Canon R7 R7 Frustrations

[Mel H]

I had been getting to know my r7 but am feeling a little frustrated over the auto focus. I tried some birds and only got say 2 shots before is lost focus, I took some advice and tweaked the settings, and put it down to the fact that the birds were small and very fast. I tried it on horses, slower and much bigger, but with animal I’d and tracking on , it was still losing focus, not locking on and keeping sharp - see 2 consecutive horse shots attached. I thought that maybe because there was both a person and an animal it was getting confused on where to focus. Today I tried it with some caterpillars in the garden and still got the loss of focus, I took off the animal ID and the tracking and set the focus point to the centre single point , it improved it a bit, but not that much. I hope it is something I am not doing, or a setting I have got wrong, the manual is not that helpful at all. Any comments , thoughts or advice would be welcome . Taken with canon lens using the adaptor

 

[Chris Summers]

That's rather puzzling. The horse shots are nowhere near close as far as a focus point, the first looks like it focused on the upper left corner of those building's roofs. The next is right on the horse and rider. The caterpillar is sharp in the first and not the second but I can't see a focal point that the camera chose but it sure wasn't the subject. I'm guessing it's something wrong with the camera body and not the lens. Was this the same lens for both subjects and have you had good results with any other bodies?

 

[Mel H]

It was different lens for horse and caterpillar . Have used both lenses on my dslr with good results.

 

[Chris Summers]

It was different lens for horse and caterpillar . Have used both lenses on my dslr with good results.

Not sure how convenient it would be over in the UK which I believe is where you are but you might want to have it checked out a Canon authorized service center or repair facility. Being so new it is early on in it's warranty so should not be a problem. It just seems odd, especially in those dressage images that one time it's spot on and then it focuses off on the far upper left corner. I could understand if it focused on the camera man or the ladies on the left but not an inanimate part of the frame.

 

[Kwazy]

Are you sure you're not accidentally pressing on the screen to focus somewhere other than your subject?

 

[Mel H]

Are you sure you're not accidentally pressing on the screen to focus somewhere other than your subject?

Screen not in use I was using view finder

 

[Kwazy]

Do you see the little squares telling you where it's focusing? Did those keep jumping around, or did it target what it was supposed to, but focus went elsewhere?
You can turn on focus markers in playback options to see what focus points were used and where.

 

[Mel H]

I could see the focus square , I will try the playback check , thanks

 

[TonyB]

In the AF menu, check to see if you have the “Touch and Drag” AF turned on. If you do, disable it and see if you continue to experience this issue.

 

[Mel H]

In the AF menu, check to see if you have the “Touch and Drag” AF turned on. If you do, disable it and see if you continue to experience this issue.

Thank you I will try that

 

[Eric_56]

I had been getting to know my r7 but am feeling a little frustrated over the auto focus. I tried some birds and only got say 2 shots before is lost focus, I took some advice and tweaked the settings, and put it down to the fact that the birds were small and very fast. I tried it on horses, slower and much bigger, but with animal I’d and tracking on , it was still losing focus, not locking on and keeping sharp - see 2 consecutive horse shots attached. I thought that maybe because there was both a person and an animal it was getting confused on where to focus. Today I tried it with some caterpillars in the garden and still got the loss of focus, I took off the animal ID and the tracking and set the focus point to the centre single point , it improved it a bit, but not that much. I hope it is something I am not doing, or a setting I have got wrong, the manual is not that helpful at all. Any comments , thoughts or advice would be welcome . Taken with canon lens using the adaptor

I have exactly the same problems with R7 and EF 100-400 IS II. I contacted the canon CPS, I sent the raw files to the after-sales service. This happened from time to time focused locked on the subject and it's blurry... The focus has been done elsewhere ... What do you have as a lens, settings

 

[Mel H]

In the AF menu, check to see if you have the “Touch and Drag” AF turned on. If you do, disable it and see if you continue to experience this issue.

Touch and drag setting were off

 

[MikeZ]

Could the issue be related to the EF-to-RF adapter? Mel and Eric, have you tried using a native RF lens to see if you experience the same focus issue with that combination works?

 

[Mel H]

Could the issue be related to the EF-to-RF adapter? Mel and Eric, have you tried using a native RF lens to see if you experience the same focus issue with that combination works?

I wish I had a rf lens, I spoke to the camera dealer and they are trying to find out for me, I am also going to the Photography show so will stop by the Canon stand and see if they have any ideas.

 

[Eric_56]

Could the issue be related to the EF-to-RF adapter? Mel and Eric, have you tried using a native RF lens to see if you experience the same focus issue with that combination works?

It's really random, until I realize it's usually on the expanded area mode. In the AF spot mode I did not have this problem it seems to me ... Overall 95% of the photos are good but I would like to understand why he will focus elsewhere

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I'll say it plain and simple, the focus lock on the R7 isn't all that great at the moment, particularly in low light and even contrast situations. Even in situations where it locks right onto the eye I will watch focus drift slightly in and out over a 15fps burst. I expect that to be fixed in the next firmware update because we had similar issues on the R5 early on. It's frustrating but I expect it to improve.

With your horse shots it would help to know what focus mode you were in. Was it facial recognition or something else? It's slightly busy in terms of content so I know from experience that it may just grab the wrong thing up front in the wrong mode.

 

[Mel H]

I'll say it plain and simple, the focus lock on the R7 isn't all that great at the moment, particularly in low light and even contrast situations. Even in situations where it locks right onto the eye I will watch focus drift slightly in and out over a 15fps burst. I expect that to be fixed in the next firmware update because we had similar issues on the R5 early on. It's frustrating but I expect it to improve.

