EOS R5 w/ EF 100-400mm: Photos not sharp enough

[Dmcd3055]

Canon R5 with canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

I am struggling with as good as this equipment is not getting the sharp pictures one would expect.

I am shooting mostly wildlife. My camera is set up on AI Servo  shutter speed 850 to freeze wing blur F9/10 allowing only the ISO on auto. I use auto focus and animal focus all the time. Since with the lighting sometimes I have had to bring the ISO down to 400/500 instead of the 20,000 iso it seems to enjoy picking. When the iso is on auto I seem to get a lot of washed out pics. Any suggestions

 

[p4pictures]

You have the camera set to spot AF method - I see this on the lower left corner of your display to the left of the word SERVO.

The EOS R5 does not do subject tracking or eye tracking when the AF method is set to; spot AF, 1-point AF, AF expansion (cross), AF expansion (surround). Therefore even if you set animal subject or eye detection in the menu, they are not available.

To have the camera find an animal head (canine, feline or birds specifically) then you need to use Face + tracking AF method, or one of the three zone AF methods. For the camera to do eye tracking then you have to use face + tracking AF method.

Brian

[Dmcd3055]

i believe that they are available by setting the back buttons to accommodate those operations.

 I have 1 point AF set up under the AF-On and the eye/animal set up under the * button

[Waddizzle]

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@Dmcd3055 wrote:

i believe that they are available by setting the back buttons to accommodate those operations.

 I have 1 point AF set up under the AF-On and the eye/animal set up under the * button

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As Brian has noted, those settings disable subject tracking and eye detection…

[Tronhard]

I shoot a lot of wildlife and use the R5 a fair bit.  So far I engage with all kinds of animals, including birds with the following configuration:
In the Menu, Pink Tab, AF chapter, P1
AF Operation:       SERVO AF
AF Method:           Face Tracking (far left of choices)
Subject to detect:  Animals
Eye detection:       Enable
Continuous AF:     Disable
Focus Method:      AF
In P3 of the Focus Tab, I just use the Auto setting
In P3 of the Focus Tab, Initial Servo AF Pt for :>) is Auto

I have my cameras set up for Back Button focus which is already assigned to the AF-ON button, all you have to do is disable the focus function from the shutter button.  See this video:

My personal preference is to use single point focus and single point metering.  This is because, for animals that are hidden within a cluttered foreground, I want to be very precise with what I focus on and the spot gives me that.  I don't want metering to follow the focus, because there is no guarantee that the point of focus is in the mid-18% reflectance that the camera is looking to meter to.  For example: The Red Panda is actually well back in a tree, and I focused between branches and leaves to get an eye lock.  In the case of the Elegant Green Gecko, it is tiny (125mm total), the eye is not large, and the DoF is miniscule, so precise focus was critical.  Also, the environment is kept really dark, so if I had not restricted my metering, it would have blown out the creature.
Red Panda@10m: R5, RF 200-800@ 600mm, f/9, 1/500sec, ISO-6400  R5, RF 100-500@188mm, f5, 1/250sec, ISO-320

My sequence of shooting is:
Meter on somethings that is mid-18% reflectance and lock that with the * button
Focus on the eye of my subject e.g. bird or whatever and press the AF-ON button 
Recompose, and press the shutter button.

Again, personally, I prefer to use Av mode, but keep an eye on the shutter speed. I often use ISO set to Auto unless the environmental conditions require a specific setting.  To do so, I have the ISO range limited as per RED tab, P2, ISO Speed Settings: 
ISO Speed            Auto
ISO speed range  100-6400
Auto Range           100-3200
Min. shutter speed Auto

I have no idea why your camera is trying to shoot with ISO 20,000 unless it is a very dark environment - it sounds to me like some setting is wrong.  If in doubt, I recommend you do a factory reset to get rid of an inadvertent setting that is throwing your camera off.

So, here  are some examples of images on and off the wing, using this method: BTW, these gannets may not be flapping a lot, but they are motoring in the coastal winds.
R5, RF 100-500@300mm, f/8, 1/320sec, ISO-800  R5, RF 100-500@100mm, f/8, 1/1000sec, ISO-200    R5, RF 100-500@135mm, f/8, 1/640sec, ISO-200R5, RF100-500@100mm, f/8, 1/200sec, ISO-200  R5, RF 100-500@128mm, f/8, 1/1000sec, ISO-200  

[stevet1]

Dmcd3055,

I could very well be wrong, but  if your camera is picking an ISO of 20,000, you must be in very dim lighting. If that's the case, setting your aperture at f/9 isn't helping. You are closing down the light that's available to you, and that's why your camera is raising the ISO so high to compensate.

I personally think you'd be better off setting an aperture of 5.6, or even lower. Your depth of field will be smaller, but you want to isolate your bird anyway, don't you?

Steve Thomas

[johnrmoyer]

You already have good advice. I do things a little differently. I hope some of this might be helpful. I use half press of shutter button to focus and not back button. I focus first on a high contrast tree trunk at about the same distance as the bird so that the camera may find the eye more quickly. If there is no high contrast tree trunk available, I turn the focus ring on the lens before I half press to auto focus.

I had assigned Fv mode to C1 when I photographed the sandhill crane. The bird is on my web server at: https://www.rsok.com/~jrm/2023Nov02_SaltPlainsNWR/2023nov02_crane_IMG_7693c.html 

I have included some exiftool output below the photo.

