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Eye-Start AF 285

6.16 EYE-START AF

Menu Position MENU  4  Eye-Start AF

What it Does Tells the camera to immediately start autofocusing when you
bring the camera up to your eye – even before you press the shutter release
button halfway

Recommended Setting Off, unless you’re shooting sports and you are
careful

Constraints Not compatible with Center Lock-On AF mode

The idea behind this feature is a good one but it has been crippled by the
EU. Many previous Minolta and Sony cameras used to have a feature
designed for sports photographers where the camera would turn itself on
and start autofocusing the instant you gripped the camera.
This feature would appear in one form or another on random camera
models, with the most recent reappearance being on the Sony A700. In this
incarnation, the camera had capacitance sensors built into the grip, and an
infrared emitter and receiver just below the eyepiece. When the
capacitance sensors could sense the
presence of a hand AND you were looking
through the eyepiece (as evidenced by
infrared light bouncing back to the infrared
receiver below the viewfinder), the camera
would turn itself on and begin
autofocusing even before your finger hit
the shutter release button. Good idea and
effective execution.

But then legislators got involved. When Figure 6-17: The
the Sony A700 was introduced, they made AutoSenswitch™ first appeared
special versions just for import into the on the Minolta XK, and was
European Union because of a law which designed to turn the camera on
banned consumer items from exposing the instant you grabbed it.