EOS R5 AF tracking questions

[greggp]

I understand that to get the AF face tracking with eye detection to work, I have to use the correct combination of settings. I have read that servo operation works really well on the R5, so I am trying to perfect my technique while in that mode but these questions might apply to one-shot mode as well.

With AF operation set to SERVO, AF method set to 'face+tracking', eye detect enabled, and SERVO AF case set to 1 or auto, I couldn't get this to work automatically. I had to press and hold the AF-on button (or my back button focus * button). And when pressing either of the buttons, I can't toggle between eyes. The little white triangles are not visible when the blue square is active. I learned that it only works if I set 'Initial Servo AF pt for face tracking' to AUTO (and that makes sense).

When the little white box appears on my subject and there are the arrows for toggling between eyes, are they in focus? Or, is the AF just tracking and not in focus? Do I need to press my BB focus before I take a shot? 

The reason I'm asking is that when I look at some of these images on my computer screen after importing them to LR, the eyes aren't in focus. 

[Waddizzle · Accepted solution]

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@greggp wrote:

I understand that to get the AF face tracking with eye detection to work, I have to use the correct combination of settings. I have read that servo operation works really well on the R5, so I am trying to perfect my technique while in that mode but these questions might apply to one-shot mode as well.

With AF operation set to SERVO, AF method set to 'face+tracking', eye detect enabled, and SERVO AF case set to 1 or auto, I couldn't get this to work automatically. I had to press and hold the AF-on button (or my back button focus * button).

And when pressing either of the buttons, I can't toggle between eyes. The little white triangles are not visible when the blue square is active. I learned that it only works if I set 'Initial Servo AF pt for face tracking' to AUTO (and that makes sense).

When the little white box appears on my subject and there are the arrows for toggling between eyes, are they in focus? Or, is the AF just tracking and not in focus? Do I need to press my BB focus before I take a shot? 

The reason I'm asking is that when I look at some of these images on my computer screen after importing them to LR, the eyes aren't in focus. 

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Are you talking about shooting video or stills?

If you are shooting stills, of course you must press a button to activate the AF system. Whether or not you use face tracking has nothing to do with it.  The camera will not focus until you tell it to.

[greggp]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

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Are you talking about shooting video or stills?

If you are shooting stills, of course you must press a button to activate the AF system. Whether or not you use face tracking has nothing to do with it.  The camera will not focus until you tell it to.

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Both, but these questions are with regard to stills.

I plan to start testing the video features after I get a handle on stills but now that you mention it when face tracking eye detect is enabled and the subject is being tracked, is the subject always in focus?

For stills, I'm beginning to think using back button focusing might be clumsy. I'll need to test this more.

Thanks for your help.