Resolve Face Tracking for Camera Autofocus

As I was watching a review on the PYXIS and thinking about other recent review coverage regarding autofocus, I had an idea on how Blackmagic could leverage DaVinci Resolve to enhance their camera autofocus capabilities.

DaVinci Resolve's Face Tracker is incredibly accurate. It not only recognizes faces but also distinguishes between different individuals, allowing users to choose which face to track for specific effects. Imagine if Blackmagic could bring this technology into their cameras.

By implementing the existing face tracking capabilities from Resolve, along with eye detection, Blackmagic cameras could intelligently track subjects and maintain focus. The system could detect when the face is sharp, ensuring focus remains locked without hunting or losing the subject—a major challenge for some camera brands. This could speed up Blackmagic’s development of autofocus features by building on proven technology they already own.

Furthermore, an enhanced system could address common autofocus challenges like obstruction. For instance, if an object passes in front of the subject’s face, the system could use data from Resolve’s face tracker algorithms to maintain focus on the face instead of shifting to the obstruction, as often happens with other systems like Sony’s A7IV.

This solution could serve both ends of Blackmagic’s user base: those who want advanced autofocus for run-and-gun or solo shooting, and those who prefer manual focus but appreciate the option when needed. It would simply add another tool to the kit.

This is just a thought, but I believe integrating Resolve’s face tracking into Blackmagic cameras could be a feasible and impactful way to implement the autofocus feature that so many users are asking for. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

My thought, is that for any given price point, there is a finite amount of processing possible. How the processing is allocated are the choices made by BMD. But the amount of processing per price point is not the same for BMD (FPGA) as it is for Sony (ASIC). When economies of scale are considered, Sony has an advantage. In other words, BMD can match Sony's price point with BMD features, but Sony AF features come at the cost of more processing than BMD's acquisition processing.

Now that I’ve survived two hurricanes in two weeks time, I have faith in Blackmagic Design. There’s so much to appreciate for what they have provided the filmmaking community.


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This would be a great idea!

hi, any update on this requested / suggested feature ?
Seems so obvious to me, especially when other free camera apps for iOS already have this included.

Sony had decades of experience, like same canon and more. Blackmagic Design not have it.
Most of autofocus tech are patents covered and Blackmagic Design should create themself a new way.
I’m more confident on lindar system like dji pro to add good autofocus on Blackmagic Design cameras.


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No updates from BMD. But let's see what comes to pass at NAB 2025.

I mean, BMD could go LiDAR route. But with the L Mount and L Mount lenses you should be able to get autofocus. Especially since Panasonic Lumix cameras get autofocus with L Mount glass.

I'm still all in on my PL system of lenses. And, I still rely heavily on manual focus. So it's no skin off my back if it doesn't happen. However, for the future I wouldn't mind being able to buy a PYXIS Pro in L Mount that has internal ND with Autofocus capabilities. That would make for a great interview/teleprompter camera.

What you can do with software on a powerful desktop computer has little bearing on what you can do in firmware on a low powered bespoke device like a camera. Developing for one is a very different competence than the other. If BMD could simply port the technique from one to the other, they would have done so. The Resolve code would likely be of little value for the latter.

Can BMD do face tracking on an embedded system - absolutely, the techniques are well understood, you could have it running on a Raspberry Pi in an afternoon - using that to drive an effective autofocus system, that's a whole other effort.

I wouldn't have put "Autofocus from BMD" on my NAB bingo card, but damn if they didn't finally do it!

If it's even as good as RED, and doesn't hunt or pulse, that's good enough for a lot of use cases.

I’m amazed they did it. But thrilled. I had it on my bingo card. Mainly because so many have been asking for years. So I told a few people I thought this was the year.


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I predicted that in 2020:

My guess is a new URSA Mini Pro with a next generation 6k APS-C sensor, still a rolling shutter but with a very fast read-out like the 4.6k Gen 2. A bit higher DR like 16.5 stops, improved BRAW 2.0, CFexpress card slots, 150 fps in full 6k and 300 fps in 2.8k crop mode. 4 channel audio. Firmware 7

Enabled accelerometer/position sensor with meta data support for VFX (like for post stabilization).
Vastly improved AF plus object tracking AF through neural processor.
Support for wireless video previewing.

EDIT:
And a larger LCD like on the original UM46k but with increased brightness like from the VideoAssist.

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