Autofocus area recommendations for action photos on the EOS R7

[LoveWeims]

I am a new owner and user.  Trying to decode the autofocus areas is frustrating.  I cannot find an explanation at all of what the menu options are and henceforth, what my best choice is for various types of action (in particular) photos.

My experiments have been with my dog chasing a frisbee.  I have the camera set on continuous shutter (so it is a machine gun but my dog is a gun dog), focus on animal, auto ISO, and on Tv (probably will switch to Fv but that's another experiment). 

I HAD the camera focusing on eye, but that isn't going to work with a frisbee flying and my dog chasing in what is actually a seemingly random area.  Recommendations, and if anyone has a good explanation of those somewhat meaningless - to me - icons, please help 

[p4pictures · Accepted solution]

A good question that the new AF guide for the EOS R5 Mark II goes some way to answer.

Take a look at these pages

https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/guide/html/AF-01_Overview_0020.html

https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/guide/html/AF-01_Overview_0030.html - ignore section 3 as this is not in the R7

https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/guide/html/AF-01_Overview_0040.html 

Which AF area you should use will depend on your ability to put an AF frame on the subject. I've done some dog photos in the past and found that if I select an AF area that is too small I find it hard to get it on the dog. Your skills may be different to mine. 

Spot AF is the smallest AF point, it is the most precise and requires you to be the most accurate with placement, and where you put it directs the camera to find a subject there, if there's a dog somewhere else in the frame the camera tends to ignore the dog.

1-point is similar to spot, but with a slightly larger size. 

The two AF areas with expansion, cross and surround are actually the same as the 1-point as the central part of these shapes is where the camera looks for AF initially. Once found then the surrounding points become active.

The three flexible zones can be tailored to give you different sized and shaped targets. I often use one of them set to a square a little larger than 1-point AF. This works well for me shooing motorsports as I can place the square on the competitor I want to the camera to focus on, even if they are not the closest one.

Whole area AF  this makes the camera look all the way round the frame, to find the subject to focus on. You don't have much chance to guide it to a specific part of the frame to search.

My suggestions to start with.

• SERVO AF
• Subject to detect: Animals
• Eye detection: ON
• Whole Area tracking servo AF: ON
• Switching tracked subjects: 0, initial priority
• Servo AF, Case 4 or maybe Case A

With eye tracking on, if there is no eye visible then the camera will still try for an animal head shape, or body. 

What I found when testing AF settings is to keep the shutter speed extra fast, so you eliminate any confusion between subject blur and focus issues. Use Tv mode and set the shutter speed to 1/2000s or more, with ISO AUTO. 

Personally I customise one button on my camera to help me test AF. I use the AF point selection button on the top right of the back of the camera as a direct AF area section button. I also limit the available AF areas. Each press of the AF point button will advance to the next AF area. By using the limit AF areas feature I can switch quickly between two or three areas, eg 1-point > Flexible Zone AF 1 > Whole Area AF and back to > 1-point.

Shoot plenty of shots in a sequence, electronic shutter with continuous drive will give you 20 or 40 shots / second. I'd say 20 is possibly more than you need.

[p4pictures · Accepted solution]

A good question that the new AF guide for the EOS R5 Mark II goes some way to answer.

Take a look at these pages

https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/guide/html/AF-01_Overview_0020.html

https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/guide/html/AF-01_Overview_0030.html - ignore section 3 as this is not in the R7

https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/guide/html/AF-01_Overview_0040.html 

Which AF area you should use will depend on your ability to put an AF frame on the subject. I've done some dog photos in the past and found that if I select an AF area that is too small I find it hard to get it on the dog. Your skills may be different to mine. 

Spot AF is the smallest AF point, it is the most precise and requires you to be the most accurate with placement, and where you put it directs the camera to find a subject there, if there's a dog somewhere else in the frame the camera tends to ignore the dog.

1-point is similar to spot, but with a slightly larger size. 

The two AF areas with expansion, cross and surround are actually the same as the 1-point as the central part of these shapes is where the camera looks for AF initially. Once found then the surrounding points become active.

The three flexible zones can be tailored to give you different sized and shaped targets. I often use one of them set to a square a little larger than 1-point AF. This works well for me shooing motorsports as I can place the square on the competitor I want to the camera to focus on, even if they are not the closest one.

Whole area AF  this makes the camera look all the way round the frame, to find the subject to focus on. You don't have much chance to guide it to a specific part of the frame to search.

My suggestions to start with.

• SERVO AF
• Subject to detect: Animals
• Eye detection: ON
• Whole Area tracking servo AF: ON
• Switching tracked subjects: 0, initial priority
• Servo AF, Case 4 or maybe Case A

With eye tracking on, if there is no eye visible then the camera will still try for an animal head shape, or body. 

What I found when testing AF settings is to keep the shutter speed extra fast, so you eliminate any confusion between subject blur and focus issues. Use Tv mode and set the shutter speed to 1/2000s or more, with ISO AUTO. 

Personally I customise one button on my camera to help me test AF. I use the AF point selection button on the top right of the back of the camera as a direct AF area section button. I also limit the available AF areas. Each press of the AF point button will advance to the next AF area. By using the limit AF areas feature I can switch quickly between two or three areas, eg 1-point > Flexible Zone AF 1 > Whole Area AF and back to > 1-point.

Shoot plenty of shots in a sequence, electronic shutter with continuous drive will give you 20 or 40 shots / second. I'd say 20 is possibly more than you need.

[LoveWeims]

This will be a very helpful reference to go back to and review when I try more shots.  The reply from Trevor below was also another super resource I will view multiple times, despite it discussing a FF and its menus.  So there are two solutions to my question (education on what these settings mean) - now I have to figure out all the other variables involved which is going to take time.

[Tronhard]

Hi again:
For the menus to match, the general expectation is that you are in one of the following modes: M, Av, Tv.   Some of the other modes don't show all options to avoid confusing those not familiar with cameras.

[LoveWeims]

Ah.  He was in M during the video.  I did notice that.  Will try watching again with camera in M

[p4pictures]

The video is for the original EOS R5, which has slightly different AF system to the one in your EOS R7. In short, the EOS R5 (and original EOS R6) only do face tracking and eye detection with the face + tracking AF area (they call them methods). Your R7 can do the face + eye tracking with any AF area.

[LoveWeims]

Good to know as i did leave eye tracking on.  I must be doing other things (settings) incorrectly

[Tronhard · Accepted solution]

Hi again!

You might find this video from Canon Tech guru Rudi Wilson to be helpful:
Canon Auto Focus Explained with Canon Technical Advisor Rudy Winston - YouTube

That way you won't be 'dogged' with frustration! 😁

[LoveWeims]

See my note above to Brian.  Spent two hours watching this and it suits my initial learning style ("show me what you are talking about as I need to see....").  Will be watching it more selectively as the FF menus did not match the EOS R7's...I had to search around to find the topics (some I found, some I did not).  So both you and Brian have answered the base questions.  My experimentation tonight did not net me better results, but I was using probably a way too long a lens from where I was standing, and trying this earlier in the day when there is better light would be better.