Sony asked me to put together some of my Z90 auto focus demo footage (warts and all) for presentation I'm doing at NAB, so I figured I might as well upload to Vimeo, as well. It really does do a better job following action that I can do manually.

Demo footage of the Sony PXW-Z90 Fast Hybrid Auto Focus system on Vimeo

Good one. Makin' music again DJ.

Chris Young

I agree Doug...even at night for ENG, I leave the camera on autofocus, something I have never done on any other camera I have owned before, only toggling to manual for certain shots that have objects intruding near the object of my focus desire. I find the autofocus will always found proper focus before I can even zoom into and frame my shot fully! It used to be zoom in, focus punch in, frame shot, now its just zoom to frame, voila!

Paul

Yeah, Sony's phase detection system is pretty darn amazing alright. The Z90/X70 have less than 300 detection areas. Some of the Alpha models have well over 600+ detection areas. It always amazes me how Alpha always seems to get Sony Semiconductor's highest tech sensors and processing long before Sony Pro gets them. Sony even stated that the new Venice camera's image sensor comes from Alpha. (Possibly A9 sensor?)

I have to believe that every Sony camera moving forward consumer and pro will have this PDAF.

This system is seriously usable in places where manual focus used to be the only way to go!

Times, they are a changin'

Do you have any idea how may more Alpha cameras they sell compared to the Z90?

Paul

It really does do a better job following action that I can do manually.


If even Doug says a camera can do better autofocus then he could do it manually then it must be extremely good :)

Doug:
I would be intersted to know how you set the AF Parameters (Focus area, Drive Speed, Subject tracking depth, Subject Switch sensitivity).

All AF settings were on default for the video posted above to keep it simple.

Very impressive indeed.

So I'm assuming also that the Z90 grabs focus very quickly as well? If so, this would be a dream for events.

Shot this weekend with the Z90 on my motion control rig (live action slide,pan, tilt, focus). Programming moves for the focus motor is always the hardest part and the biggest cause of reshoots for me. Disabled the focus motor and relied on Z90 AF for several scenes with multiple passes on static targets. Focus tracking during the moves was perfect, absolutely perfect. It helped that targets were well lit and relatively contrasty. Of course I was not able to use it for scenes with programmed rack focus, but I can live with that.

Next shoot I hope to try Z90 AF to create a clean plate pass for 3d camera solve. Should work with static target. Probably will be a challenge for moving target. Would be huge if I could.