did not update the A7S, as the S2, only had ibis, what I do not need on tripod video...

Jan 16, 2019 at 11:11 AM

snapsy
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p.7 #2 · p.7 #2 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Fred Miranda wrote:
Hi Scott,
What's your intermediate step to get ARW files into your phone?

Fred, I just worked out a workflow this morning to get raws to my iPhone using FTP

1. On your iPhone, Install the free version of the FE File Explorer (AppStore link)

2. Run the FE File Explorer app and start its FTP server by clicking on the WiFi icon at the bottom of the page. If you're phone is currently connected to a router then both the phone and camera will use that network, otherwise you can create an adhoc network on the phone by using the phone's Personal Hotspot feature.

3. On the camera, configure the WiFi settings to connect to either your home router or phone's hotspot

4. On the camera, configure the FTP client. Use the IP address reported by FE File Explorer when the FTP server was started, and port 2121. For the user name pick "anonymous". Leave password blank

You're all set. On my A9 I'm using the FTP background transfer feature, will allows me to transfer images (jpeg and/or raw) as I take them to the configured FTP server. The A7rIII/A7III doesn't support background FTP transfers so on those bodies you'll have to enter the FTP transfer function to send image(s).

This can be done on Android as well - you just need to install an app that implements an FTP server like FE File Explorer does on iOS.

Jan 16, 2019 at 11:37 AM

Fred Miranda
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p.7 #3 · p.7 #3 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

snapsy wrote:
Fred, I just worked out a workflow this morning to get raws to my iPhone using FTP

1. On your iPhone, Install the free version of the FE File Explorer (AppStore link)

2. Run the FE File Explorer app and start its FTP server by clicking on the WiFi icon at the bottom of the page. If you're phone is currently connected to a router then both the phone and camera will use that network, otherwise you can create an adhoc network on the phone by using the phone's Personal Hotspot feature.

3. On the camera, configure the WiFi settings to connect to...Show more →

Wow! I will definitely give this a try!

I was already using the A7RIII's FTP option but never thought a smartphone could be used as well.

Jan 16, 2019 at 11:54 AM

GMPhotography
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p.7 #4 · p.7 #4 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Now we need 4tb iPhones.

Jan 16, 2019 at 11:58 AM

LBJ2
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p.7 #5 · p.7 #5 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Here's how I send Sony RAW from my camera to my iPhone:

1. The $50 RAVPower 6700mAh FileHub, AC750 Wireless Travel Router. I also use an app called FileBrowser for proper file management.
https://www.ravpower.com/p/ravpower-filehub-ac750-wireless-travel-router.html
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filebrowser-document-manager/id364738545?mt=8

Or

2. Plug the A7r3 directly into the 2018 iPad Pro via USB-C then move images to the adobe cloud for access on all my other devices as needed.

P.S. I am also able to connect my external drives to the RavPower router enabling 4TB+ storage for iPhone an iPad too

Jan 16, 2019 at 12:15 PM

chez
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p.7 #6 · p.7 #6 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

mcbroomf wrote:
Looking at the BCN sales figures for December for all FF mirrorless cameras in Japan we can see that while the A7III is the leading seller the A9 comes in at #8, even beaten quite handily by the much older A7II and A7RII and only fractionally higher than the very old A7. If Sony are not yet ready to replace the A9 this may well be a way for them to boost sales as well as keep anyone who might have been thinking of switching. The fact that the A7III and A7RIII also get improvements are likely due to the...Show more →

I don't ever expect the A9 class cameras to come close to the sales of the A7 class cameras...that's just the nature of the beast. A9 is more expensive and is aimed at the professional shooter whereas the A7 series are more affordable with more the consumer / prosumer market.

The A9 competition is the D5 and 1Dx cameras...not the A7 cameras.

Jan 16, 2019 at 12:28 PM

Ayoul
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p.7 #7 · p.7 #7 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Nice upgrades for sure. Sony seems to change his mind about firmware updates vs fast cycle of products and it seems a good news for us.

I just hope that I will still be able to activate Eye AF without face detection ON if I want. They claimed to have improved face detection and I hope it's true. But now, after a long use of the A9 during weddings, I don't think that face detection is always that good in low light :

When the camera is able to find the face, but struggles to find the eye when I press Eye-af (it happens sometimes in backlight), unfortunately it focuses sometimes on the highest contrast on the face, which can be the hairs for instance. So in that case, I prefer to rely on a good AF-C single point, in an old fashioned DSLR way, by just placing the focus point on the eye. Sometimes, this single point can focus on the eye when eye AF and face AF don't.

