Canon Newbie - advice for shooting soccer

Hi All

Just received my Canon R5 and RF 70-200mm f/2.8 - switching from a Fuji XT3 & 50-140 f/2.8

Any advice for setting up the camera for shooting soccer?

This is my first Canon and I'm finding it very foreign - I've had the fuji gear for a few years (nikon before that) and gotten quite comfortable with it, but had the itch to switch to full frame

What AF modes are people using with soccer? On the XT3 I used zone mode (the tracking mode is pretty hopeless), I can change the size of the zone , but haven't found a way to do that on the R5 yet.

I usually shoot in shutter priority or manual. I'm still figuring out customisation on the R5, a bit disappointed I can't customise the dial functions much at all (or am I missing something) - I was hoping to put exposure compensation on the main dial as the control ring on the lens is a bit awkward to use.

I have 3 batteries (battery grip on order), that should get me through a game (I would use 2 for a game on the XT3).

I have a game Sat and a one on Sun to shoot, only local amateur games so not worried if I mess up

Any advice appreciated, thx.

Although it is based on the R6, you might find this video interesting:

vincentp said:

Hi All

Just received my Canon R5 and RF 70-200mm f/2.8 - switching from a Fuji XT3 & 50-140 f/2.8

Click to expand...

I would recommend downloading an electronic copy of the manual so you can search it. The problem you will have is playing the game of figuring out what the search word should be.

vincentp said:

Any advice for setting up the camera for shooting soccer?

Click to expand...

Some big bad news, I think you are going to find the 70-200 far too short unless you can get up close and run up and down the sidelines. That focal length range is more for shooting basketball-size courts. You want something more like the 100-500mm (or longer). You will probably find yourself wanting more than 500mm, but with the R5 you have a lot of cropping ability to "zoom in post-processing" which I think would be better than say getting a 1.4x extender that will create more problems than is solves (limits the zoom range and may force you to be too close if the action is near you). Having a 5x zoom range is very helpful as the action will move on both directions on the field.

If the RF100-500 is not in your budget now, you might think about getting a (used to make much budget sense) EF100-400IS mk.2. In which case you might consider a 1.4x extender.

vincentp said:

This is my first Canon and I'm finding it very foreign - I've had the fuji gear for a few years (nikon before that) and gotten quite comfortable with it, but had the itch to switch to full frame

What AF modes are people using with soccer? On the XT3 I used zone mode (the tracking mode is pretty hopeless), I can change the size of the zone , but haven't found a way to do that on the R5 yet.

Click to expand...

I particularly like the setup of "back button focus" on the AF-ON and using the * button for eye (people) detect (many pros recommend this setup with the RF. This will let you switch back and forth at will. It also will let you clue in the eye/people tracking on where to start. Jan Wegener, who is a professional bird photographer (pretty much the same problem as tracking people), has a good video on how to set up the R5 (just change the "animal tracking" to "people.")

vincentp said:

I usually shoot in shutter priority or manual. I'm still figuring out customisation on the R5, a bit disappointed I can't customise the dial functions much at all (or am I missing something) - I was hoping to put exposure compensation on the main dial as the control ring on the lens is a bit awkward to use.

Click to expand...

I would suggest shooting in Manual with the ISO in AUTO. This is a modern trick. This lets you control the motion blur of the players and the depth of focus. The R5 can go to fairly high ISOs without a problem. Just check to make sure you are not clamping at either end and letting the exposure go wild. You may want to limit the upper ISO range, but with software like DLO PL4 with DeepPrime I would not be afraid to go into double-digit ISOs.

You will likely want to keep your shutter speed at 1/1000th or faster.

I'm not sure what your problem is on setting the dials other than it is a bit buried on the Customize (Orange) menu tab 3 (once again the Jan Wegener video may help).

vincentp said:

I have 3 batteries (battery grip on order), that should get me through a game (I would use 2 for a game on the XT3).

I have a game Sat and a one on Sun to shoot, only local amateur games so not worried if I mess up

Any advice appreciated, thx.

Click to expand...

Karl_Guttag said:

Some big bad news, I think you are going to find the 70-200 far too short unless you can get up close and run up and down the sidelines.

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm aware of that (and I can get close, right up to the line), I didn't want to go down f4.5-7 - otherwise I would have just stayed with the fuji apsc system. I'm keeping my eye out for a used 300 or 400mm f2.8 but they don't come up that often.

Karl_Guttag said:

I'm not sure what your problem is on setting the dials other than it is a bit buried on the Customize (Orange) menu tab 3 (once again the Jan Wegener video may help).

