EOS R5 Mark II: What are the autofocus areas with the padlock icon for?

[Bazsl]

The last four autofocus areas are identical to the first four except that the last four have a padlock icon? How are the areas with the padlock different? I can't find anything in the user guide or on line. Thanks. 

[Bazsl]

Sorry. I should have said I am using an R5 Mark II.

[p4pictures · Accepted solution]

The AF areas with the padlock are the same as the ones without except whole area AF tracking is switched off. This means that the AF point will stay where you put it and not follow the subject.

Canon has a helpful AF settings guide that explains lots of the AF settings

https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/guide/html/index.html 

[Bazsl]

Thanks for the reference to the AF settings guide. I missed that.

Bill

[pedz]

Thank you!!!  There are other areas in the manual that I can not follow.  In one instance, I happened to guess and figured it out but in this case, I could not follow the manual at all.

I wonder if the AF Setting Guide is in PDF somewhere...

[benplayle]

Thanks Brian.

I'm a convert to the Canon ecosystem with my new R5 Mark II.  I'd also wondered what a padlock on an AF area meant. 

So what's the difference between choosing an AF area with a padlock on it, meaning that tracking is turned off; and choosing an AF area without a padlock, but with the AF operation set to one shot rather than Servo?

Are they just two ways of achieving the same thing, and it comes down to personal preference whether you want to change the AF area, or change the AF operation?

Cheers,
Ben (and here's to British rather than American English!)

[p4pictures]

Hi Ben & welcome to the forums.

The two options still work differently even with one shot AF. Take the 1-point, and aim it in the direction of a person and it will find the face and focus on the eye, even if that is slightly away from the initial position of the AF point. The same 1-point with padlock will not detect the face and stay were you put it regardless of the subject around it.

Some people like to switch the tracking and subject detection off, the EOS R5 Mk2 provides several routes to do that. Given that you can limit the available AF methods, and use custom buttons to change the AF pt button to directly switch between AF areas. This means it could be simpler to press the AF point button to swap between tracking and subject detection or no tracking and subject detection.

In my limited experience with the EOS R5 Mark II there seems to be many ways to achieve similar capabilities depending on the process preferred by photographers.

Appropriate language and spell checkers are important indeed 🙂 

[benplayle]

Thanks for quick reply, Brian.  

Got it.  That makes perfect sense.  

I'm sure I'll come to appreciate the various ways to achieve the same or similar capabilities on the R5 Mark II, and pick my favourites, but it's a bit of a daunting induction process!

Cheers,
Ben