Sandhill Crane (Antigone canadensis) at Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma, United States on November 2, 2023 ; F/13 ; ISO 1000 ; distance about 100 meters ; hand held and panning ; EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM +2x III ; continuous drive high+ ; AI Servo AF ; MeteringMode Evaluative ; AFAreaMode Face + Tracking ; SafetyShift disable ; AELockMeterModeAfterFocus Evaluative

[MakerNotes:Camera] ContinuousDrive             : Continuous, High+
[MakerNotes:Camera] FocusMode                   : AI Servo AF
[MakerNotes:Camera] CameraISO                   : Auto
[MakerNotes:Camera] MeteringMode                : Evaluative
[MakerNotes:Camera] FocusRange                  : Auto
[MakerNotes:Camera] CanonExposureMode           : Flexible-priority AE
[MakerNotes:Camera] AFAreaMode                  : Face + Tracking
[MakerNotes:Camera] NumAFPoints                 : 1053
[MakerNotes:Camera] ValidAFPoints               : 1
[MakerNotes:Camera] AFImageWidth                : 8192
[MakerNotes:Camera] AFImageHeight               : 5464
[MakerNotes:Camera] AELockMeterModeAfterFocus   : Evaluative
[MakerNotes:Camera] AFConfigTool                : Case 1
[MakerNotes:Camera] AFTrackingSensitivity       : 0
[MakerNotes:Camera] AFAccelDecelTracking        : 0
[MakerNotes:Camera] AFPointSwitching            : -1
[MakerNotes:Camera] AIServoFirstImage           : Equal Priority
[MakerNotes:Camera] AIServoSecondImage          : Equal Priority
[MakerNotes:Camera] USMLensElectronicMF         : Disable After AF
[MakerNotes:Camera] AFAssistBeam                : Unknown (4)
[MakerNotes:Camera] OneShotAFRelease            : Focus Priority
[MakerNotes:Camera] AutoAFPointSelEOSiTRAF      : Enable
[MakerNotes:Camera] LensDriveWhenAFImpossible   : Continue Focus Search
[MakerNotes:Image] FocusDistanceUpper           : 114.01 m
[MakerNotes:Image] FocusDistanceLower           : 81.91 m
[MakerNotes:Image] ShutterMode                  : Electronic First Curtain

Edited with Canon DPP software, from the saved dr4 file:

[CanonVRD:Image] LuminanceNoiseReduction        : 3.3
[CanonVRD:Image] ChrominanceNoiseReduction      : 3.3
[CanonVRD:Image] DLOSetting                     : 50
[CanonVRD:Image] DLOOn                          : Yes
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaContrast                  : 0
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaColorTone                 : 0
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaSaturation                : 2
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaUnsharpMaskStrength       : 2
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaUnsharpMaskFineness       : 4
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaUnsharpMaskThreshold      : 3
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaSharpnessStrength         : 4
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaShadow                    : 2
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaHighlight                 : 0
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaBlackPoint                : +0.000
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaWhitePoint                : +0.000
[CanonVRD:Image] GammaMidPoint                  : +0.000
[CanonVRD:Image] CropRotatedOriginalWidth       : 8192
[CanonVRD:Image] CropRotatedOriginalHeight      : 5464
[CanonVRD:Image] CropX                          : 1556
[CanonVRD:Image] CropY                          : 1854
[CanonVRD:Image] CropWidth                      : 4800
[CanonVRD:Image] CropHeight                     : 3200

[Tronhard]

Back at you John! 👍  Absolutely, this is one of those many paths to the same destination!

[Tronhard]

This may be a long shot, but since you are using an EF lens, a couple of questions:
which version of the 100-400 lens are you using - original or MkII?
What is the make of the EF-RF adapter you are using?

Have you tried using Av or Tv modes, given you are apparently shooting M.  I have a feeling a few people posted they have issues when using M mode and Auto ISO.    It might be worth giving them a try. If you can get it to bring the ISO down and sharpen your images, then we can concentrate on settings rather than componentry.

[johnrmoyer]

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@Tronhard wrote:

This may be a long shot, but since you are using an EF lens, a couple of questions:
which version of the 100-400 lens are you using - original or MkII?
What is the make of the EF-RF adapter you are using?

Have you tried using Av or Tv modes, given you are apparently shooting M.  I have a feeling a few people posted they have issues when using M mode and Auto ISO.    It might be worth giving them a try. If you can get it to bring the ISO down and sharpen your images, then we can concentrate on settings rather than componentry.

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I think you have given good advice as usual.

It seems to me that Auto ISO behaves differently in M or Fv modes than in Tv or Av. For one thing, I seem to remember that the limits on minimum shutter speed, ISO range, and safety shift are handled differently.

I have used the Fv mode because I want to set both shutter speed and aperture for flying birds. I want the aperture for this lens to be 1/3 stop smaller than wide open. An alternative would be Tv mode with limits on aperture. The manual says "safety shift" only works in P, Tv, and Av.

I have not figured out how to make auto ISO useful for me in M, but auto ISO seems fine in the other modes.

Fv with shutter speed fixed and auto aperture and auto ISO is not the same as Tv. It seems to me that Tv works better than Fv if the bird is flying through changes of lighting and I do not mind having the lens wide open.

Also, I have had trouble with the Canon filter adapter and the clear filter at 800mm. I suspect there might be some internal reflections in some lighting conditions because eye detect does not work as well as with the least expensive Canon adapter at 800mm and out of focus features are sometimes rendered differently.

The latest firmware works better for me.

For this lens, I always disable auto lighting optimizer and disable peripheral illumination correction based upon my conjecture that the metering will be different to get enough dynamic range for those features. I also disable distortion correction for this lens. I can add those back later in DPP without them changing the metering.

Since it no longer appears in forum signature, I may be found at https://www.rsok.com/~jrm/