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Sony has released a video showing the AF tracking and 8 fps live view burst of the newly announced a6300, as well as a video demonstrating AF with subject tracking in 4K video.

The camera appears to have impressive AF subject tracking accuracy, following not just the dog but the dog’s face in the demo. We’ll reserve judgement until we get our hands on one, but previous Sony cameras had a tendency to wander off to other areas of the subject when using general subject tracking, so these results indeed appear impressive. The expansive 425-point array also mean the camera can track the subject to almost any point in the frame, and all of these points purportedly work with A-mount lenses mounted via a LA-EA3 adapter (we expect Canon mount lenses to work as well, with appropriate adapters).* Have a look below.

Sony a6300 ‘4D Focus’ demo

The a6300 also potentially addresses one of the largest shortcomings of mirrorless cameras for action shooting: the often stop-motion playback of last-shot images, as opposed to a live feed, when shooting continuous bursts. We recently reported on Nikon’s calling out of this particular weak point of mirrorless cameras, so Sony’s response in the a6300 today seems timely. Essentially, the a6300 offers a live feed in the EVF or on the LCD during 8 fps continuous shooting, in between what seem to be very short blackouts. This should make it much easier to both pan the camera and still keep your subject in the frame, or keep your selected AF point(s) over your subject. 

The video above, in addition to one Sony presented at the press event earlier today, demonstrate a promising live feed during 8 fps bursts, but ultimately its utility will be largely dependent on the length of those blackouts between shots. Sony claims that the length of blackouts is competitive when compared to a <$ 1000 DSLR.

While that might seem like a relatively low bar, the fact that Sony is getting a live feed off the sensor at all in between shots at 8 fps represents significant progress in the realm of mirrorless cameras. In comparison, a DSLR doesn’t have to do anything but return the mirror to get you this ‘live feed’ through the optical viewfinder between shots.

Autofocus in video

Sony has also released a video demonstrating impressive AF in 4K video recording with native mount lenses. There appears to be little hunting, with fast refocusing and even subject tracking available during movie recording. Have a look above.

This should be a boon for videographers, assuming Sony now allows one to easily specify the subject before tracking it. On the note of specifying a subject, it’s a huge shame that a touchscreen isn’t paired with this capable video AF system for focus point selection.

At least on paper, we think that these advances mark some significant progress for mirrorless (it’s too bad we can’t say the same for the a6300’s ergonomics), and we’ll be curious to see how the systems perform when we get our hands on a production a6300.

* It remains to be seen if subject tracking is available in any mode save for ‘Wide’ with 3rd party lenses though: subject tracking has been severely limited with 3rd party glass on the a7 II and a7R II due to the inability of the photographer to specify the subject, since it’s only available in Wide area mode.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)