Canon R6 II Autofocus seems to be locking onto everything randomly

[petereprice]

I'm a very new user of the Canon R6 II.  I have noticed that when I have subject detection turned on and set to people, it still tries to randomly catch other subjects (non-human) and jumps around quite a bit, which sometimes results in missing focus.

I've played around with the different AF area modes, but get some of the same results.  Even changing Switching Tracked Subjects to 0 improves the behavior a bit, but sometimes the camera will randomly just lock onto the arm of the subject rather than the face.  If I turn Whole Area Tracking Servo AF to off, then it limits the AF to the areas I designate, however if I move outside of the area after locking on, it does not stay latched.

I know this probably has to do with my settings, so I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on how to setup the Canon R6 II with more stable AF settings, so that when I lock on a human subject it sticks with that subject or eye and doesn't jump around all over the place, which is what it's currently doing. EOS R6 Mark II 

[March411]

Hey Peter, welcome to the forum!

To answer your question, there are several variables when setting up the focus system on your camera. I have the same body and have three different types of setups all saved to different Custom Shooting Mode (C1–C3).

• Animals/wildlife still and in motion - C1
• Human still and in motion (mostly used for sports and street - C2
• Still photography Portraits and family settings with no movement - C3 

It would help us to give better advice if we had some idea of what types of photography you will be interested in, specifics will help.

The best suggestion I can offer besides reading the insanely large instruction manual R6 Mk II easy to read online manual would be to search YouTube for specific setups based on how you plan to use the camera. I like Jan, he is a wildlife photographer but he does a decent job giving a General Setup Overview.

Most important, don't get frustrated! It is going to take you a while to find your setup sweet spot based on your style of photography.

[p4pictures]

Hi Peter,

I too have the EOS R6 Mark II. With subject detection on, the camera will do its best to find the chosen subject. 

The note in the manual mentions that even if people is selected then other subjects may be focused on if not people are found. 

https://cam.start.canon/en/C012/manual/html/UG-05_AF-Drive_0060.html

Auto
People, animals, vehicles
People
People, animals, vehicles
(Animals and vehicles are only detected while tracking is in progress.)
Animals
Animals, people
Vehicles
Vehicles, people

From the description you provided I think you are using one shot AF, when actually you will find servo AF is probably better. For people photos, if the camera is handheld, and the person is breathing there is movement, and servo AF works better. With servo AF, you can either let the camera find the subject in the frame with whole area AF or use one of the other AF areas to guide the camera to initially look at part of a frame. The picture below is a perfect example where I let the camera find the face and with eye detection enabled it found and locked on to the eyes. Since I use servo AF, I can keep my finger on the shutter or AF-ON button so that the camera is tracking, and then recompose the frame if needed. Though in fact since I rarely have an issue with a scene like this I simply compose knowing that the camera will find the face / eye and focus on them. 

When I want to pick a person from a group, or in my case a rider from a group on a race track. I use the flexible zone AF with a medium sized square shape. I set this to be big enough to at least cover the rider's helmet. Then I can aim that frame at the rider in the group I want to track, and once it finds the rider it follows that one while they are in the frame. Here I selected the leading rider.

My camera has whole area servo AF enabled, as this is what allows the AF to move to stay on the subject. 

I have found that I use the mirrorless cameras differently to a DSLR. My EOS R6 Mark II is virtually always set to servo AF, and for static subjects like landscapes, product photos, architecture etc, I simply use manual focus.

[petereprice]

Hi Brian - thanks for walking through your workflows.  I’m mostly in Servo mode but it appears like the subject detection jumps around the frame.  For example - when I shoot pictures of my infant daughter, it will lock on the eye and the jump onto her sleeve and then onto her arm and then to the pillow next to her head.  
I’ve even just focused on a static object and it just starts going wild.  Moving from object to object.  I’ve tried all the different area AF modes and the only thing that seems to work is turning off whole area.  I agree with an adult human it seems to have no issues locking onto an eye or subject but maybe the AI algorithm has trouble with subjects outside of its purview and maybe I need to start mapping these to buttons to turn them on and off based on subject I’m tracking?

[p4pictures]

What AF case do you have selected on the AF2 menu page? For general photography Case A or Case 1 is often the best choice. Case 3 with it's default settings can make the AF jumpy as you describe since it more readily switches to other subjects. 

[March411]

Link to R6, not R6 MkII removed... sorry for the confusion on my part.

[petereprice]

Thanks for the reply.  This is all very helpful.  Coming from a Sony system the AF settings are quite different so any advice is greatly appreciated.  To answer your question regarding what type of photography: I shoot mostly people.  Street, portrait, documentary and event photography.  Mostly stills but sometimes video.

[p4pictures]

A good find there, but it’s specific to the EOS R6 (mark 1) which works differently to the R6 Mark II AF. 

[March411]

I hate when that happens, I deleted the information so I don't create more confusion.