Sony REAL TIME TRACKING Example shoots by Patrick Murphy-Racey

Patrick Murphy-Racey:

At this point, in April of 2019, Real Time Tracking (RTT) is available in four camera bodies: a6400, a7III, a7RIII, and the venerable a9. RTT works best, as does everything else, on the a9. RTT combines all the traditional AF elements like distance, contrast, and phase detection but then adds into this mix, face detection, eye AF, color, and pattern.

The end result is amazing, allowing you to simply depress the shutter part way while pointing the camera at your desired subject (person, athlete, horse, car, motorcycle, etc.), then the A RTT system will track your subject anywhere in the viewfinder while you are shooting. You simply shoot when you want to and the camera takes care of focus.

This allows shooters to experience a new freedom never before possible so that you can just concentrate on content and moments, and then nail everything.

I recommend experimenting with sensitivity (1-5), depending on your sport of choice or assignment. I use 5 almost all the time for auto racing. For American football and basketball, I drop it down to 4. for tennis singles, 5, but for doubles, 3 or 4.