topic Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

EOS R problems positioning AF point

kg415 — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 01:42:23 GMT

I've had the EOS R for two weeks and am finding positioning the AF point to be quirky/unreliable/annoying. I have Touch & drag AF set to Enable, Relative, Right.

1. Positioning the AF point with the EVF and Touch & Drag, then lowering the camera causing switch from EVF to screen, then resuming use of EVF without lifting thumb from screen causes Touch & Drag to stop working until thumb is lifted from screen.

2. When positioning the AF point with the cross keys, if my nose touches the "inactive" area of the screen, cross key long press to repeat stops working intermittently. Cross key single short presses continue to move the AF point one step.

3. Intermittently, my nose touching the "inactive" area of the screen changes the AF point position.

4. Possibly other intermittent conditions causing the AF point to freeze.

I spent a long time on the phone with a Canon support person who seemed to be able to duplicate these behaviors, so exchanging the EOS R is unlikely to correct what seem to be firmware defects and no followup as to if/when these will be fixed is available. I've never dealt with Canon support before -- what should I expect? Any advice?

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

PLee — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 11:31:06 GMT

Would suggest you try the following settings for touch and drag:

Enable
Absolute
Top Right

Your points one and two are repeatable. I have not seen point three or point four. I suggest trying again with my recommended settings and see how the system responds. I also don't quite understand why you are touching and holding on to the screen when chimping and then going back to EVF. Lifting at any point will reset the system and restore AF point movement functionality. I would also not recommend using the directional keypad for large movements with the press and hold function as touch and drag is much faster for moving such large distances. The keypad is better used to incrementaly move the AF point for precise placement instead.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

RobertTheFat — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 04:02:33 GMT

@kg415 wrote:
I've had the EOS R for two weeks and am finding positioning the AF point to be quirky/unreliable/annoying. I have Touch & drag AF set to Enable, Relative, Right.

1. Positioning the AF point with the EVF and Touch & Drag, then lowering the camera causing switch from EVF to screen, then resuming use of EVF without lifting thumb from screen causes Touch & Drag to stop working until thumb is lifted from screen.

2. When positioning the AF point with the cross keys, if my nose touches the "inactive" area of the screen, cross key long press to repeat stops working intermittently. Cross key single short presses continue to move the AF point one step.

3. Intermittently, my nose touching the "inactive" area of the screen changes the AF point position.

4. Possibly other intermittent conditions causing the AF point to freeze.

I spent a long time on the phone with a Canon support person who seemed to be able to duplicate these behaviors, so exchanging the EOS R is unlikely to correct what seem to be firmware defects and no followup as to if/when these will be fixed is available. I've never dealt with Canon support before -- what should I expect? Any advice?

Conceivably, some users might consider that behavior to be a feature rather than a bug. What, if anything, does the instruction manual say on the subject?

To answer your question: Canon Service has a very good reputation, at least in this forum. But the R is a pretty new camera, and some of its peculiarities may not be well understood yet.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

ebiggs1 — Fri, 26 Oct 2018 14:10:11 GMT

"Canon Service has a very good reputation, at least in this forum."

I agree except Canon CS is not just good it is the best there is. However, you may get a person that isn't as knowledgeable as some. Simply hang up can call back or while on the phone ask for somebody else. My personally experience with Canon is top notch. All companies should be as good.

Also, no help to you, I am not in favor of the touch screens. I hope Canon does not add them to the professional line of cameras.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

kg415 — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 04:07:23 GMT

Absolute control is too uncomfortable for me. I did switch to Top Right, but the problem occurred again while shooting today. It seems to occur when raising the camera to use the EVF and my nose touches the left, "inactive", part of the screen. The AF point jumps to the upper left and cannot be moved by dragging in the active area until I lift my nose from the screen. I'm unable to reliably duplicate the problem. My nose isn't unusually big.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

Waddizzle — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 04:44:43 GMT

Are you using your left eye to look through the viewfinder? Have you tried rotating the rear screen to the “closed” position? I am forced to use my left eye to look through the viewfinder of my DSLRs, and my nose always rubs and smears on the rear screens.

I do not have an EOS R, but I do use an EOS M3 with a viewfinder option. I do not experience your issues, probably because I will shoot with either the viewfinder, or with the rear screen. I have never tried to switch between the two user interfaces as you seem to describe. I am not surprised if the camera may be getting confused as to which user interface you want to use.

When I use my M3, I either use it like a cellphone, away from my face, composing the shots with the rear LCD. If I want more precise focusing and compositions, I attach the viewfinder accessory and use that, which is actually quite rare. I mostly use my M3 for street shooting urban landscapes when I want to use a more compact camera body, instead of a pro-size body.

