R5 focus problems after 1.8.1 update - anyone else?

[JonnyPInk]

I waited to update to see if there were problems and up until last week, everything was spot on as for as autofocus and eye AF. After the update, it is spotty. I have really bad focus drift and starting to miss way to many shots with with 500 F4 and 1.4 tele. Again, up until the update, it was one of the best I had used. Happening on other lenses as well where it just will not focus on the subject without manually focusing first.

[Tronhard]

Hi Jonny and welcome to the forum:

I shoot with the R5 and have the latest firmware too.  I have no issues to report, but much depends on the lens, the setup of the focus system, and the conditions under which you are shooting, so to analyze your issue we would need a lot more information and preferably some examples with EXIF data.

[JonnyPInk]

Thank you for the reply. I have had the R5 since it came out and have been shooting my EF 1st version 500 F4 with the 1.4 III TC - have been shooting it again since I got he R5. Earlier this week, it was perfect. I updated on Thursday and since then, the focus is all over the place. If is happening on my 70-200 as well so I am at a loss. This happened with the R7 firmware update as well. I will reset my camera but I really wanted to see if someone else had that problem. The eye AF has degraded and is not as spot on as it was just before the update.

[Tronhard]

Sorry to learn this.  Can you advise your exact focus settings please and the types of subjects you are shooting?

Does this occur all the time or under specific conditions?

[JonnyPInk]

I am a wildlife photographer. So it is set to animal. AF is in servo and tracking, set to animal, eye detection is enabled, cinintios is disabled to keep the lens from hunting constantly. The setting have not changed. The Servo AF is in auto but I do use 4 as well. What is happening is it is not locking on the eye as it did a couple days ago. It functions as poorly like the competitions eye AF (Starts with an N for their flagship 9). I jumps from a wing to the eye to somewhere else and seems to struggle. Gong to take another lens out and try that as well. Want to buy the 800mm RF but not is this continues. Again, it is only with the update.

[Tronhard]

Yes, I understand it's with the update.  I am wondering if the teleconverter combined with the older lenses is now conflicting with the updates.  I cannot replicate your issues as I don't use teleconverters.  Since you are using legacy lenses, what kind of EF-RF converter are you using.  I shoot wildlife too and so far have had no issues.  In the Post Your Images section you can see I have been experimenting with different legacy lens + R-series body combinations.

I shoot servo, with single point animal eye tracking, and single point exposure.  I have back button focus and exposure lock.  I locate the focus point on the subject's eye and use the focus reset button on the centre of the rear control wheel and once that is established it just sticks with the subject.

Given the RF 800 is a native lens for the R5, I would expect it to behave well, and have had no reports of issues with that optic.  If you can borrow or rent one, or any other RF lens, that would provide good comparison data.

[JonnyPInk]

Thank you TREVOR!

[JonnyPInk]

And I have one button on back for my focus point, and the other to activate the eye AF. I go between the constantly.

[Tronhard]

One thing might be worth trying.

1/ Store your current configuration to a card so you can, if desired, restore it later.
2/ Do a factory reset and one-by-one put back in your settings, testing at each stage to see if something has caused your issue. I would suggest modifying the case settings last.

[JonnyPInk]

Thank you!!!