R5 autofocus: can I limit the min/max distance to search for focus clarity?

[wkf94025]

Shooting volleyball, and wanting to capture the hitter or blockers on the far side of the net.  Don't want the net or nearby players to distract the AF brain.  Is it possible to tell the camera "only focus on [interesting] objects/people/faces/eyes in this range from X feet to Y feet?  So if the court is 30' wide, and I'm 10' from the sideline, the opposite hitter is usually ~35-38 feet from my lens.  Any way to tell AF to ignore anything less than 30' and beyond 45'?  Beyond is not usually the problem.  Foreground is usually the problem.

[Tronhard]

Well, for a start using eye tracking for humans is a good start.  Much depends on what you are using for a lens and you have not indicated that.  You will get some long telephoto lenses that limit the focal range, but I have never seen a feature in the camera itself to limit the distance to subject for focus.

[Hazel_T]

Hi wkf94025,

There isn't a way to limit the focus distance on the camera itself. Some of our lenses have focus distance limiter switches. If your lens has one there will be a switch on the barrel of the lens that different distance measurements. The measurement the switch is set to sets the focus distances available for the lens to check through.

As Tronhard mentioned, on the camera itself turning on eye detection and setting subject detection to People can help have the camera prioritize the people in the frame rather than other objects like the net.

[Tronhard]

Thanks Hazel and you can call me Trevor! 😊

[Dak723]

I hope Canon considers adding AF limiter settings to the cameras.  Olympus ( now OM Systems) has this setting in the menu on at least some of their cameras. It is the main reason I choose my OM-1 over my R7 when shooting birds.  Dialing in a specific AF limit is a huge difference maker.  I hope Canon considers it in future firmware updates.

[wkf94025]

Thank you both from prompt responses.  I shoot volleyball with the RF 24-70 and RF 70-200.  The challenge is not the near side hitters and blockers.  The challenge is shooting far side hitter / blockers, at an oblique angle through the net, and with setter and nearside hitter crossing in front of my lens.  I am using face+ tracking, Case 2, shooting M mode, 1/1000th shutter speed, AF servo, Auto ISO, max aperture, electronic shutter (for 20fps burst), JPEG fine, and unsure which card best to write to.  Just starting to learn what others are doing with back buttons for AF strategy, and also possibly focus ring.  Open to any/all tips.