Sony FX6: Can Auto-Focus be trusted to track Non-Human su

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Sony's FX6 cinema camera is well known for having excellent FACE/EYE DETECT auto-focus that is virtually perfect at tracking people's faces when using any of Sony's e-mount lenses. But what about when you are NOT shooting human beings? Tracking focus manually with lenses that were primarily designed for still photography is quite a bit more challenging than when using the broadcast ENG and cinema lenses that I have used in the past.

So, I wanted to see if auto-focus could be relied upon to consistently keep things like animals, boats, cars, planes, trains, in focus as I tracked them. I shot all the STOCK FOOTAGE in this video by using the PUSH-AUTO buttons on the camera body and lenses. PUSH-AUTO allows me to focus the lens manually -- and then instantly switch to auto-focus and let the camera track moving subjects for as long as I hold down one of the PUSH-AUTO buttons. Note: None of the clips in this video (even the ones of people) were shot with FACE/EYE DETECT.

Tripod system used: Sachtler Aktiv8 / Flowtech75

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I've found that the key to success with AF is to focus as fast as you can manually on whatever subject you want to track -- then get your fingers off the focus ring and press one of the PUSH-AUTO buttons to tell the camera THAT is the object you want it to track. All of the lenses that I use (especially the 200-600) have a special button(s) on them near the focus ring that can be programmed for PUSH-AUTO. And sliding my fingers over to the button on the lens is much more convenient vs. the one on the front of the camera body.

As you can see, AF works great 99% of the time depending on how large the object is in the frame. If you jump to the very end of the video there is a three minute slow-mo shot of jogger coming towards the camera, and if you look close enough in the first 60-90 seconds you can see the focus slip for a second or two several times. If the shot was in real-time you might not even notice, but in 120 fps slow-mo you can see it. Once the runner is about half the distance to the camera from where he started the focusing is pretty solid. On the other hand, there is a three minute shot of a motorboat that comes just before the jogger, and I can't see the focus ever slip once on that shot. Same thing with the dragon boat paddlers. It never slips.

Another thing to notice is that there are several shots where a wall, pole, fence, other people, etc. obscure the main subject briefly but the focus holds on the subject rather than hunting for something else. All in all, pretty solid stuff. It was fun to shoot and the stock footage will more than pay for it all! I love this business.

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