Sony’s New Predictive Autofocus is Amazing

Sony’s latest announcement takes focusing technologies to a whole new dimension.

Photokina is underway, marking the release of really impressive photography tech. We’ve already seen the new Canon 7D Mark II and Panasonic’s new pocket-sized 4K cameras, but one of the lesser talked about technologies that premiered at Photokina 2014 is a new autofocus technology from Sony.

The technology, which has been labeled ‘4D FOCUS’, has over 179 unique autofocus points, making it an incredibly accurate focusing technology. However, the real ‘wow’ factor behind 4D FOCUS is the predictive focusing technology, which helps the camera determine where your subject is moving. The result is a much faster and accurate autofocus that is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. To debut this technology, Sony has released a preview video showing it in action:

It’s interesting to note that with this new technology we won’t be losing any of the other things that make modern autofocusing so accurate, like the ability to autofocus across the entire frame:

As autofocus technologies get more complex and accurate we will be interested to see if more videographers will start using them.

With the announcement of curved sensors, the A7S release, and now this technology, it seems like Sony is being much more innovative as of late. It also appears to be a strong year for Panasonic’s photography division, with the success of the GH4. Maybe the tides are turning away from Canon and Nikon? Only time will tell.

What do you think of this new technology? Share in the comments below!