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Features

How Face Detection in the Canon EOS R Differs from the Sony System

Chris Gampat
9 Comments
10/29/2018
4 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Canon RF 50mm f1.2 L USM sample images in Hawaii 40

Last Updated on 10/31/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

The face detection and eye detection system in the Canon EOS R is very different from Sony’s. 

While companies like Sony, Fujifilm, Olympus, and Panasonic all have eye detection autofocus, lots of portrait photographers are eager to know how face detection and eye detection work in the Canon EOS R. We’ve completed our Canon EOS R review and, in practice, it’s well known that Sony is the one to beat in this. For years, photographers used one autofocus point, focused, and recomposed their scenes very carefully to get what they wanted. That’s obviously changed over the years, but the massive innovation came a few years ago when Sony implemented eye autofocus into their A7 series cameras. And soon, the entire industry followed in their footsteps.

The Way Sony Works

The Sony autofocus system is very good. Equally good arguments can be made that it’s the best out there. So when shooting portraits, the way the autofocus system works is pretty crucial to photographers. How it works is:

  • Turn on face detection and preferably the ability to choose autofocus points.
  • Sony’s algorithms read the scene and detect a face
  • You focus on the face
  • You press another button and tell it to focus on the eye on the face. Unlike Fujifilm and Olympus, you can’t tell it to prioritize one eye or another.
  • Snap the photo
  • The model changes the pose
  • Focus again
  • Press button again
  • Snap photo
  • Model changes post
  • Focus again
  • Snap photo again
  • Repeat

In the flow of photographing models and portraiture, this sort of takes you out of the shoot at times because you need to pretty much double autofocus. It works but if you’re experienced your mind can be very wired into shooting over and over again. It’s up to you to slow down and give direction to the model, carefully look at the composition, the lighting, etc. While lots of folks say they do this, lots of folks also say one thing but actually do the other. They’ll come back with well over 1,000 images from a single portrait session and look–which is completely unnecessary.

The Sony system, while technically fantastic, isn’t fully perfect. If it automatically detected the eye after acquiring the face, it would be pretty flawless. Canon does that, but as we’ll see, Canon has its own share of problems.

The Way Canon Works

Canon RF 50mm f1.2 L USM at f1.2

We’ve talked about how Sony works with eye detection and face detection, but with Canon things are different. With Canon you can tell the Canon EOS R to find a face, but if you do then you don’t have control over the autofocus points.

That’s immediately a huge problem.

So Canon will try to find a face within the scene but won’t always get it. Then if it does find a face, you need to pre-wire in the fact that you want it to also focus on the eyes. This seems ideal from a workflow standpoint. Unfortunately for Canon, it fails most of the time. So instead when you shoot, you need to do the following:

  • Don’t use face detection
  • Use the stupid D pad because Canon didn’t put in a joystick
  • Move the focusing point to the eye
  • Focus
  • Shoot
  • Model changes the pose
  • Move the point again
  • Focus on the eye
  • Shoot
  • Model changes the pose.
  • Repeat.

The way that Canon seemingly intended the face detection and eye detection to work is the following:

  • Turn on face detection
  • Enable eye detection
  • Canon finds the face and eye accurately
  • Focus on face and eye
  • Shoot
  • Model changes pose
  • Canon keeps face and eye in focus
  • Shoot
  • Model changes pose
  • Canon keeps face and eye in focus
  • Shoot
  • Repeat

Logistically, this makes a million times more sense. Unfortunately, Canon’s autofocus implementation in face detection is incredibly unreliable. But for photographers who have been shooting for years, you probably don’t mind constantly selecting the autofocus point as long as you don’t mind slowing down and you’re not telling your model to hold a crazy pose. I couldn’t imagine realistically telling a portrait subject doing yoga “Okay, go ahead and hold upward dog for like 20 breaths while I autofocus.”

Which Is Better?

At the moment, Sony’s the best out there and I’d probably rate Fujifilm a bit behind them. Canon had wonderful intentions with their system but it ultimately falls flat as of the publication of this piece. It will probably be fixed with firmware updates; and if it improves it will turn the system, with its 50mm f1.2 L USM, into a portrait powerhouse.

autofocus canon Canon EOS R comparison eye detection face detection Photography portrait portraiture process sony Sony A7
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Written by

Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
9 Comments
  1. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
    Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    100% sponsored article. Sony autofocus barely works in dim environment. Canon’s daf focusing is the best on the market.

    But anyway mirrorless cams are sh1t when you need to capture fast action. Any EVF is simply horrible in comparison to optical viewfinder.

  2. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
    Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    They write this in order to sell those cameras. In fact nobody cares what’s best for you. They just tell you: buy this fkn eye autofocus. We know better than you what you need.

  3. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
    Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    I’m honestly fine with focusing and recomposing. It’s how I’ve done it for years and it works for me, so I don’t see the need to change.

  4. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
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    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    Yeah, as a Sony user, I’m just as confused as everyone else here as to how you’re describing how Eye AF works — for me, if a face is in range and I’m in AF-C (which I’m pretty sure is the best mode in which to use Eye AF), I press and hold the designated Eye AF button (defaults to the middle button of the rear multicontroller), and it seamless tracks the eye closest to the camera. As long as I keep holding the Eye AF button, it keeps tracking the face through any of the shutter actuations, all the while I can move the camera/composition to my heart’s content.

    If you’re using Eye AF in AF-S, I’d posit you’re not using it correctly, to be honest.

  5. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
    Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    What you’ve described is true for my A9 but the newer A7 models (III & RIII) have continuous Eye AF without having to press another button along with the shutter release!

  6. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
    Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    On the Sony, single shot AF will automatically focus on the eye whether or not you are trying to use eye AF. So even with just face detect, it’s still focuses on the eye. This is not true for continuous AF. When using that, face detect does not track the eye, you must use the button you have assigned to eye AF. Why they did this, I don’t know, but it works way better than the way that you described it.

  7. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
    Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    Yes, your description of Sony is wrong. How Sony eye-af works:
    – don’t think
    – press focus button on the back
    – camera detect all for you
    – take a ton of photos and let the model move permanently in a ton of directions
    – camera follow precisely the eye that is closer to the camera. If that eye moves back, the camera will choose the eye that is next to the camera
    – take a ton of pictures… but: never think! The camera makes the job precisely 20…30x per second for you
    – and the best: move the model and move your body too. But: Never refocus. The cameras makes the job 20…30x per second. Even if you recompose the image or if you change the focal length
    – just shoot and feel free

  8. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
    Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    Sorry but your sony explanation is completely wrong. If you use AFC you can assign a button to eye-focus and so you focus with that button and thent take the shot.

  9. Guest

    04/30/2019 9:00 pm
    Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown
    Spot.IM/1.0 (Export)

    Regarding the Sony, isn’t what you are describing autofocus in single shot mode? The newer Sonys can do AFC as well and I think it’s much easier to focus then.

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