EOS R6 won't focus on the spot I choose

[DayB]

Hi All

I have my camera set up in animal eye autofocus and servo mode.  I have back button autofocus set up so when I press the AF-On button, it focuses and then when I press the * button, it activates eye autofocus.

My issue is that when I set the camera for single spot focusing, no matter where I move the white square to, the camera focuses where it wants whether it is inside the white dot or not.  The little blue squares will lock onto an object and it just focuses where this blue squares appear. 

I have tried one shot and servo modes but this doesn't make any difference.  I have tried on different lenses and no change.  I updated the firmware and tried a reset on the camera.

So either I am being a bit stupid and making a fundamental error, (which has been known on more than one occasion) or the camera could do with a check up.

Any ideas that I may have missed please?

TIA for any help 🙂

[p4pictures · Accepted solution]

With your current setup when you press the * button to activate focus then the camera switches from your spot AF point to face + tracking, activates eye detection and starts focusing. The problem is that the eye detection doesn't take any notice of where your spot AF point was. So you actually need to do something different to get the effect you want.

That different thing is this set of steps... (screens from EOS R6, but its the same for R5)

Set the * button to AF + metering start - just like the AF-ON button, but then press the INFO button to get access to the extra settings, and make sure that the AF method is set to Face + tracking. 

Secondly you need to make sure that eye detection and animals is the selected subject to detect. You can only change the eye detection setting while face + tracking AF method is selected, so do that if needed, then switch back to your spot AF point.

Lastly you need to change the initial servo AF point for face + tracking AF, and change it from auto to the middle of the three settings.

With these steps completed then when you press the * button the camera switches to face + tracking and eye detection is already active as is animal subject detection. However you will have an initial AF point - slightly larger than the spot AF point, but it will be shown in the same location and that is where the camera will look initially to find the subject. Actually the initial AF point is closer in size the the 1-point AF method.

What is important to realise with the EOS R5/R6 is that they don't do subject tracking at all when set to spot AF, 1-point AF, AF expansion cross or surround AF methods. Also eye detection for people or animals is only possible when the AF method is set to face + tracking. Zone AF will do subject detection within the frame of the zone, but it does not do eye detection.

Later models such as EOS R3, R7, R10, R50, R8, R6 Mark II can all do eye detection and subject detection with any AF method. 

[DayB]

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

What I took from your answer was the usefulness of using C2 to set for alternative scenarios.  I just use C1 at present but will start using C2 for birds around foliage and animals in clear settings.  Makes perfect sense when I read that.

I used the kingfisher as an example as that was my last outing but I shoot deer and other birds.  The songbirds are the ones I often have issues with as they sit between branches and pressing the autofocus may get the bird but also many times gets a branch and won't accept the bird as the target focus.  That was why I was looking at trying to get a single focus point (using the white square) in order to tell the camera that that was the target and not a branch.  Birds in flight don't have this issue so that side is fine and depth of field is also ok.  It's just finding a way for me to tell the camera what a target area is when there are enough other distractions that can (sometimes) fool the autofocus.

[Waddizzle]

“ So this video may better explain my issue.  You will see initially that the white square is placed on the dragon in the foreground and the camera's blue squares hit that when I press the AF-On button on the back of the camera (as have back button autofocus set up).  Then when I move the white square to the pot in the background and press the AF-On button again, it still focuses on the dragon in the foreground.  What I don't understand is why moving the white square over the pot doesn't get the camera to focus on the pot...why are the blue squares still going for the dragon? “

You probably just need to simply turn off all tracking.  

Like Newton, I have my cameras set up to use Custom Shooting modes.  I have C1 set for Servo AF, tracking enabled, BBF, and other settings.  I think of this mode as “birds in flight” mode.

I have C2 set for Single Shot AF, tracking disabled, BBF, and other settings.  I think of this mode as “bird on a branch” mode.

