Can't get EOS R5 Mark II out of manual focus

[Nat2]

Hi I just bought the R5 mark iI and I can’t get it out of the manual focus setting. It won’t give me the option to change settings. If anyone has a solution, please share it!

[p4pictures]

Do you have a lens on the camera, and is it set to AF or MF?

The menu option can only be changed when a lens is fitted and the lens does not have an AF/MF switch. All EF lenses and many RF have an AF/MF switch, and that determines AF or MF setting. Some RF lenses do not have the AF/MF switch, and for those lenses the menu option in the camera determines AF or MF. 

[Nat2]

Hi thanks so much for your reply and sorry for the typos. Sent in a rush boarding a flight! . I have RF lenses which both have a MF/AF switch. What would you suggest? I need the autofocus for wildlife photography/videography. Should I use scene intelligent auto from the mode settings or leave it on M in mode and use my lens switch on AF? 

[Nat2]

I also see “one shot” is enabled when I look through settings in M mode. There is no option to disable it. 

[johnrmoyer]

---

@Nat2 wrote:

I also see “one shot” is enabled when I look through settings in M mode. There is no option to disable it. 

---

I have EOS R5 and not the mark II. But in the hope some of this might be helpful, for wildlife I usually use Av or Tv or sometimes Fv.

I turn on AF using the switch on the lens. I use eye detection. I use face + tracking. 

For birds in thick foliage, I use "Initial AF pt set for Face + tracking" and for flying birds with a background of sky I use "auto" for initial servo AF point.

I seldom use M mode, usually when for some reason I want different exposure than what I could get automatically with exposure compensation.

[p4pictures]

Is the camera brand new? Have you configured any custom settings?

Either way I would do the following steps to save the current setup and then reset the camera. 

1. The switch on the top of the camera on the left, should be set to camera icon, not the movie camera icon.
2. Select P program mode. Press the mode button and select P from the screen or with the dial around the mode button
3. Press menu and navigate to the "wrench" menus, fifth page and select Save/load cam settings on card  see the screenshot below. This will save the current configuration to the card.
4. On the same menu at the top is the Reset camera option, go to that one and reset all the elements listed
5. Fit one of the RF lenses and make sure the lens MF/AF switch is set to AF position. 
6. Navigate to the AF menu 1st page and see what it shows. You should be able to change  AF operation between One Shot and Servo
7. The Focus mode setting will be greyed out as the lens AF switch determines if AF or MF is used. See attached screenshot

If these steps now allow you to change the settings from the menu, then there was something in the original configuration that was causing the issue. 

Typically for wildlife photography you would use Tv or M modes. Tv allows you to determine the shutter speed, and the camera matches with a suitable aperture, I would also select auto ISO. For manual mode, M, then you determine the shutter speed and aperture. If you have little knowledge of the suitable settings then Tv mode would probably be best to start with. Select a faster shutter speed such as 1/1000th or 1/2000th to freeze the subject in action. 

For AF settings this will depend on what wildlife are you photographing. The camera has a subject to detect setting that can be set to Animals. This is optimised to work with birds, feline, canine and equine subjects. It can be unreliable with insects and moths or butterflies. 

[Nat2]

Thank you so very much. Sorry for the delayed reply. Didn’t have cellular network. It is brand new and I did configure settings. As in your screen shot above, it was the same other than it wouldn’t give me the option for servo. However with the 100-500 on, it automatically does go to servo but I have a wider lens and it would not with that one. I will try the above as a fix.