Have you ever used a DSLR as you describe, switching between Live View shooting and viewinder shooting on the fly? I have not, mainly because you cannot do so with a DSLR, and I do not think that the Canon engineers have, either.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

RW32 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 21:12:25 GMT

Had EOS R for about a week. Great performance but I am defintely experiencing #3, i.e. nose touching the inactive area of the screen (when using the viewfinder) which then moves the focus point to somewhere on LH side of screen. Happens all the time.

Have tried disabling touch screen settings like Touch shutter and Touch & Drag AF but doesn’t seem to help.

(I also have an M5 and I don’t get this problem on that camera)

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

kg415 — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 21:31:05 GMT

The video "Canon EOS R BUGS" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE8FD1W_9Sc) mentions an AF point freezing bug.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

CarlG — Mon, 17 Dec 2018 15:07:00 GMT

I've turned touch and drag off and use the arrows on the back. Turned off image review off and touch shutter is disabled. What I have now is my settings showing up on the screen just like my 80D. Most of the time I shoot with the screen closed but that just me. Everything does seem to work better like this. If I decide to use it for video I would imagine using the screen for moving focus around as needed. However I primarily still photo. I started with the same issues however I also found the arrows on the back can be moved by my thumb accidently as well. Particularly if I extend my thumb up to the mode wheel. I just had to set the camera up for needs and it works great.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

Allanduff — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 04:45:03 GMT

I have had the same problem with the focus points on my EOS R, it is VERY frustrating. I love the image quality of the camera, but if I cannot control the focus points it is going to be a big disappointment.

I have have had the problem of setting the focus point but when I lower the camera then put it back to my eye, the focus point has moved the the upper left corner. I have also had the focus point freeze at the worst times.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

tharsh — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 04:17:03 GMT

newly joined, have been frustrated with this probem, Hitting the delete key to recenter center AF point,,,,,,,did a search and found this site. Tonight I may have found a solution. The lock button. Using it turns off the movability of the focus point, stays centered. If you move the point with the qSet pointers then it takes lock off and you can move it with touch or qSet buttons. But if you center it via delete button, then hit lock, it will not move by your nose or whatever and works old school like we are used to. I use P mode and aperture, shutter speed, menu Qmenu etc all work with lock on. So does mode and M-fn.

Tom

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

kg415 — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 18:58:01 GMT

AF point positioning problems with direction key repeat and nose touching the "inactive" touch screen area were fixed by firmware updates. But I've since switched to back button focus and turned off Touch & Drag AF and customized the direction keys for other functions. Even so, I do sometimes find that the AF point isn't centered, so your lock button suggestion is worth a try.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

tharsh — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 19:01:30 GMT

there is a lock button setting where you select what you want to lock, make sure AF point is selected

Tom

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

kg415 — Sat, 15 Feb 2020 19:51:20 GMT

There's an option under Multi function lock for the Touch control, but not the AF point -- is that what you mean?

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

tharsh — Sun, 16 Feb 2020 18:12:58 GMT

yes sorry

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

W_W_Wygart — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 16:57:07 GMT

I felt so alone with this problem, now I know there are others with this problem too!

I discovered this day one with my EOS R, it seemed like every time I turned around the focus point on the screen was far away, in some distant corner or edge of the viewscreen rather than were I always keep it - in the center. This happened six times, at least, the first day. It seems like every time I come back to the camera: turning back on, or unforlding the screen so I could view it. Boop, there it goes again! Problem was it was five or ten minutes since I had the camera out walking to a new location, so could not remember what I had done before, and there wasn't anything that I had just done that should have moved the focus point. Intensely annoying when you are first out witn a new camera and you don't know many of its features.

You really don't want one the first features you learn to be a bug.

I've gone so far as to program the directional arrows to move the focus point, and yes, eventually I learned you can just press the Delete button to recenter. But why should I have to? I could just use the touch screen as well, but it's starting to seem like the touch screen *is* the problem. This is bug of some kind, I don't believe in compensating for bug forever, but correcting them.

Canon, please, at least give us the option to selectively disable Touch AF in a firmware update.

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

sigurandi — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 02:51:58 GMT

I have had my EOS R for 2 days and already can't stand how the focus point doesn't stay in the center of the screen like I'd like. It jumps all around, even when shooting in One Shot with 1 AF point. It is driving me crazy. I've spent hours on the phone with Canon and they can't figure out how to help me. This is definitely a deal breaker for me. I want to chuck it across the room and start shooting with something else. Can anyone help me?

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

CarlG — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 12:28:49 GMT

I have my AFOn button set to center focus it's convenient and next to your to your right thumb. If you are a VF user then it's happening when you hold the camera up to your face. close the back screen and review through VF. Once you get used to it, it'll be fine however if you want to Chcuck it across the room...chuck it my way I can always use a 4th Camera body

Re: EOS R problems positioning AF point

jrhoffman75 — Thu, 01 Oct 2020 14:52:43 GMT

Try posting on the Fred Miranda site. There is a Canon section.