[DayB]

Yes, this is exactly what I picked up when I read Newton's post.  
Will definitely follow his and your examples and set the camera up for different scenarios.
As you said, birds in flight and birds in trees are very different scenarios and thus far, I've pretty much had C1 as my general wildlife settings.  So definitely time to refine that and see how that works.
Thanks for the vid and the feedback...really useful 🙂

[p4pictures · Accepted solution]

With your current setup when you press the * button to activate focus then the camera switches from your spot AF point to face + tracking, activates eye detection and starts focusing. The problem is that the eye detection doesn't take any notice of where your spot AF point was. So you actually need to do something different to get the effect you want.

That different thing is this set of steps... (screens from EOS R6, but its the same for R5)

Set the * button to AF + metering start - just like the AF-ON button, but then press the INFO button to get access to the extra settings, and make sure that the AF method is set to Face + tracking. 

Secondly you need to make sure that eye detection and animals is the selected subject to detect. You can only change the eye detection setting while face + tracking AF method is selected, so do that if needed, then switch back to your spot AF point.

Lastly you need to change the initial servo AF point for face + tracking AF, and change it from auto to the middle of the three settings.

With these steps completed then when you press the * button the camera switches to face + tracking and eye detection is already active as is animal subject detection. However you will have an initial AF point - slightly larger than the spot AF point, but it will be shown in the same location and that is where the camera will look initially to find the subject. Actually the initial AF point is closer in size the the 1-point AF method.

What is important to realise with the EOS R5/R6 is that they don't do subject tracking at all when set to spot AF, 1-point AF, AF expansion cross or surround AF methods. Also eye detection for people or animals is only possible when the AF method is set to face + tracking. Zone AF will do subject detection within the frame of the zone, but it does not do eye detection.

Later models such as EOS R3, R7, R10, R50, R8, R6 Mark II can all do eye detection and subject detection with any AF method. 

[DayB · Accepted solution]

Perfect...yep, this is exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you so much for the explanation and the images...I'm very much a visual understander so this really helped.

You're a star so thank you so much for this 🙂

[p4pictures]

Can you possibly mark my reply as a solution too? Thanks.

[DayB]

Done 

Thank you for your help 🙂

[photopro]

Hello! i have the mark 2 which is a little different but the same issues can happen and this is my take after much experimentation and settings changes...  first, the spot focus is flawless when using the touch screen. You touch the screen on any focus area and focus is achieved regardless of the foreground being closer. I experimented for an hour using different lighting and ISO and results were consistent with the touch screen. Why isnt viewfinder focusing as precise using the spot focus?.

2. by now we know, at least in the mark2 and i suspect the r6, that ALL eye/face focus, Animals, cars, etc. must be turned off in the Autofocus menu, and the custom button used for focusing with the spot must be set to focus and meter only, and not any eye etc. focus.  The button customization will override the settings in the menu.  ( i use C1 for eyefocus, and C2 with all that turned off).  BUT you can have eye focus in the main menu and setup one button to focus with the spot and no eye focus; i think thats described above. My af on button is eye, the * button is focus and meter, no eye or face and it works most of the time.

3; i have seen suggestions to turn off Whole area focusing to use spot focusing.  I believe that is incorrect.  I tried it with viewfinder shooting, and whole area definitely works much better for spot vs. having it off.  It also was better with the LCD touch focusing also.  I dont know why you would turn it off, as the spot should be more effective when using the whole area, unless the spot overrides the setting and uses whole area anyway.  

4; don't know if its available on the r6, but using the focus areas with the rectangular area, or expanded spot is a starting point for camera focusing, but there's no guarantee it will stay there.  I suppose the sticky adjustment helps but as many have said, the 5dMK4 does not have these issues.  I suspect it starts and stays within the designated area of  autofocus unless focusing is not achieved on the subject.  Sometimes i think the Mark 2 focus is so good its too good and makes one think its malfunctioning, when its doing its normal thing.  Hope this wasn't confusing, my descriptions are not 100% accurate.

[RKuhn]

Did you get this figured out? I was having the EXACT same issue and finally found a solution. Let me know if you'd like me to share!

[Cman44]

I've been following this issue of the proper settings for AF for animals and Eye detection. When I get to my R6 I'm going to try Brian's instructions. However if you want to share your solution I am interested.