When it comes to the Nikon Z7ii, one of the things that I am most excited about is the autofocus system. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Z7ii has 493 autofocus points which cover the entire frame. It also has an eye and face detection autofocus system. I wanted to explore these autofocus systems and see how well they work in real life scenarios.
There were three things that I wanted to test.
1. Portraits with a wide aperture lens like a 85mm f1.4 or a 105mm f1.4. These lenses have very shallow depth of field when the aperture is wide open. So how well does the Nikon Z7ii focus on the eye and does it keep it in focus when the subject moves?
2. Multiple People in the frame. What does the Z7ii do when there are multiple people in the frame? Who does it focus on? How easy is it to change the focus point?
3. Sports or Action. Can the Z7ii accurately track eye focus of someone who is playing sports?
When eye detection autofocus is on, you will notice a little box that tracks the eye of your subject.
Portraits with Eye Detection
How does the Nikon Z7ii perform using eye detection autofocus when I am photographing someone? When it comes to a portrait captured with a wide aperture lens, I need to make sure that the eye is sharp. With a lens like the Nikon 85mm f1.4, there is very little depth of field – especially when you are close to your subject.
If the person’s face isn’t square to the camera, you can have one eye in focus and one eye out of focus.
I was really impressed with the camera’s ability to quickly find the eye and focus. It does a fantastic job and the photos were incredibly sharp.
In addition to this, the Z7ii let me switch between eyes by giving me a little arrow to go to another eye. So I can choose which eye I want the camera to focus on.
The yellow box indicates which eye the camera is focusing on. The yellow arrow indicates that I can press the multi-selector on the back of the camera and change that focus point to the other eye.
Multiple People in The Frame
Naturally, my next question is how well does this system work when there are multiple people? Where does the focus point go?
Because there are multiple faces in the frame, the Z7ii will have to decide which face and eye to focus on. If the camera detects more than 1 face, there will be arrows which allow you to choose different faces or different eyes. In addition to this, if the touch screen is enabled on the camera’s monitor, you can also touch the eye or face on the monitor that you would like the Z7ii to focus on. Not only will it focus on that face or eye, but it will continue to focus on that face or eye if that subject moves.
With eye autofocus enabled, you can choose the eye which you want the Z7ii to focus on by using the multi-selector button on the back of your camera.
When it came to a larger group of people, the Z7ii chose where to focus and I could still change the focus point. However, when there are lots of faces, it is similar to auto area autofocus where the camera decides what to focus on. I don’t really want the camera to decide which face to focus on. I want to decide. So when it comes to groups, I will stick to using single point autofocus and choose the focus point myself.
Quick Moving subject
The final test I did was with a person playing basketball. I used a Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 FL lens which is a lens I have used a lot for photographing basketball. I decided to use auto ISO to ensure I had a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second to keep my subject sharp.
As I watched the little yellow square on the monitor or in the viewfinder, I noticed that the Z7ii seemed to be able to find the eye and focus on it.
There were a couple times when the subject went across the frame or directly towards me when the camera had some trouble focusing. But most of the time the Z7ii seemed to be able to find the subject and focus on my subject.
However, just because the Z7ii was able to find the eye were the photos actually sharp? Looking closely at the photos, it was a bit hit and miss. Many of the photos were sharp but some were not sharp.
The eyes are in focus in one of the first images of an action sequence.
Two frames later in the same sequence, the eyes are not in focus.
However, I can’t be sure that the Z7ii would do better if I was using single point dynamic autofocus. In a perfect test I would have two Z7ii cameras side by side. One of them would be using eye detection autofocus and the other would be using single point dynamic autofocus and I could compare the results.
If I was photographing sports with a lot of people, I definitely wouldn’t use eye autofocus. I want to decide where the focus should be. So I will select the autofocus point I want and use dynamic autofocus. That way if my subject momentarily moved away from the focus point the camera would compensated and keep them in focus.
Check out the video to see the Z7ii capturing portraits, groups and action photos.
Final thoughts
So overall, what are my impressions of the Nikon Z7ii’s eye detection autofocus and when would I use it?
When I first tried out the Nikon Z7ii’s eye autofocus, I wanted to buy the camera right away. I was blown away. After testing it in different situations, there are some situations that I will use it and some that I won’t.
I will definitely be using the eye detection autofocus for portraits – especially with a wide aperture F1.4 lenses. It is amazing and gets the most critical part of the face in focus.
When it comes to sports or larger groups, I will use what I have always used: dynamic autofocus. I have more control over where the focus point is and I seem to get better results and more frames in focus.
When you combine the eye autofocus system with the 493 AF points, it opens up a lot of compositional opportunities. This is something that I am really excited about. Being able to track a subject that is in the corner of the frame is something that I can’t do with my other cameras. The Z7ii has stretched what is possible but there is still room to get better. I am sure the system will improve and it is absolutely something that I am looking to see how it improves over time.
Thanks for all your support. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
