That's pretty neat, I think that's a great example of how machine learning being useful for everyday activities. Face detection on cameras has been a big issue ever since the birth of digital photography. I'm using a Japanese 5 III that I picked up for $130 and its been great. I've heard of being able to side load camera apps from other Xperias onto the 5 III so I'll give it a try.
I think Sony makes great hardware and their phones have some classy designs and I'm also a fan of their DSLR'S. I've always admired there phones going back to the Ericson Walkmans, their designs have aged amazingly. I apreciate how close to stock Sony's Xperia phones are, I dont like UI's and bloatware you cant remove. My last Android phone a Galaxy S III was terrible in that regard and put me off from buying another Android until recently. I was actually thinking about getting a 1 VI as my next phone and install lineage on it now that I'm ready to commit.
I bought this 5 III with the expectation of flashing lineage onto it. The hold up is that japanese carriers like Docomo lock the bootloader. There was to unlock the bootloader by using a paid service from a company called Canadian Wireless that send you a service code that unlocks these Japanese Xperia phones. What I didn't know was that Sony killed the servers that send the unlock code back in last June so now I'm stuck on the stock ROM. No biggie though, like you've been saying the stock ROM is close enough to ASOP ROM that its not that big of a deal. Having security updates would be preferable though.
Hopefully by the time I upgrade to the 1 VI lineage will be available. Until then I'm happy with what I got.
I'm totally interested in trying out the newer camera app. The camera app that comes with the 5 III isn't very good, face detection isny very good and auto mode isnt great. I just haven't gotten around to looking for the APK's from the newer phones so that would save me a lot of time.
Thanks, I'll send you a DM!