Another problem : if the face that I'm looking for is just partially covered by something else, the camera doesn't lose the face, but the A9 tends sometimes to focus on the closest object that if finds inside the square, which in that case is NOT the face.

So sometimes I prefer to be able to focus with a single AF point OR eye AF, without face AF into the equation : Eye AF for perfect focus if the light is good enough, single point AF if it's not... Until I have the real evidence that the new face /eye AF has become almost perfect, I would love to be able to still work that way...

Jan 16, 2019 at 01:01 PM

stevesanacore
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p.7 #8 · p.7 #8 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

LBJ2 wrote:
Here's how I send Sony RAW from my camera to my iPhone:

1. The $50 RAVPower 6700mAh FileHub, AC750 Wireless Travel Router. I also use an app called FileBrowser for proper file management.
https://www.ravpower.com/p/ravpower-filehub-ac750-wireless-travel-router.html
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filebrowser-document-manager/id364738545?mt=8

Or

2. Plug the A7r3 directly into the 2018 iPad Pro via USB-C then move images to the adobe cloud for access on all my other devices as needed.

P.S. I am also able to connect my external drives to the RavPower router enabling 4TB+ storage for iPhone an iPad too

So if I understand, you use the RAVPower as a portable Wifi hub and connect your camera to it using wifi and ftp? It's not clear but does the RAVPower have storage at all, or does it require a card or external drive to work? It's unclear what the one button backup is for.

Jan 16, 2019 at 01:17 PM

snapsy
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p.7 #9 · p.7 #9 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Ayoul wrote:
I just hope that I will still be able to activate Eye AF without face detection ON if I want. They claimed to have improved face detection and I hope it's true. But now, after a long use of the A9 during weddings, I don't think that face detection is always that good in low light

You can activate Eye AF with face detection disabled on the existing A9 firmware but the camera will still revert to face detection if it doesn't find an eye but finds a face. In other words, the Face Detection setting doesn't appear to influence the camera's behavior when Eye AF is engaged.

Jan 16, 2019 at 01:58 PM

xpfloyd
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p.7 #10 · p.7 #10 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

snapsy wrote:
You can activate Eye AF with face detection disabled on the existing A9 firmware but the camera will still revert to face detection if it doesn't find an eye but finds a face. In other words, the Face Detection setting doesn't appear to influence the camera's behavior when Eye AF is engaged.
Correct but you can then revert to non face detect by not pressing the eye af button and face detect won’t kick in (if disabled). However it seems on the new firmware you will have to have face detect enabled to use constant eye af (with half press) which takes away the ability to quickly revert to a small focus point on the eye if the light is too low for eye af as face detect will want to kick in. I keep face detect off for this reason on the current firmware

Jan 16, 2019 at 02:28 PM

snapsy
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p.7 #11 · p.7 #11 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

xpfloyd wrote:
Correct but you can then revert to non face detect by not pressing the eye af button and face detect won’t kick in (if disabled). However it seems on the new firmware you will have to have face detect enabled to use constant eye af (with half press) which takes away the ability to quickly revert to a small focus point on the eye if the light is too low for eye af as face detect will want to kick in. I keep face detect off for this reason on the current firmware

Fair points. One way around that situation is to use the existing AF registration feature - you could register an AF point of your choice (like the center) and assign a custom button to switch+AF-ON on that point to temporarily defeat the new full-time eye/face AF.

Jan 16, 2019 at 02:39 PM

Ayoul
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p.7 #12 · p.7 #12 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

xpfloyd wrote:
Correct but you can then revert to non face detect by not pressing the eye af button and face detect won’t kick in (if disabled). However it seems on the new firmware you will have to have face detect enabled to use constant eye af (with half press) which takes away the ability to quickly revert to a small focus point on the eye if the light is too low for eye af as face detect will want to kick in. I keep face detect off for this reason on the current firmware

Yep, it would have been exactly my response. I'm glad to discover that I'm not the only one who doesn't use face AF all the time for this reason. I should investigate snapsy workaround though, if it's impossible to work with eye-af only with the future firmware.

