fbpx
News

Sony Has New Firmware Updates, But Are They Behind the Rest?

Chris Gampat
No Comments
06/14/2022
3 Mins read
Brett Day The Phoblographer Sony a1

Despite Sony’s autofocus being incredibly good, it’s been showing its age. It’s still fantastic, but time hasn’t been kind to Sony, comparatively speaking. Today, Sony is issuing firmware updates for its a1 and a7s III cameras. And while those update are important, we test a lot of cameras and are scratching our heads a bit at what’s happening here.

The Firmware Updates

Here are the details of the new Sony firmware updates.

Alpha 1

  • Three sizes of Lossless Compressed Raw (S/M/L)

Alpha 7S III

  • Improvements to Eye AF
  • Introduction of proxy recording during remote computer connections. 

Even Fujifilm Does This

Now here is where things look odd. Sony’s cameras do human, animal, and bird autofocus detection. When they hit the market with that feature, it outdid everyone else. But then Olympus came out with the addition of vehicles and more. Canon improved on that and showed the world just how smart its autofocus system can be. Suddenly the Nikon Z9 had it, and now Fujifilm can do it with the XH2s. 

If you’re a Sony a1 user, you’re probably wondering why your Sony a1 can’t do scene detection as well as more affordable cameras out there. But you’re also probably happy with the fact that the autofocus system is still incredible. 

ISO 6400

So, if it’s incredible, why would a camera like the a1 need more AI? Scene recognition is possibly one of the best autofocus aids of the past decade. You now don’t have to use the joystick to move the autofocus point to a specific area and miss the subject. The camera can instead recognize what’s in the scene and let you select one of the multiple subjects. If you’re a photojournalist in NYC photographing the bike gangs going around, your job will be easier. It’s faster to point your camera at something, have it automatically be recognized, and then have the camera track it. Besides this, sometimes lighting changes on your subject, which may trick the autofocus. 

This makes me wonder why Sony hasn’t taken that market seriously yet. Surely they’ve got the lens selection to appeal to those types of photographers. Why don’t they have it ready yet? And if it becomes available, what cameras will the advanced AI autofocus detection firmware come to? Here are my guesses:

  • Sony A1: This has to get the Sony firmware with advanced AI if it ever comes out.
  • Sony a7 IV: When I’ve called in lenses for review, I was told that certain processors are much better than previous cameras. I’ve been told that the Sony a7 IV is way ahead of the Sony a9 II. The a7 IV is bound to get it.
  • Sony a9 II: This firmware update is not coming to this camera.
  • Sony a7r IV: I’ve never had major faith in this camera to begin with.
  • Sony a7s III: I’d be amazed if a Sony firmware update came to this camera with advanced AI. But it would make a lot of filmmakers happy.
  • Sony a7c: Ha! This won’t happen.
  • Sony a6600 successor: It might have that feature, but I doubt it. Sony likes to give their higher-end cameras new features first and then bring them down to their lower-hanging fruit.

So, will Sony ever bring major new updates to their AI autofocus? I’m curious to see.

ai autofocus Cameras firmware update image quality sony sony a1 Sony a7s III
Shares
Written by

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.
');
You might also like