R5 and RF 100-500 Auto Focus Issues - any ideas why?

[philipsouth]

I've waited a few years before deciding to jump into the mirrorless times to let all the bugs work themselves out, like a first gen new vehicle, right?  So, I finally decided to climb aboard the R5 train after shooting the last 20 years with every rendition of the Mark 5D's.  I am nearly regretting my purchase now, but not giving up hope yet.  I want the camera to work so bad, I came to this site in desperation.  I've lost too many great opportunities over the last 2 months that I've owned the R5.  I purchased the R5 (firmware 1.8.1 pre-installed) with with the RF 100-500 lens and shot after shot is blurry, (even on a tri-pod with slow moving birds such as pelicans are worthless shots).  I have shots at 1/1500+ with birds nicely framed (animal mode, eye detection and focus square wide open) and I can't get the auto focus to lock on for a second, it just continues to hunt and by the time it figures anything out, the bird is long gone. I joined up with a photo group excursion a couple weeks ago and 2 other pro photographers in the group couldn't understand it either.  I've also watched dozens of different tutorials on bird settings, field tested the settings and still 90+% of my shots are worthless.  So many people rave how good birding is with this combo, that's why I got it.  Please Help@  Thank You

[Waddizzle]

“ Please help. “

Welcome to the Canon Forums!

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your new gear.  I suggest that you help someone to help you.  Please provide more details about your camera settings.  Post an sample file to a public file sharing platform such as Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, or somewhere would be most helpful.

The issue could be as simple as lens settings or a lens filter.  I do not recommend using a UV, CPL, or ND filter with any Canon lens.  Thanks, ahead of time.

[stevet1]

phillipsouth,

Just a couple of questions:

1) Have you tried any other lens?

2) Have you tried taking it out of Tracking, and just used single point?

3) Do you experience the same thing with still shots?

Steve Thomas

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

We'd like to see some photos for evaluation as mentioned previously.  My RF 100-500 is razor sharp.  We are all happy to help and look into this for you.  FWIW, I'm using a clear protective filter on my lens.  We'll have a look once you post some images 😀