03-25-2026
01:55 PM
- last edited on
03-25-2026
01:57 PM
by
Danny
I shoot sports and am having issues with the camera focusing on the wrong people (about half the time. With tracking set, the focusing point does not appear to be working at all.)
For example, last night I was trying to get a lacrosse player in focus, but the camera kept focusing on the near subjects. Even though I had the focusing point CLEARLY on the player's face, the focus kept jumping to faces nearest the camera.
Here is how the AF is set: People, single-point, auto-eye detection. Back button focus, front button only releases shutter. My lens is an EF 70-200 f2.8 with an adaptor.
BTW: If I enable front focus, the focusing point is active and functioning correctly; however, I lose all tracking capability.
My main issue is, why can't I determine which subjects to focus on instead of the camera (which mostly gets it wrong).
Solved! Go to Solution.
03-26-2026 04:36 PM
Lacrosse is a sport where other than posed shots, the protective gear is going to prevent clean eye detection in most situations so eye detect is not useful. It is also one of the fastest moving sports with a lot of very fast action changes so I would go with single point with four point expansion AF with the selected part of the array around typical chest height. Use AF servo and I believe that AF Case IV is the most appropriate but depending upon your shooting location you may find Case II useful if you have interfering subjects frequently crossing your field of view.
You should be shooting at a high enough shutter speed that image stabilization isn't needed so make sure that you don't have the lens stabilizer turned on, especially if you aren't using the LP-E6P version which maintains system voltage better under high current drain compared to the LP-E6NH. As system current demand increases, a drop in system voltage reduces AF performance. The slowdown with EF lenses is primarily based upon the response of the aperture assembly in the lens which needs to be able to step value with every frame.
To me, Lacrosse is the most difficult field sport to shoot however my camera setup (2 1DX III bodies with EF 400 and EF 70-200 f2.8 lens with aperture set wide open, manual exposure with auto ISO, typically AF case 4 normally single point AF with four point expansion) is the same that I use for soccer and football. I have never been a fan of splitting the AF and release buttons since I always shoot sports with two bodies and sometimes three and often switch bodies during a single action sequence so the less places I have to worry about exact finger placement, the better.
I do make use of the handy array of AF stop buttons on my 200-400 1.4X and great white primes and I have the AF button on the back of the camera programmed for AF stop for those rare occasions when I want to freeze AF.
Rodger
03-26-2026 07:23 PM - edited 03-26-2026 07:25 PM
Rodger wrote,
” To me, Lacrosse is the most difficult field sport to shoot however my camera setup (2 1DX III bodies with EF 400 and EF 70-200 f2.8 lens with aperture set wide open, manual exposure with auto ISO, typically AF case 4 normally single point AF with four point expansion) is the same that I use for soccer and football. “
——————
I also use M mode and ISO Auto. I also have the [Set] button configured for AEC and [AF-ON] programmed as [AF-OFF]. 👍🏻
That’s about it for custom controls. It’s simple. It’s available on all advanced bodies, so they feel and work the same way.
03-31-2026 10:08 PM
bill,
You asked, "How do I take it off tracking?"
If you hit your Menu button and go to the AF menu, it's on page 1.
Your manual explains the tracking system under, "Selecting the AF Area"
If you haven't done so yet, I 'd strongly encourage you to download your Manual in pdf format. Using a pdf reader like Adobe Acrobat, you can search for answers to specific questions using a keyword search... like Tracking.
Steve Thomas
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