Canon R6 I Quick question on AF eye selection and types - is there an auto

[JohnN]

Just a quick question and I'm guessing the answer is no, or its on the R8 / R6 II.

Is there a way to make the camera automatically swap between person/animal etc - or is the a manual things, hoping not, but guessing if it is then shortcut buttons may be the way?

 

[Japeg]

It’s my understanding that the camera looks for whatever you set as the priority. If people, it will look for people first, and if it can’t see any then looks for vehicles and animals.

 

[JohnN]

Okay, I was asking as I tried taking a piccy of my dog (testing a lens) and it just did the boxes, no eye - I switched to animals and it got it straight away, the same with my cat.

 

[Only RF]

It’s my understanding that the camera looks for whatever you set as the priority. If people, it will look for people first, and if it can’t see any then looks for vehicles and animals.

It is amazing how sensitive that is. I usually shoot animals. I had to set people and then went back to shooting critters. I thought I broke my camera because it would not focus.

 

[Only RF]

There is Auto but I like to have it set to the subject I'm shooting. Don't know about the R8 but you can map subject to detect to a button. I have it mapped to the M-Fn. I wish my R7 could do that. I have it registered in the green menus for the R7.

 

[JohnN]

Ah, cool - I though a mapping might be the way - though I will have to hunt for and test the auto I'd not found, cheers.

 

[ctitanic]

To clarify, the Auto option is on the R6 Mark II, in the Mark I you do not have that option. That said, if you have the option set to Animals, the AF will try to locate an animal and from there to detect the eyes. If you are taking a picture of a person, once an animal was not found (other than the person), the AF will detect the person and then the eyes. In another words, the detection is more like a priority but it does not exclude any subject.

I think that while in the R6 Mark II it works based on the priority given, in the Mark II, if you select auto the priority is eliminated and all options will be treated with the same weight.

 

[Only RF]

To clarify, the Auto option is on the R6 Mark II, in the Mark I you do not have that option. That said, if you have the option set to Animals, the AF will try to locate an animal and from there to detect the eyes. If you are taking a picture of a person, once an animal was not found (other than the person), the AF will detect the person and then the eyes. In another words, the detection is more like a priority but it does not exclude any subject.

I think that while in the R6 Mark II it works based on the priority given, in the Mark II, if you select auto the priority is eliminated and all options will be treated with the same weight.

Yes. In my case there was nothing else in the frame and it struggled. I imagine eventually it would have focused on the subject but I didn’t wait long enough to find out. I switched it back to the appropriate subject and it took off again.

 

[JohnN]

Gotcha, that aligns with what I saw - but didn't give it the time to try harder - further testing needed.
Thank you all - glad its not something I was missing... well, maybe I am, but it is what it is.

 

[ctitanic]

Gotcha, that aligns with what I saw - but didn't give it the time to try harder - further testing needed.
Thank you all - glad its not something I was missing... well, maybe I am, but it is what it is.

The best solution is to use Dual Back Button Focus.

 

[Only RF]

Dual BBF is great method. I put AF back to the shutter and adopted triple BBF. I found this video after I made the change. I'm set up a little different than he us. I only use the AF-ON to toggle a manual AF mode to override Eye Detect. I also use Preview AF which really helps. If I lift shutter button higher than past half way AF stops but AF Preview kicks and the system continues to AF and track.

Just a different approach. I know he spelt Dog wrong

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[ctitanic]

I also use Preview AF which really helps. If I lift shutter button higher than past half way AF stops but AF Preview kicks and the system continues to AF and track.

That's the problem with Canon. Preview AF is present in the R7 and R6 Mark II but it's not present in the R6 Mark I. It's an option in most recent cameras and I do not see why is not implemented in the old cameras in a firmware update.

 

[Only RF]

It's available with the R5 but it is not called Preview AF. It is a leftover from the DRLS's. Initial AF on page 5 of the menus.

With a DLSR it worked this way. You can selected a single point and place anywhere in the VF. I kept it the middle. You use that for initial AF. You have to physically move the camera to get it on your subject. Or if you placed it to one side it activated when the subject entered the area. When AF initiated it dropped out of being the initial AF point and became part of the AF array. Like the rest of the AF points it would flicker on and off tracking your subject. It would only re-appear when AF stopped and the cycle repeated.

For mirrorless Canon adapted it to how the Preview AF worked but it was still called Initial AF point. With the newer bodies like the R6II, R7, R3 and latest I presume Canon dropped that menu, moved and renamed it.

I don't know if the R6 has that menu on page 5? I'm guessing not.

 

[JohnN]

Thanks all, I didn't get to checking the options on page 5 (sorry), but did a bit more testing tonight and found that:

On people AF it would not eye focus on my pets, no matter what or how patient I was.
On animal AF it would work almost as quickly on a person.

 

[ctitanic]

Thanks all, I didn't get to checking the options on page 5 (sorry), but did a bit more testing tonight and found that:

On people AF it would not eye focus on my pets, no matter what or how patient I was.
On animal AF it would work almost as quickly on a person.

Makes sense, after all… We are animals!

 

[Only RF]

Thanks all, I didn't get to checking the options on page 5 (sorry), but did a bit more testing tonight and found that:

On people AF it would not eye focus on my pets, no matter what or how patient I was.
On animal AF it would work almost as quickly on a person.

That was exactly what I found when I accidentally left it on people.

 

[JohnN]

It is an odd result, left me wondering if I put it on vehicles if it would work on pets and people too

 

[Only RF]

It is an odd result, left me wondering if I put it on vehicles if it would work on pets and people too

Only if they are driving them

 

[Grahamk]

As an aside, the eye detection system can be surprising sometimes - it doesn't always require a live animal. Attached is a screen shot of an image crop from DPP4 showing the focus point chosen on the front of a steam engine (R6 Mk2, eye detect set to animal).