SL2-S/ SL2 Face/Body Detect

[Donzo98]

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With all the hype surrounding the Sony A1's incredible AF algorithms, I was curious to see how many of you are using the Face/Body detect on the SL2 and S bodies.

I read an old  thread here last night saying that Face Detect is actually eye detect on an SL body. I tried it last night using the SL2-S and 50 APO SL @ F2. I noticed that the box surrounds the face... not an eye, as in the Sony bodies. I would certainly prefer to know the exact focus point... rather than just a big box around the face. With that said... here is the result. Pretty damn good I would say.

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Edited March 10, 2021 by Donzo98

[LD_50]

I tested the face detection on my SL2-S with 50 Summilux at f/1.4 and 90-280 at 90 f/2.8 a few days ago. 

My wife was moving about and I simply shot without having her pose. 

I was surprised to see that both lenses focused on the nearest eye. The 50 missed more often, and when it did it focused on the nose or around the eye. The 90-280 almost never missed. I think it comes down to the focus speed being so much faster on the zoom. 

I did find that I should have used a higher shutter speed with the 50 and that would have eliminated some motion blur and would have increased the success rate. 
 

I really didn’t expect this focus mode to be reliable but it was and I will likely use it in the future.
 

The one glaring issue for me is that when I am in MF mode with joystick press set to enable AFs, the face detection doesn’t work. The center press has to be set to enable AFc, which I don’t prefer on this camera. This is different than tracking mode, which will work and override the AFs setting. I hope this behavior is changed in a future firmware update. I see no reason for the two modes to act differently in terms of overriding AFs setting. 

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[Donzo98]

15 minutes ago, LD_50 said:

I tested the face detection on my SL2-S with 50 Summilux at f/1.4 and 90-280 at 90 f/2.8 a few days ago. 

My wife was moving about and I simply shot without having her pose. 

I was surprised to see that both lenses focused on the nearest eye. The 50 missed more often, and when it did it focused on the nose or around the eye. The 90-280 almost never missed. I think it comes down to the focus speed being so much faster on the zoom. 

I did find that I should have used a higher shutter speed with the 50 and that would have eliminated some motion blur and would have increased the success rate. 
 

I really didn’t expect this focus mode to be reliable but it was and I will likely use it in the future.
 

The one glaring issue for me is that when I am in MF mode with joystick press set to enable AFs, the face detection doesn’t work. The center press has to be set to enable AFc, which I don’t prefer on this camera. This is different than tracking mode, which will work and override the AFs setting. I hope this behavior is changed in a future firmware update. I see no reason for the two modes to act differently in terms of overriding AFs setting. 

I didn't even try AF-C... just used AF-S .

[LD_50]

2 minutes ago, Donzo98 said:

I didn't even try AF-C... just used AF-S .

Were you in MF mode with center press of the joystick set to activate AF? With that setup, face detection only works if the center press is set to activate AFc. 

If you’re set to tracking mode, it works fine with the above setup. 

If you’re set to AF mode and face detection, a half press of the shutter button activates face detection. 

[Donzo98]

13 minutes ago, LD_50 said:

Were you in MF mode with center press of the joystick set to activate AF? With that setup, face detection only works if the center press is set to activate AFc. 

If you’re set to tracking mode, it works fine with the above setup. 

If you’re set to AF mode and face detection, a half press of the shutter button activates face detection. 

I was using AF-S, AF mode set to Face detect, half shutter press...

Once I changed to AF mode to Face detect rather than single field, I got the boxes (big for body, smaller for face).

Edited March 10, 2021 by Donzo98

[helged]

Based on what I have read from other threads/Leica representatives, Leica's face detect is actually (nearest) eye detect. I agree that a small(er) eye box would be great, but the most important factor is that it works pretty well...

As a continuation of the above; I have always wondered why Leica doesn't publish short videos explaining how things work, providing tips etc. There are many Panasonic Lumix S1x videos made by US Panasonic represetatives that are very helpful for beginners and, to a certain extent, more experienced users. 

[Donzo98]

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2 minutes ago, helged said:

Based on what I have read from other threads/Leica representatives, Leica's face detect is actually (nearest) eye detect. I agree that a small(er) eye box would be great, but the most important factor is that it works pretty well...

As a continuation of the above; I have always wondered why Leica doesn't publish short videos explaining how things work, providing tips etc. There are many Panasonic Lumix S1x videos made by US Panasonic represetatives that are very helpful for beginners and, to a certain extent, more experienced users. 

