EOS R6 mark II Focus spot moving

[printer1000]

New to the R6 II. Greetings. I want my focus spot to be the small box directly in the center and to NEVER move. I am in one shot mode and have the spot correctly chosen in the menu. I will shoot a bit and then can find that the focus spot has moved off to the side and substantially up or down. I have to use the joystick to put it back. This is driving me nuts. How can I be sure the square does not move away from the center on one shot fixed focus shooting (not servo). Thanks for the help!

[Waddizzle]

“ New to the R6 II. Greetings. I want my focus spot to be the small box directly in the center and to NEVER move. “

Sorry to hear that you’re having issues. I once had a similar issue when I began using the R6 Mark II.  I had no idea what would cause the AF point to move from the center. It would only happen when I was using the camera.

So, I began to pay closer attention to how I handled the camera.  The joystick is probably disabled, by default, for this reason.  Stop users from accidentally moving their selected AF point(s). BTW, the joystick can be configured to re-center the AF point just pressing and clicking it.  I set this up right away.

Having come from a 6D Mark II, I was used to having tilting, touchscreen.  I normally kept the screen closed when shooting, mainly to keep it clean.  This worked!  But it wasn’t fool proof.  I guessed that I was touching the screen as I closed it.  The 6D2 didn’t have AF points to the edges of the display like the R6ii does.

I dug through the menus and found where I could disable “Touch AF”, but this didn’t work out as expected.  I could still touch the screen and move the AF point.  My best guess is maybe that setting only applied when you were using the EVF.  If you are using the rear display, then you would probably want to have the ability to have Touch AF.

 I kept looking for ways to disable the Touch AF and stumbled across this setting.  It disables all touchscreen activity.

Problem solved. For me, disabling the touchscreen was not a problem because I had grown accustomed to using DSLRs without flip-out touchscreens.

[printer1000]

Thank you for describing your experience. I too am having this behavior happen seemingly randomly. Crazy making. Thank you for your generosity in the suggestions. I will investigate that and see and report back.

Edit: ahhh I just tried your suggestion and yes it disabled the touch beautifully but I discovered that now I could not use any touch command while using the MENU where it is needed to go back to previous screens occasionally. Catch 22! So I took your first suggestion to simply push in the joystick button which returns the focus point to the center instantly. I did not know that!!! Thank you. I will try that for awhile and see if that is just fine for my style of shooting. Whew, all this complexity - I kind of miss my 5D DSLR     sigh....

[Waddizzle]

Glad to have helped.  I have a 5Dsr, too. It’s one of those DSLRs that lack a touchscreen. I have grown accustomed to not using a touchscreen to navigate menus and select things.  For example, open the menu system.  Now press the [Q] button a few times.

[p4pictures · Accepted solution]

I have an additional set of thoughts for you.

Your camera has a three positions for the power switch, OFF - LOCK - ON. When in the LOCK position you can decide what controls are locked with the setting for the Multi function lock that is the second entry on page 5 of the yellow "wrench" menus. There are six controls that can be locked by placing a check mark beneath the icon for the control. If you put a check mark beneath the Multi-controllers (aka joystick) and also the Touch control, then when the power switch is in the lock position neither the joystick or touch screen will reposed and the AF point will stay in the centre. 

The good thing about this solution is that if you then press the MENU button to make a change to the menu settings, the camera recognises that you intended to use the menu and allows the touch screen to be used in the normal way. It also does that if you press the Q button on the camera to access the drive modes, AF settings etc. I generally find this to be more useful than simply switching off the touch screen, but of course if you turn the power switch to the ON position then the screen and joystick will work in the normal way. 

[printer1000]

Wow now that is fantastic thinking and very creative. I suppose this is like the physical "lock" button on my 5Ds that locked the dial around the set button from accidentally rotating and thus screwing up exposure compensation. But now digitally we get more choices for what we want locked. Fascinating. I am going to immediately explore. Do I then take it from your comments that one can shoot as a standard practice in the LOCK position as one's default camera on setting and only need to switch to the full "on" setting if one wants to unlock the chosen locked features? Do I have this correct? Do you shoot this way with your camera almost always in the LOCK position as your normal practice?

Again I want to acknowledge your time that you took to help me with this unfamiliar distinction. Great teaching and community support. I will report back if any problems and/or check off "accept as solution" once I explore and make the choices you mentioned. 🙏

EDIT: Brilliant. What an interesting new paradigm in controlling function and avoiding inadvertent screw-ups due to unrecognized hand movements. Now controlled with an electronic setting rather than a physical "lock" on the older DSLRs. Thank you again, what a help you have been!

[p4pictures]

Yes this is just like the physical lock switch on the EOS 5Ds, which also was possible to change what it locked using the camera custom functions. To reduce the space used for a separate physical lock switch. the lock is now combined with the power switch as was done in the past for some DSLRs too. 

Indeed you can shoot with LOCK as your default shooting position if that suits how you want to work. For my way of working I prefer to have free access to the controls so often use the ON position myself. I'm also very familiar with the feel and location of the camera controls so find it suits my way of working. However there is no right or wrong way, just the one that works for each photographer, and there are more choices available than in older cameras. 

[printer1000]

Brian! Another great experience laden answer. Your answers to my two posts have really helped me settle into the new mirrorless paradigm and I now believe I have everything set for my preferred way of shooting now that those two stumbling blocks are handled. Again thank you for helping with the real world explanations; clearly you are a skilled educator - very clear. Rock on! 🙂