Click to expand...

The functions that can be assigned to the main dial are very limited. Not sure why they would limit them like that. It's going to take some getting used to, lots of muscle memory to overcome!

Thanks, that was useful, although I had already done most of the things he mentioned.

vincentp said:

Karl_Guttag said:

Some big bad news, I think you are going to find the 70-200 far too short unless you can get up close and run up and down the sidelines.

Click to expand...

Yes, I'm aware of that (and I can get close, right up to the line), I didn't want to go down f4.5-7 - otherwise I would have just stayed with the fuji apsc system. I'm keeping my eye out for a used 300 or 400mm f2.8 but they don't come up that often.

Click to expand...

I'm curious why you think you need f2.8 to shoot soccer. Are you worried about subject isolation (background blur) or keeping the shutter speed high and ISO low? Or do you have a lighting issue, such as night games under the lights?

With the R5, I would not be afraid to push the ISO to above 6,400 (based on experiments I made with DXO DeepPrime). ISO 6,400 would get you to to a shutter speed of 1/12,800 at f8 (if the R5 could shoot that fast) on a sunny day, and 3,200 at f8 on an overcast day,

At 500mm and f7 you are still going to get very good subject isolation. By having a longer focal length you will get better isolation. Even if you are on the sidelines, the far side of a soccer field is pretty far away unless you are talking small kid soccer.

It seems to me that you would be better off with the large zoom range to be able to reach out and pull back based on the action.

vincentp said:

vincentp said:

I'm not sure what your problem is on setting the dials other than it is a bit buried on the Customize (Orange) menu tab 3 (once again the Jan Wegener video may help).

Click to expand...

The functions that can be assigned to the main dial are very limited. Not sure why they would limit them like that. It's going to take some getting used to, lots of muscle memory to overcome!

Click to expand...

It gives you 10 options which to me is pretty flexible. What are you wanting to move to the wheel? BTW, I have mine set to exposure compensation with the lens control set to ISO. The R5 has a lot of buttons plus the new control wheel on the lenses.

Karl_Guttag said:

I'm curious why you think you need f2.8 to shoot soccer. Are you worried about subject isolation (background blur) or keeping the shutter speed high and ISO low? Or do you have a lighting issue, such as night games under the lights?

Click to expand...

Subject isolation yes, and keeping the shutter speed high is important for soccer. I guess I need to learn to trust using higher iso's on this camera.

Karl_Guttag said:

With the R5, I would not be afraid to push the ISO to above 6,400 (based on experiments I made with DXO DeepPrime). ISO 6,400 would get you to to a shutter speed of 1/12,800 at f8 (if the R5 could shoot that fast) on a sunny day, and 3,200 at f8 on an overcast day,

At 500mm and f7 you are still going to get very good subject isolation. By having a longer focal length you will get better isolation. Even if you are on the sidelines, the far side of a soccer field is pretty far away unless you are talking small kid soccer.

It seems to me that you would be better off with the large zoom range to be able to reach out and pull back based on the action.

Click to expand...

You might be right on that, shot a game today and could have used some extra reach for sure. I'll have to wait a while now for the budget to allow purchasing more lenses (selling my fuji gear).

Karl_Guttag said:

Karl_Guttag said:

Karl_Guttag said:

I'm not sure what your problem is on setting the dials other than it is a bit buried on the Customize (Orange) menu tab 3 (once again the Jan Wegener video may help).

Click to expand...

The functions that can be assigned to the main dial are very limited. Not sure why they would limit them like that. It's going to take some getting used to, lots of muscle memory to overcome!

Click to expand...

It gives you 10 options which to me is pretty flexible. What are you wanting to move to the wheel? BTW, I have mine set to exposure compensation with the lens control set to ISO. The R5 has a lot of buttons plus the new control wheel on the lenses.

Click to expand...

The main dial only allows Tv Av or Off - while the second dial does indeed allow 10 options - not sure why they would limit the main dial like that?

I shot one game today, I stayed in one spot on the sideline down near the goal and let the game come to me. The light was extremely variable from bright sunshine to dull overcast and I spent a lot of the game experimenting with the auto focus settings and switching between manual and shutter priority. I did get a lot of overexposed shots, need to get used to the evf (yes I had exposure simulation turned on). One thing I really liked about the evf was very little lag or stuttering like I used to see with the XT-3.

Tracking autofocus doesn't work to well for soccer.. too many things to jump to, single point worked well (as you would expect).

I my keeper rate was around 60% - it will get better when I learn my way around.. lots of muscle memory to unlearn (like the zoom direction being opposite to fuji!).