I agree completely... those Lumix videos are excellent.

[LD_50]

47 minutes ago, Donzo98 said:

I was using AF-S, AF mode set to Face detect, half shutter press...

Once I changed to AF mode to Face detect rather than single field, I got the boxes (big for body, smaller for face).

This is my experience as well but it’s not how I want to use the camera. I would like to decouple AF from the shutter button and the only way to do that is to set the camera to MF mode and with AFs. This works perfectly in all modes except face detection. 

The only way to activate face detection with MF mode is to have AFc set rather than AFs. 

Edited March 10, 2021 by LD_50

[LD_50]

18 minutes ago, helged said:

Based on what I have read from other threads/Leica representatives, Leica's face detect is actually (nearest) eye detect. I agree that a small(er) eye box would be great, but the most important factor is that it works pretty well...

As a continuation of the above; I have always wondered why Leica doesn't publish short videos explaining how things work, providing tips etc. There are many Panasonic Lumix S1x videos made by US Panasonic represetatives that are very helpful for beginners and, to a certain extent, more experienced users. 

I noticed when testing face detection that a couple times I could see a slight “stutter” in the EVF when the image was taken and it looked like there was a yellow box around the face and a white box around the eye for a very brief moment. 

This made me think I was almost inadvertently seeing what’s happening “behind the scenes” with face detection. I will test it more to see if that ever happens again. 

[LocalHero1953]

I had the SL since launch, and I reported here then that Face Detect appeared to be Eye Detect in practice. Given the amount of flak that is thrown at Leica for its lack of eye detect, though, such comments get lost in the noise. 
[Retreats into his G&T and writes to the Times]

[LD_50]

3 minutes ago, LocalHero1953 said:

I had the SL since launch, and I reported here then that Face Detect appeared to be Eye Detect in practice. Given the amount of flak that is thrown at Leica for its lack of eye detect, though, such comments get lost in the noise. 
[Retreats into his G&T and writes to the Times]

I tried on the SL and my results were pretty poor. It sometimes grabbed the closest eye but missed so often that I never used it. 
 

The SL2-S appears to be much more effective. 

[Simone_DF]

I find it really silly that you have to manually select Face Detect AF mode. It should be always on, like for other brands. After all, if there's a person in the frame, there's a very good chance you want to focus on the face/eye.  

[LD_50]

2 minutes ago, Simone_DF said:

I find it really silly that you have to manually select Face Detect AF mode. It should be always on, like for other brands. After all, if there's a person in the frame, there's a very good chance you want to focus on the face/eye.  

I wouldn’t want this feature. 

I have the AF mode set to one of the front buttons and I can quickly switch to face detection if I want it. 

[Simone_DF]

3 minutes ago, LD_50 said:

I wouldn’t want this feature. 

I have the AF mode set to one of the front buttons and I can quickly switch to face detection if I want it. 

You could do the same. Face AF always on, override with a button. Usually on other cameras you can easily override it with focus spot / focus area

[LD_50]

1 minute ago, Simone_DF said:

You could do the same. Face AF always on, override with a button. Usually on other cameras you can easily override it with focus spot / focus area

I don’t want any kind of AF always active, whether it be face detection, tracking, or anything else that needs to be overridden. 

[Simone_DF]

1 hour ago, LD_50 said:

I don’t want any kind of AF always active, whether it be face detection, tracking, or anything else that needs to be overridden. 

Well, I do.

[FlashGordonPhotography]

2 hours ago, Simone_DF said:

I find it really silly that you have to manually select Face Detect AF mode. It should be always on, like for other brands. After all, if there's a person in the frame, there's a very good chance you want to focus on the face/eye.  

Why don't you just leave it on all the time? If there's no face to detect it reverts to normal AF and back when it sees a face. Or you can switch between face detect on/off by pressing the joystick in AFS.

Gordon

[rim_light]

I shot hundreds of portraits last year with the SL2 coming from the Sony environment  - the numbers of missed shots where lower than with the A7RIII. So I had no problem with face or body detect (plus more nice pictures because of the SL glass)

[MediaFotografie]

I can only confirm that  - my experience with Face Detection on the SL2 has been very good.

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[Donzo98]

1 hour ago, rim_light said:

I shot hundreds of portraits last year with the SL2 coming from the Sony environment  - the numbers of missed shots where lower than with the A7RIII. So I had no problem with face or body detect (plus more nice pictures because of the SL glass)

Were you using AF-S or C ?