Using the Sony A1 II for street photography - Auto-focus setup

[markjanesphotography]

I'm in the process of moving from a Sony R5 and Fuji X-T5 / x100vi setup for street photography to a Sony A1 II setup. Historically I’ve used back button focusing with spot AF and tracking for street in particular - this worked very well on the Canon R5 and reasonably well on the Fuji cameras I’ve used. So I move the centre AF point over the subject (usually face), push (and hold) the BBF button I’ve set up and then recompose and the face is tracked (and sometimes lost - low light, fast moving, complex scenes, etc). If I loose focus I recompose, re-select again and continue. My understanding is the Sony A1 (and A9?) can work the same way but is much more clever about human (and other subject) identification and predictive tracking to the point where some shooters are abandoning point select and just leaving everything to the camera. This sounds very dubious to an old hack like me - how have people found this for street (and wildlife I guess)? Does anyone still use BBF given the A1 ii’s capabilities? Is BBF more now about selecting a subject from a crowd and then the AI does the rest? Very interested in your experiences with the A1 (or A9?). Thankyou!

 

[f/1.2]

I'm in the process of moving from a Sony R5 and Fuji X-T5 / x100vi setup for street photography to a Sony A1 II setup. Historically I’ve used back button focusing with spot AF and tracking for street in particular - this worked very well on the Canon R5 and reasonably well on the Fuji cameras I’ve used. So I move the centre AF point over the subject (usually face), push (and hold) the BBF button I’ve set up and then recompose and the face is tracked (and sometimes lost - low light, fast moving, complex scenes, etc). If I loose focus I recompose, re-select again and continue. My understanding is the Sony A1 (and A9?) can work the same way but is much more clever about human (and other subject) identification and predictive tracking to the point where some shooters are abandoning point select and just leaving everything to the camera. This sounds very dubious to an old hack like me - how have people found this for street (and wildlife I guess)? Does anyone still use BBF given the A1 ii’s capabilities? Is BBF more now about selecting a subject from a crowd and then the AI does the rest? Very interested in your experiences with the A1 (or A9?). Thankyou!

Yeah you don't need to do that you will get much better results using eye a.f. All of the recent Sony bodies have real time eye a.f simply select the human subject and your good to go. It will track their eyes across the frame.

I have been using Sony bodies for a few years now professionally, I currently have an A9III, A9II, A7RIVa, 4 x A7IV's and an A7CII. You can rely on eye a.f on all of them, Your A1 II should be nearly as good as the A9III, in terms of a.f performance.

If you have specefic questions about the A1 you should pop them into the owners thread here.

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/the-amazing-sony-a1-a7-a9-aps-c-anything-else-welcome-mega-thread.511885/page-2684

 

[LeeRatters]

I'm in the process of moving from a Sony R5 and Fuji X-T5 / x100vi setup for street photography to a Sony A1 II setup. Historically I’ve used back button focusing with spot AF and tracking for street in particular - this worked very well on the Canon R5 and reasonably well on the Fuji cameras I’ve used. So I move the centre AF point over the subject (usually face), push (and hold) the BBF button I’ve set up and then recompose and the face is tracked (and sometimes lost - low light, fast moving, complex scenes, etc). If I loose focus I recompose, re-select again and continue. My understanding is the Sony A1 (and A9?) can work the same way but is much more clever about human (and other subject) identification and predictive tracking to the point where some shooters are abandoning point select and just leaving everything to the camera. This sounds very dubious to an old hack like me - how have people found this for street (and wildlife I guess)? Does anyone still use BBF given the A1 ii’s capabilities? Is BBF more now about selecting a subject from a crowd and then the AI does the rest? Very interested in your experiences with the A1 (or A9?). Thankyou!

I wouldn't have thought many people use a Sony A1ii for street tbh I've not used any of my Sony cameras (A7 & A7Riii) for street ever, I don't think! I also mainly use zone/manual focus but I don't see why your ideas/suggestions wouldn't work - in theory at least.