Canon R5 R5 Focusing Issues (primarily with bald eagles)

[NancyMac]

Hi All,

I'm using an R5 with a 100-500mm lens. I feel like my lens is slow with autofocus tracking of birds in flight.

I'm using manual settings w/ my shutter speed at 1:3200 or maybe a little less, aperture 7.1,-8.0, and iso as needed.
Settings to animal, SERVO, high speed continuous exposure +, and using the back button focus button.

Should the focus be set to Expand Auto Focus Around or the face focus plus tracking??
Do I need to adjust the sensitivity AF pt select away from zero (purple screen) or do I need to change something in initial servo AF pt??

I'm super frustrated. I never had any issues with my 7D.
I feel like I'm just missing a setting or something within my camera???
Also, I have IS off, because a lot of my pics are taking from a boat.

I am mostly shooting wildlife...
Thank you very much for your assistance. I used to be 9/10 with the only issue being my exposure (under), but now I can see my adjusts as I tweak things in camera, and my issue is solely the focusing...

Nancy

 

[Kwazy]

Hopefully someone more experienced with birding will chime in, since I've only had a very limited time to mess around withe AF settings. Also, I'm using an R6, but I assume it's the same. Couple of ideas:

Focus should be set to "Face + tracking", prioritize animals
Perhaps you need to turn "Detect Eyes" on - it's off by default.

Once you have your eagle in sights, if it doesn't auto detect the head/eye of the bird, tap it on the screen and that should put a double frame around it and will start tracking it. Should focus fine after that.

Hope this helps! Come back if it doesn't.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

In AF menu 5 what do you have Initial Servo Point set for? If it's not set to Auto then it's going to look for you to get the focus point on the eye to get it to lock. If you're using something other than L+Tracking then a lot depends on lighting and other factors - like is the eye drifting in and out of the focus area due to the boat.

For stuff like this I use L+Tracking with the ISP set to Auto, and if that doesn't work I have the control wheel on the lens set to change focus mode and have eliminated 1/2 the available ones so a good turn will get me to Large Zone AF: Horizontal where I usually get a lock fairly quickly.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Focus should be set to "Face + tracking", prioritize animals
Perhaps you need to turn "Detect Eyes" on - it's off by default.
... Hope this helps! Come back if it doesn't.

Good advice, but just so you know the Detect Eyes will show "Off" grayed out unless you're in the L+Tracking mode. It will still look for an eye when you 1/2 press the focus button, but it won't pre-search for one.

Just curious, you said you are using the back button. Do you have that set for eye-detect while using the front button for another mode? That works (I have mine set up this way), but it may not work as well as just shooting in L+Tracking. I've had the camera for a year and am still playing with this and will change the primary focus mode from time to time when the back button eye detect is struggling.

 

[RedCobra]

Why is IS off? Works fine on boats and bouncing safari vehicles.

 

[Dave Williams]

I have shutter button set to standard...half press and metering and AF start
AF Purple Menu Page 1 The camera is set up to single point . Servo AF.Animals. Continuous AF is disabled
AF Purple Menu Page 5 Initial Servo Pt for eye detect is single point.
Red Menu Customise buttons I select no change on the shutter button as described previously. For AF-on I choose eye detect, it's on the second row, 4th along.
and that's it. If I want to pinpoint the target then I use the shutter button. If I want the camera to lock on an eye I use the back button and keeping my thumb pressed on it, fire the shutter. The result is so easy that it becomes a bit boring. You can't expect the camera to work miracles but if the subject is large enough it will lock on an eye and stay on it. If it can't find the eye which it sometimes can't if there is no light on it it might jump to the brightest part. If the subject is fairly distant the whole bird might be locked on but not necessarily the eye.
The biggest problem area is water, especially flat calm water because then if the subject isn't large the camera will be attracted to the eye like reflection of the water but won't be able to lock on it.

I always shoot manual so you can change at a whim the shutter speed , aperture and ISO. If you have enough depth of field it doesn't matter as much if the focus isn't on the eye but somewhere near by.


The one thing that is certain though is that the R5 is indeed an incredible bit of electronics which, it seems to me, has far more options to choose than I'll ever need and I even wonder if some of them are useful to anyone. There is no right way or wrong way, just a choice of how to use it. I'm very simple in my needs and rather old fashioned. I often forget about using the touch screen to move the focus points and instead use the joystick but that was only innovated a few years ago.
I recently spent a week on a little island off Scotland . Not long ago I was delighted to come home with a handful of sharp flight shots. This time I was taking so many I was deleting hundreds. 20fps in electronic can be overkill but in each sequence there is usually a standout pose and the rest, although sharp either get deleted or never used.I attach some for perusal! I'm not an awesome photographer but I have an awesome camera.

PS I never turn IS off, in fact there's a specific mode for a rocking boat.

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I have shutter button set to standard...half press and metering and AF start
AF Purple Menu Page 1 The camera is set up to single point . Servo AF.Animals. Continuous AF is disabled
AF Purple Menu Page 5 Initial Servo Pt for eye detect is single point.
Red Menu Customise buttons I select no change on the shutter button as described previously. For AF-on I choose eye detect, it's on the second row, 4th along.
and that's it.

