Canon R5 II Focus issues with light at 90 degrees.

[Bryan wilburn]

I've found over the years that with the sun at 90 degrees to the right or left of the target ends up with a soft image.

This shot is a good example. at 1/8000th the image should be tack sharp, but instead it's soft. The image display shows the camera was locked onto the bird, but the eye tracking did not lock on, although if was on...

Any suggestions would be helpful. I first found this problem with my 5D Mk II and Mk IV.

Thanks in advance!!

Bryan

 

[Dean Wilson]

I have had mixed results with maintaining eye-tracking using the R5 and 100-500mm and I assume it is due to contrast between a dark eyes on a dark face.

 

[Bryan wilburn]

I've had similar issues, in the shot the eye tracking did not work properly, but there is the other issue of the illumination coming from 90 degrees to the lens angle.

Eye tracking definitely "needs" a homogeneous background to work. When I was shooting Sandhill Cranes, the camera kept locking onto the tail of the birds.

 

[Archibald]

My experience is that there is a high risk of focus failure if the subject is distant and the eye is in a dark band or the subject's head is dark. And lots of birds have eyes set in dark or black surroundings.

In your example pic, the subject is distant and the eye is in a dark shadow.

I'm not really sure about what is causing my focus failure; I'm just mentioning my theory.

AF can be frustrating at times. I try to compensate by taking lots of pics of a subject that I suspect might give problems. I'll mix eye AF with 1-point AF. Sometimes only one or two out of 10 or 20 shots will be in focus.