If you’re curious about animal detection autofocus in your camera, then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve been curious about it too. What’s more, each camera system takes its own approach to how to do it. And it can be very confusing to some folks. At other times, it can be really frustrating. So we’re looking at animal detection on various camera systems.

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What is Animal Detection

Animal detection differs depending on the camera system. A lot of them incorporate animal and bird detection together. Sony is the major full-frame camera manufacturer that doesn’t do this. But basically, it tells the autofocus to look at the scene and prioritize autofocusing on an animal instead of a human, bike, car, etc. Lucky for you, we’ve reviewed tons of cameras that do this.

For the record, we’ve tested all of the cameras that we’re talking about in this post.

Canon

With Canon cameras, there are a few ways to autofocus. The system can look at a scene and recognize certain things. If you set it to animal vs. human, it will detect all sorts of animals. We’ve used the Canon EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, Canon EOS R7, and the Canon EOS R3 in animal detection. Each time, it has found both birds and mammals with no issues in animal detection mode.

Practically speaking, this means that you’re less likely to miss shots. You can be walking around in the forest and have your camera set to animal mode with ease. You can be photographing chipmunks one moment and hawks another moment. Otherwise, you’d need to physically move the autofocus point over the subject to get focus. That’s often much harder when it comes to focusing on a bird through trees. But a system that recognized the warbler in the trees can get it faster.

Best Cameras for Animal Detection and Bird Detection:

Canon EOS R5

Canon EOS R6

Canon EOS R3

Canon EOS R7

Nikon

Update September 2022: The Nikon Z9 is the most innovative camera when it comes to animal detection for Nikon. It bundles birds and animals together. We’ve used the Z9 in our review, and found it to be much better than the Z7 II and Z6 II, which only have detection for basically pets. We’ve also known that the Z9 has improved with autofocus updates.

Best Cameras for Animal Detection and Bird Detection:

Nikon Z9

Sony

Sony has a complicated but effective system. If you take the Sony a1 or even an older camera like the Sony a7r III into the forest to photograph birds and animals, you’ll need to set the camera accordingly. The Sony a1, in bird-detection mode, won’t do so well getting your dog in focus when you turn your camera to it. As a result, you’ll have to go quickly into the menu system and then switch it to animal focus priority. It also works well with the Sony a7 IV.

We’ve done this, and it’s been pretty annoying at times.

Best Cameras for Animal Detection and Bird Detection:

Sony A1

Sony a7 IV

Fujifilm

Update September 2022: Fujifilm has finally entered the wildlife world! They separate animal from bird detection and have two cameras that can do it. There’s the XH2, which is slower than its older sibling, the XH2s. The latter is designed for speed, and with the right lenses, it can perform very well.

Best Cameras for Animal Detection and Bird Detection:

Fujifilm XH2s

Panasonic

With a camera like the Panasonic S5, you’ll be able to use animal-autofocus detection to photograph birds. There are also Micro Four Thirds cameras like the G9 and GH5 II that can do it. It does a pretty good job overall, but effectively tracking the subjects isn’t as good as it is with Sony and Canon. Even when you adjust the focusing profiles, it just doesn’t have the same hit rate.

Best Cameras for Animal Detection and Bird Detection:

Panasonic S5

Panasonic GH5 II

OM System

The Olympus OMD EM1x has autofocus for animals and birds. But it’s really not that great. According to our review:

“For wildlife, I walked away very disappointed at the fa...