The Sony RX10 IV bridge camera was released in October 2017 and features a 24-600mm equivalent lens with the capability of shooting up to 24 frames per second with autofocus. Pairing those kind of specs with Sony’s newer Real-time Eye AF for Animals tech makes perfect sense, and now it’s here.
First premiering in several of Sony’s interchangeable lens cameras, Real-time Eye AF for Animals is a continuous focus mode that uses AI-trained algorithms to find an animal’s eyes in the frame and track focus on them. While Sony’s official stance on the current iteration is that it’s meant for dogs and cats, users have found it can work well with many other types of animals as well.
Surprising to me is that Sony has now updated a two-year-old camera with a fairly advanced new feature. With the RX10 IV growing long in the tooth in the context of Sony’s rapid camera refresh schedule, I would have much more expected it to be left for a potential RX10 V release. For years Sony was never known as a company to bring new features to already released cameras, preferring to debut them in new products instead. In 2019, that position seemed to have shifted with major firmware releases that we saw come to the a7 III, a7R III, and a9.
The Sony RX10 IV firmware update 2.0 with Real-time Eye AF for Animals is available to download now.