Set the AF Menu 1 as follows:
AF Operation: Servo
AF Method: Face tracking (looks like an 'L' )
Subject to detect: Animals
Eye detection: Enable
Continuous AF: Disable
Touch & drag...: your choice
Focus mode: AF

In AF Menu 5 set Initial Servo Pt to Auto

Single point is not going to give you great results with eye tracking. If you use Face Tracking it will find the eye in the viewfinder without you having to press a button. If you just want to use the rear button for Eye Detect then change the AF Method to something other than single point as the camera will initially look at that point for the eye. As mentioned above, I use Large Area Horizontal when I'm not using Face Tracking.

This is not your old DSLR, so don't use it like one. I will only use single point when the subject is nearly indistinguishable from its surroundings due to shadows or insufficient light.

 

[NancyMac]

Why is IS off? Works fine on boats and bouncing safari vehicles.

Hi RedCobra,
I had IS on yesterday, and as I was bouncing around on the big ocean, it was jumping around like crazy. I've never used IS before with wildlife photography. I rely on my shutter speed to compensate. I do use IS on land, however. I just felt Iike I was fighting the camera yesterday with the IS.

 

[NancyMac]

Also, is the IS settings for boat number 3? (I'd imagine it'd be..)

 

[NancyMac]

Hopefully someone more experienced with birding will chime in, since I've only had a very limited time to mess around withe AF settings. Also, I'm using an R6, but I assume it's the same. Couple of ideas:

Focus should be set to "Face + tracking", prioritize animals
Perhaps you need to turn "Detect Eyes" on - it's off by default.

Once you have your eagle in sights, if it doesn't auto detect the head/eye of the bird, tap it on the screen and that should put a double frame around it and will start tracking it. Should focus fine after that.

Hope this helps! Come back if it

I have shutter button set to standard...half press and metering and AF start
AF Purple Menu Page 1 The camera is set up to single point . Servo AF.Animals. Continuous AF is disabled
AF Purple Menu Page 5 Initial Servo Pt for eye detect is single point.
Red Menu Customise buttons I select no change on the shutter button as described previously. For AF-on I choose eye detect, it's on the second row, 4th along.
and that's it. If I want to pinpoint the target then I use the shutter button. If I want the camera to lock on an eye I use the back button and keeping my thumb pressed on it, fire the shutter. The result is so easy that it becomes a bit boring. You can't expect the camera to work miracles but if the subject is large enough it will lock on an eye and stay on it. If it can't find the eye which it sometimes can't if there is no light on it it might jump to the brightest part. If the subject is fairly distant the whole bird might be locked on but not necessarily the eye.
The biggest problem area is water, especially flat calm water because then if the subject isn't large the camera will be attracted to the eye like reflection of the water but won't be able to lock on it.

I always shoot manual so you can change at a whim the shutter speed , aperture and ISO. If you have enough depth of field it doesn't matter as much if the focus isn't on the eye but somewhere near by.


The one thing that is certain though is that the R5 is indeed an incredible bit of electronics which, it seems to me, has far more options to choose than I'll ever need and I even wonder if some of them are useful to anyone. There is no right way or wrong way, just a choice of how to use it. I'm very simple in my needs and rather old fashioned. I often forget about using the touch screen to move the focus points and instead use the joystick but that was only innovated a few years ago.
I recently spent a week on a little island off Scotland . Not long ago I was delighted to come home with a handful of sharp flight shots. This time I was taking so many I was deleting hundreds. 20fps in electronic can be overkill but in each sequence there is usually a standout pose and the rest, although sharp either get deleted or never used.I attach some for perusal! I'm not an awesome photographer but I have an awesome camera.

PS I never turn IS off, in fact there's a specific mode for a rocking boat.

Hi Dave,

Hi Dave,

I shoot manual also and it seems like the focal settings are all off for me.

I tried them with zone today and the focus wasn't locking in anywhere near where I wanted it to be.

I have used the one point AF, but I do find that it's difficult to line that focal point up with the head of a bird in flight. I then went to the expand around area because that was easier to line up.
*****Is it possible to go with the expand around af area button, or no?

If I select your single point, and animals of course, along with servo AF, and discontinue "continuous AF" (seems counterintuitive, but ok I'll do this), then the eye detection is disabled. Don't we want eye detection enabled? It won't allow me to select that option with the single point AF. Or having the back button set to eye will do the trick?

***** You said on the "Red Menu Customize buttons I select no change on the shutter button as described previously." I'm not sure what I'm suppose or not supposed. to do here??

*****Did you make any adjustments to your Case settings (Purple AF area section 3).... Do you have yours on Case 1 still?

*****Presumably if these settings will work well for a bird in flight, then obviously it will suffice for a deer in the yard, or a lion in Africa? How about an orca whale where it won't be able to track it's eye???? That's where it's difficult to toggle the joystick super tiny button and hope it lines up with where an orca breaches and what not.... I've got less than 1 second to toggle the square around.... Just rely on my shutter speed???
*****What's a gal to do in this scenario?

Lastly, I'm a bit old fashioned too. I'm used to adjusting my ISO, aperture and shutter speed and I'm off to the races. All of these special settings are throwing me off. I was the only one able to capture a bald eagle taking out a turkey vulture today, however the images aren't nearly as sharp as I'm accustomed to.

So far I've been fairly disappointed with this camera / lens set up. I know you all rave about them, but I'm hoping with making these adjustments that I'll see a great improvement. I'm ready to put both on the market, but I'm trying to hang in there. 95% of my photos were not crisp at all today....Such a BUMMER!!!!!

Thanks again,

Nancy