Nikon Z8 vs Black Bears

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NorthernFocus said:
A couple of days ago I was shooting arctic terns. Even in DX mode and the bird fairly small in the frame the AF found their black eyes on a black head. Next time I'm on black bears I may try bird detection.
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Black eyes on a white subject is probably the easiest combination. Anything with high contrast is very easy. Even my Z6 hit 100% photographing a black dog with gold eyes.

Underexposed images or dark subjects and eyes are a well known problem. The camera often can't find the eye or the head when the subject is very dark - and it looks for an alternate target. Sometimes the relative priority of finding a bird's head or eye gets in the way of simply choosing a good alternate target in near the same focus plane. For example, the feet of a perched bird can be near the same plane as the eye if you are seeing a side view of the bird.
 
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EricBowles said:
For any black subject, make sure your exposure is bright enough to clearly show the eye. That might be slightly brighter than you would expect. If the subject is underexposed or correctly exposed but dark and without contrast, the camera won't find the eye, might not find the head, and falls back to something with contrast on the body. This applies to all bears, bison, gorillas, and birds as well as backlit subjects presenting their shady side toward the camera. A catchlight in the eye can make a big difference in subject recognition and accurate focus.
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I've tried it in all light conditions.
 
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EricBowles said:
Black eyes on a white subject is probably the easiest combination. Anything with high contrast is very easy. Even my Z6 hit 100% photographing a black dog with gold eyes.

Underexposed images or dark subjects and eyes are a well known problem. The camera often can't find the eye or the head when the subject is very dark - and it looks for an alternate target. Sometimes the relative priority of finding a bird's head or eye gets in the way of simply choosing a good alternate target in near the same focus plane. For example, the feet of a perched bird can be near the same plane as the eye if you are seeing a side view of the bird.
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The tern have black eyes on a black head.
 
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Granted I was far from filling the frame with polar bears last month, I mostly used single point focus (on one of my function buttons) as the Z9 I don't believe ever caught the eye of the bears (certainly not often enough that it registered in my memory :) -- and that's black eyes in a white face. AF did find the head sometimes, but again not overly reliably -- challenge being I guess white bear against white ice/snow; 3D did help which I'd jump to if the camera did choose to focus on the bear.
 
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Doomrider74 said:
Ok, but I've tried it with all exposure settings as well.
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What do you mean you tried all exposure settings? Eric is suggesting shooting a brighter exposure or slightly overexposing the photo. The only time I see issues with this are in lowlight, low contrast situations where the ISO is high, 6400+. If there is any light hitting the bear's face it is finding the eyes if the bear is decently sized in the frame and face if small in the frame. I generally shoot M, Auto ISO, EV +0.3
 
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