EOS R5 Birds in canopy — blurry!

[catsongs]

Aloha from Honolulu,

Upgraded from a Canon 80D to an R5 to capture white terns in flight.

The R5 can take some mind-blowingly brilliant shots.

But...

But when the terns fly in and dance about above my head in the canopy, I get hundreds of well-composed blurry photos. Very frustrating.

I'm shooting TV with 1/1250 to 1/1600 shutter speed. Using the 70-200mm lens.

The problem is clearly the focusing. The R5 can't find something in the terns' plumage to focus on.

I've tried a variety of AF options, but no luck so far.

I'm attaching a typical (screenshot) of the type of photo that gets trashed!

Honestly, I think I did better under the canopy with the 80D.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received!

Cat

[catsongs]

Aloha e iCollector,

Mahalo!

I didn't think BBF was for me, but now that I've thought it through and practiced -- and I'm getting good results (if I remember pushing the shutter button down halfway doesn't do anything anymore!) -- I'm sticking with it.

The joystick is a great idea and... still "fighting" to get it to take priority over the AF, especially AF/eye. More experimentation called for!

While the many options Canon provides with the R5 is overwhelming at first -- and I thought my 80D was a big step up from my Rebel, years ago -- now that I've figured out what I need for shooting in the tree-canopy, fast-moving-bird situations I find myself in, I like it that I can quickly switch from settings for a brooding mother tern to a fledgling taking off, or a fish-carrying parent hovering above my head.

Getting there.

It does take a lot of thinking and a lot of work, but it's worth it!

Takk!

Cat