Jan 16, 2019 at 02:45 PM

xpfloyd
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p.7 #13 · p.7 #13 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

snapsy wrote:
Fair points. One way around that situation is to use the existing AF registration feature - you could register an AF point of your choice (like the center) and assign a custom button to switch+AF-ON on that point to temporarily defeat the new full-time eye/face AF.
That’s maybe a good shout for a workaround

Jan 16, 2019 at 02:47 PM

xpfloyd
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p.7 #14 · p.7 #14 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Jan 16, 2019 at 02:48 PM

arbitrage
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p.7 #15 · p.7 #15 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Ayoul wrote:
Yep, it would have been exactly my response. I'm glad to discover that I'm not the only one who doesn't use face AF all the time for this reason. I should investigate snapsy workaround though, if it's impossible to work with eye-af only with the future firmware.

Yeah count me in that group also. I have face disabled on the A9...didn't like the random grey box floating around when I'm shooting birds and felt overall AF was compromised. I like having Eye-AF as a back-button focus option (I use joystick push) in AF-C when I need it and only when I need it. But it sounds like the entire system will be getting such an overhaul that maybe the whole system will work more seamlessly. However, I have a feeling I'll have it turned off.

The other thing is it seems all the new AF features take over the Lock-ON AF mode so if you aren't in that mode (instead in Flex spot or Zone etc) that it won't be using the new algorithms or the Face/Eye AF?? Time will tell I guess.

Jan 16, 2019 at 02:51 PM

Holger
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p.7 #16 · p.7 #16 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Jan 16, 2019 at 03:00 PM

Charlie N
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p.7 #17 · p.7 #17 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

snapsy wrote:
Go to 3:04 for a quick impression on the new real-time AF mode:

still black AF squares, *SMH*

Jan 16, 2019 at 03:13 PM

Ayoul
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p.7 #18 · p.7 #18 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

arbitrage wrote:
Yeah count me in that group also. I have face disabled on the A9...didn't like the random grey box floating around when I'm shooting birds and felt overall AF was compromised. I like having Eye-AF as a back-button focus option (I use joystick push) in AF-C when I need it and only when I need it. But it sounds like the entire system will be getting such an overhaul that maybe the whole system will work more seamlessly. However, I have a feeling I'll have it turned off.

The other thing is it seems all the new AF features take over...Show more →

That last question is a good (and scary) question. I never use lock-on AF now because I find it far too jumpy, not that reliable. It was my only disappointment, coming from a Nikon D750 : the lock-on AF was not really better. The only kind of "lock-on AF" that I use right now if eye-AF and (still sometimes) face AF.

I know that their new "real time tracking" is supposed to be better than the old lock-on AF, but I'm tempted to never update my A9 again if I'm forced to use it to have eye AF. What if I can't trust it at 100 % during weddings ? I didn't think about that. It would be even more of a deal breaker than being forced to use face-AF all the time... If the "old" eye-AF still works the same way in other AF mode, it will be fine for me. Let's hope that Sony will be smart on this implementation...

Jan 16, 2019 at 03:13 PM

Holger
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p.7 #19 · p.7 #19 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Ayoul wrote:
That last question is a good (and scary) question. I never use lock-on AF now because I find it far too jumpy, not that reliable. It was my only disappointment, coming from a Nikon D750 : the lock-on AF was not really better. The only kind of "lock-on AF" that I use right now if eye-AF and (still sometimes) face AF.

I know that their new "real time tracking" is supposed to be better than the old lock-on AF, but I'm tempted to never update my A9 again if I'm forced to use it to have eye AF. What if I...Show more →

It was said that the eye-AF is only used all the time, if face detection is switched on (read Brian Smiths impression I linked to above). So the solution is simple, switch it off and you get the standard behaviour,

Jan 16, 2019 at 03:18 PM

arbitrage
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p.7 #20 · p.7 #20 · Real Time Tracking firmware ver 5.0 for A9 coming in March!

Ayoul wrote:
That last question is a good (and scary) question. I never use lock-on AF now because I find it far too jumpy, not that reliable. It was my only disappointment, coming from a Nikon D750 : the lock-on AF was not really better. The only kind of "lock-on AF" that I use right now if eye-AF and (still sometimes) face AF.

I know that their new "real time tracking" is supposed to be better than the old lock-on AF, but I'm tempted to never update my A9 again if I'm forced to use it to have eye AF. What if I...Show more →

I agree with Lock-On AF mode being jumpy...I have more success in my BIF photography to just use Wide or Zone. Trying Lock-ON AF for perched birds hasn't worked well either so I totally stopped using it.

It is too bad there is no way to roll-back FW as I will also be a little weary of the update until reading first hand reports on these forums.

Jan 16, 2019 at 03:23 PM

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