Canon R5 autofocus settings when shooting moving subjects in low light/contrast

[tinnitus_photo]

hey all, i've been shooting with two R5 since Sept '22 and I am still flummoxed occasionally by the AF of the camera. when the light is good, AF eye focus is unbeatable, but i mainly shoot musicians and the combo of crappy and unpredictable stage lighting and performers' motion, coupled with long hair that can obscure faces and/or higher contrast items in the frame like mic stands means that the camera sometimes assigns the AF point to the wrong thing.

i've got my AF-ON button set to Eye AF and the * button is assigned to Metering and AF start (Ie, zone AF) so i start with Eye AF and if the camera has trouble locking focus, I'll switch over to using zone AF but the camera still makes decisions for me that sometimes I am not happy with.

any tips on how to overcome this? any other info I should include? am i expecting too much from the camera?

sample photo for fun, Barney of Napalm Death a few weeks ago:

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thx in advance.

 

[David Stallard]

Not my area of photography at all (people ewww) but coming from motorsport where quite often I need to pick a single vehicle out of a group I would change your 'zone AF' to single point, that way at least it will lock on to your centre point so if you aim for the eye area it should at least get you close.

Great shot by the way - good to see him wearing a Crass t-shirt (showing my age now)

 

[tinnitus_photo]

Not my area of photography at all (people ewww) but coming from motorsport where quite often I need to pick a single vehicle out of a group I would change your 'zone AF' to single point, that way at least it will lock on to your centre point so if you aim for the eye area it should at least get you close.

Great shot by the way - good to see him wearing a Crass t-shirt (showing my age now)

thanks!

not sure if ever realized that in the custom button assignment, the INFO button gives you more options on how the set up the AF; looks like i had it default to Eye AF so in reality the AF-ON and * buttons were doing the same thing.

i've got a shoot tonight and Alison Mosshart loves to toss her hair so I will see if this helps.

 

[Only RF]

Yes the Detail Set provides all types of focus tweaks. Since AF is all about contrast and we have no control over setting its sensitivity low light/contrast can be challenging.

Zone AF is my go to mode for overriding eye detect when it’s struggling but that is to just get my subject in focus. Once it is I go back to Eye Detect. In your case as suggested using Single point (the old way) might be best.