Eye-tracking autofocus is one of Sony’s claims to fame and with the new a6400 they’re looking to kick it up a notch.

According to Sony, the a6400 will offer the world’s fastest autofocus acquisition at .02 seconds. Additionally it marks the introduction of a pair of new autofocusing features: Real-time Eye AF and Real-time Tracking. More on that below.

Based on the numbering and the $900 price point, the a6400 comes in a bit below the a6500–it lacks the in-body image stabilization of its higher-priced peer, but also packs a host of new features not found on the a6500.

The a6400 sports a 24-megapixel image sensor with a top native ISO of 32,000 (expandable to 102,400). It’s capable of shooting at 11fps with AF/AE tracking using a mechanical shutter or up to 8fps with an electronic shutter. You can shoot up to 116 JPEGs or 46 compressed RAW files in continuous mode.

There’s a 3-inch, 180-degree tilting touch screen display that supports touch focusing and shutter release and a Touch Tracking mode which activates the camera’s “Real-time Tracking” mode. You can also frame your scene through an XGA OLED viewfinder.

AUTOFOCUSING

The a6400 features 425 phase-detection AF points and 425 contrast-detection AF points covering approximately 84 percent of the sensor.

The new Real-time Eye AF employs artificial intelligence-based object recognition to detect and process eye data in real time, which Sony says improves accuracy, speed and tracking performance when shooting in Eye AF. In all autofocus modes, the camera  automatically detects the eyes of the subject and activates Eye AF with a half press of the shutter button. When you’re shooting in AF-C or AF-A mode, you can choose which eye you’d like to make your focus point.

For now, the a6400 can only track human eyes but Sony says a coming firmware update will enable Eye AF for animals, too.

Also debuting on the a6400 is “Real-time Tracking” which also employes AI-based object recognition and processes color, subject distance (depth), pattern (brightness) as spatial information to ensure that all subjects can be captured accurately.

VIDEO

On the video front, the a6400 can record 4K (3840 x 2160)  with full pixel readout and no pixel binning. You can also record full HD at up to 120 fps.

Sony says they’ve updated the Fast Hybrid AF system used during video recording to improve AF accuracy. This will be Sony’s first camera to support a Hybrid Log Gamma picture profile for HDR filmmaking. S-Log2/3 profiles, Zebra stripes and a Gamma Display assist feature are also available.

There’s also a built-in intervalometer for time-lapse shooting that’s capable of recording up to 9,999 images at intervals between 1 and 60 seconds.

Additional features include:

• 8 custom keys
• new help screen
• the ability to add star ratings to images
• a shutter rated for 200,000 cycles
• 360 shot battery life

The a6400 will ship in February 2019 for a suggested retail price of $900. It’s available for pre-order now.

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