Canon R6 II R6 Mark II Back Button Focus - Help

[allankravitz]

New to Canon mirrorless shooting on the go. I last canon camera was a 7D over 10 years old. local Photo club has convinced me to go to back button focus. Youtube has more than 4 version of how to set it up. I do macro and travel photography. Any suggestions.

 

[tbar23]

Hi @allankravitz - I’m a back button newbie and probably not the best person to advise. I was preparing for safari and have been shooting sports and wildlife. I use two back buttons for focus - one for spot or area and one for eye detect.
If anything what I like best is the decoupling of focus from shutter release.

 

[Kamoshika]

Hi Allan, I (shoot a lot of birds) too set mine up like Trevor: AF back button for spot AF and the star button for eye detect (as was suggested by certain YouTube videos).

Some other tweaks I made: I changed my DOF button on the front to switch between servo and one shot, though I'm not sure how useful you would find this. And I set up my C1 and C2 with settings for shooting birds with the only difference being electronic shutter (C1) and mechanical (C2). Attached a chart I find helpful.

 

[tbar23]

@Kamoshika reminded me of something else I do … C1 is setup for sports (subject detect = people) with C2 for wildlife (subject detect = animals).

 

[KEN_A]

I have my R5 set up the same with back button for normal AF and star button for eye detect AF. I don't think I could now go back to using the shutter button for focus. Mind you, if you need to use a remote release it has to be changed back for the shutter button otherwise it won't focus. Unless I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Copterdoc]

A good place to start might be to view this video on YouTube. There are many others, and some are more specific to the type of shooting you are doing but this is an exceptionally good general introduction. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZXTn1i2A14

 

[AKVet]

Hi Allan, I (shoot a lot of birds) too set mine up like Trevor: AF back button for spot AF and the star button for eye detect (as was suggested by certain YouTube videos).

Some other tweaks I made: I changed my DOF button on the front to switch between servo and one shot, though I'm not sure how useful you would find this. And I set up my C1 and C2 with settings for shooting birds with the only difference being electronic shutter (C1) and mechanical (C2). Attached a chart I find helpful.

David, is the DOF button the one on the front bottom of the camera? I have been calling it the pinky button.

 

[Kamoshika]

David, is the DOF button the one on the front bottom of the camera? I have been calling it the pinky button.

Right. That's the one.