I recently purchased a new R8. I have been practicing action shots with my dog playing frisbee. I have subject detection set to animals - eye detection on- AF on servo- expanded AF area:around - I was using a shutter speed of 1/1000. Using a Canon EF 100-400 USM on a Canon EOS to R adapter.
I am using BBF, locking on to the eye to begin with and trying to track the dog as she goes for the frisbee. When I review the shots, I have my focus points turned on and it shows focus all over the place. Sometimes it stays with the dog and sometimes it shows the focus elsewhere - but the area inside the red box is not actually in focus at all. I deleted those already. My son says that the focus is where the dog was at, a moment before the shot was taken. Very few of my shots are usable, and the best ones are not really what I would call sharp. She is pretty speedy, but would have thought My shutter speed would have been sufficient to stop action. This one is usable, but my focus point showed it was on her tail, not her face. Sometimes the focus points showed in the grass or the trees. Can you tell me what I am missing?
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
I believe that you need to use one of the Zone AF modes for the advanced subject tracking features to become active.
This is a long video because it takes a deep dive into every aspect of the AF system on R series cameras. The video also has a chapter feature, which allows you to jump to different topics under discussion.
This is what the chapter display look like. Note the time index of each chapter is provided.
Yes, you are correct. The video is old news. The “Face + Tracking” seems to have been removed in the newer camera models that have the next generation Dual Pixel AF II image sensors. .
Here is an explanation of the R6 Mark II AF system.
https://youtu.be/RwqnOCWYRbo?si=-VOF7TKzLq1fjtbd
The next generation AF seems able to perform subject tracking using just about any AF point selection mode. The AF system creates a large virtual box around a subject or the scene. The selected AF point seem to be used as the starting point for subject acquisition and tracking.
However, the “Face + Tracking” functionality is stll present, perhaps not in name. The cameras still seem able to track subjects the way the most advanced DSLRs could do it Live View lusing arge cluster of little squares of AF points.
I think of the AF configuration “DSLR mode”. You disable the AI autofocus features,and the camera behaves like a DSLR.
This AF configuration seems to still require that you select one of the Zone AF modes.
Ok, tonight I took a few shots with these changes: switched to 1st curtain shutter, raised the shutter speed, changed to AF case 4. Things look a lot better! Thanks for the tips everyone. This is heavily cropped. The real test will be the frisbee, as soon as I can snag someone to do the throwing for me.
