Canon R3 Users: Are you experiencing (any) focusing issues? I am!

Hoka Hey wrote:

Hi Jeff,

I see that this is your first post. Welcome to the forum!

Sorry that you are having difficulty. Much of it may be from the switch form a DSLR to mirrorless.

Do not get hung up on TN's videos. They are mostly clickbait. He is really great at faking sincerity and acting the expert. That's how he makes his living and he's quite good at it. It's mostly entertainment.

I gave up on them both when he tried to demonstrate a hybrid EF/RF retraceable mirror system with cardboard and chopsticks. Then his wife couldn't focus in anything with an R5 and some 30 year old 500mm lens. I wish I good get the time I wasted on those two back.

Based on a lot of the issues you bring up, I'd suggest that you reset your camera to default setting and start again.

Here are solutions for your issues:

1. I was albe to replicate your issue using the EF Macro 100 2.8 IS on the R3 using Spot AF One Shot AF.

You have set the AF3 Lens drive when AF impossible to "Off." Set this to "ON."

2. The only way that I could replicate this complaint was any attempting to focus at less than the Minimum Focusing Distance or by trying to focus on a subject that had not definition like a painted wall without any definition or by trying to focus on a vertical line.

There is not solution for trying to focus on a subject without any contrast. You have to have some contrast in the image for the camera to focus on.

Likewise, there is not solution for trying to focus inside the MFD.

If you are trying to focus on something that only consists of horizontal lines turn your camera to the side. This is typical in mirrorless cameras. I can't think of this ever being an issue in real world shooting. It is very rare to have a moving subject made up of entirely horizontal Lines and if the subject is not moving, you can tweak the manual focus to get the camera in focus.

3. Focusing on the background and staying there is typical for Mirrorless cameras. The R3 is the best that I have shot for not doing that.

The solution is to use Servo AF and Whole Area AF. Also set a back button to do spot AF. If the camera goes to the background or the wrong target, you can toggle the half press of the shutter button and that will often bring the focus back. If toggling the half press of the shutter button doesn't work, then use the back button spot AF on your target and it will correct immediately.

4. I can't replicate this. Call Canon support. They are exceptionally helpful. Canon has some of the best phone support I know of.

5. I can't replicate this. The Eye Control AF works for me the few times that I've used it.

The battery life with the R3 is amazing. I regularly shoot thousands of images on one battery. If you are only getting 450 images on a battery, something is very wrong. One thing that might help is setting AF3 Preview AF to Disable.

Take some time to get used to your new camera. I've shot tens of thousands of images with R3, all in Electronic shutter, and it has the best AF that I have ever seen.

Of course there is always the possibility that mirrorless is just not for you. That's OK too.

Good luck and have fun.