With your horse shots it would help to know what focus mode you were in. Was it facial recognition or something else? It's slightly busy in terms of content so I know from experience that it may just grab the wrong thing up front in the wrong mode.

I think I had it on animal mode, but I did wonder if having a person and an animal in the same place would confuse it, but the focus swapped to a house which is perplexing. I have to say I am disappointed in the performance so far , my old 1d outstrips it by a long way

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

my old 1dx outstrips it by a long way

So you're comparing a body that cost $6500 new to one that costs $5000 less and then blaming the camera for not measuring up?

Did you see the viewfinder light up on the horse's eye before you shot or did you just aim and press away? I've experienced similar frustration with it not finding the subject *I* want in a scene like this before. It was with the $3500 R5. That's why I made sure the control wheel is set so I can choose a different focus mode to get the focus point on the subject and then, using back button set to eye detect, lock in on the subject I want and shoot. At least with the R7 I no longer need to use the back button method since eye detect is available in all focus modes. New tech takes some getting used to, and it will vary from body to body. The most expensive hammer can still miss the nail when swung improperly. Not being critical, just saying.

 

[Mel H]

So you're comparing a body that cost $6500 new to one that costs $5000 less and then blaming the camera for not measuring up?

Did you see the viewfinder light up on the horse's eye before you shot or did you just aim and press away? I've experienced similar frustration with it not finding the subject *I* want in a scene like this before. It was with the $3500 R5. That's why I made sure the control wheel is set so I can choose a different focus mode to get the focus point on the subject and then, using back button set to eye detect, lock in on the subject I want and shoot. At least with the R7 I no longer need to use the back button method since eye detect is available in all focus modes. New tech takes some getting used to, and it will vary from body to body. The most expensive hammer can still miss the nail when swung improperly. Not being critical, just saying.

Well thank you for your comments , yes I did make sure the focus point was selected . It is interesting that when I activated the setting that shows you where the focus was on playback, both caterpillar shots had the same focus point but one was sharp and one was not . Yes I am disappointed with the performance so far but if you read back you will see that I said it might well be me that had the settings wrong. i Am not “blaming the camera” I am puzzled at the performance / results and looking to resolve it And yes my expectation was that this new tech would be a match or more flexible than the old system especially with the innovative tracking and identification. I am currently discussing the issue with the camera dealer who are also puzzled by the problem, but have been most helpful . I am hoping the Canon team might beable to shed more light on it . This forum is a great way to reach out to folk and get their ideas and feedback but i have to say your response comes across as quite aggressive and accusatory , I hope you did not mean it that way.

 

[TonyB]

Last time I had an issue I couldn’t figure out, I called Canon. The support rep had me save my settings to an SD card, remove it, put in another an format it. Then, she had me reset all settings to factory defaults. Then, we went through changing things until we found the setting that was causing the issue. Maybe doing something similar will help you see if your settings are causing the issue.

 

[Mel H]

Last time I had an issue I couldn’t figure out, I called Canon. The support rep had me save my settings to an SD card, remove it, put in another an format it. Then, she had me reset all settings to factory defaults. Then, we went through changing things until we found the setting that was causing the issue. Maybe doing something similar will help you see if your settings are causing the issue.

Oh thanks, that sounds like a god plan .

 

[Mel H]

So I went to the Photography Show and spoke to the Canon technical team. They said they have not had a great deal of ti e to field test the camera and suggested it might be the settings, they re set the settings to case one, but there was limited chance to test it at the show, even though I offered to run up and down I front of the stand I then went to the Canon training are and spoke with Nina Bailey who is the technical editor of EOS Magazine. She has done some testing nd the first thing she said was that the camera animal tracking does not lock on to horses very well! That when doing equestrian shots the people tracking should be used. She also said that all the setting have to be right as they work together and if one is out of balance it has a big impact on performance. So it may be the issue I had was a settings one , I m going to try and join one of their training days on the r7 , I find the camera manual quite poor in the settings explanations. The other advice was to do more testing, but take a screen shot of the settings each time and then if the problem persists then contact Canon help and send them the data.

 

[ctitanic]

The R7 AF get easily distracted by anything in the background or foreground. I would advise to test the different Servo Auto Focus cases.

https://cam.start.canon/en/C005/manual/html/UG-05_AF-Drive_0110.html

I personally like cases 2 and 4.

 

[Mel H]

I got off on the wrong foot with my R7 . After much discussion with canon support and the retailer I have concluded a few things.
1.the electronic shutter is prone to difficuties, there is distortion, banding, and it looks to lose the focus and tracking very easily. This makes the electronic shutter of very little use to me , more and more users are highlighting the roller shutter issues.
2. The adaptor that came with the body works, but there is loss of performance , despite the advertisement claiming no loss. Canon support corroborated my points in that some of the ef lens were slow to focus, including the ef 70-200 f2.8 . The age of the lens was floated as an explanation. The performance with a Tamron 150-600 F5-6.3 was very slow to focus, taking some few seconds and often hunting for focus. Canon support would not comment on non canon lens which is fair enough.
3. The focus tracking is quite intermittent with some animals. Horses are a particular issue for some reason, this was confirmed with a canon rep, this is a bit unfortunate for me as I am predominantly an equestrian photographer. Perhaps this will improve with future updates.

I have swapped to using the mechanical shutter and am now using a lens designed for the camera. The results with this set up are a lot better . I am still testing and am working with a canon rep to identify the optimum settings for my photo style. There is still the occasional loss of focus and random movement of the selected af area which I hope to pin down at the next session. I am starting to feel a little better about the r7 but absolutely believe that canon have over egged the hype and have been overly complimentary about its abilities .