DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Is Canon R6 eye detect not that good, or am I missing something?

Started 11 months ago | Discussions thread
PMUK
PMUK Senior Member • Posts: 2,999
Re: Is Canon R6 eye detect not that good, or am I missing something?

Hi Nymph,

Nymph wrote:

I've done portrait photography for 7+ years, but I'm new to using Canon.
I got this camera just over a month ago, but have already taken thousands of photos - and a LOT of them I have had to throw out due to the eye detect AF being wrong; or at least my understanding of it being wrong.
I'm on a fully updated R6 / RF 50mm 1.8 lens.
I know the 1.8 is very soft but I have used the lens at different apertures lots and it still seems to be the autofocus giving me issues. I shoot mainly outdoors in optimal lighting, low ISO, high-ish shutter speeds.
My main confusion begins with the eye and face tracking, it can show me that it's detected an eye -- I can take the photo -- and then when I zoom in to the focal point on the image I've taken it's not focused on the eye, it's focused on something else on the face or even sometimes not the face at all. I recently turned off the square that shows the focal point in playback, but when I had it turned on it would even show that the square was over the eye, when the photo was most definitely not focused on or anywhere near the eye.
...Am I misunderstanding what the eye/facial tracking is?
...When the square shows up that it's detected a face/eye, as I'm half-pressing, does that not mean the photo will come out focused on that square? It looks like it's focused in that area, until I snap a photo.
This is even more-so an issue if I'm taking a few photos back to back.
I have switched between drive modes - single, burst, etc. As soon as I've taken the first photo in focus, it's like it restarts the AF. I have to stop, re-focus, and take another photo - I can't just shoot multiple photos at once even if the camera and the subject have not moved (even with a tripod.) If I have moved, or if I'm shooting an animal who has started walking towards me, it doesn't stay locked on to the face as I'm taking pictures. It doesn't re-focus onto it automatically, and I can keep half-pressing and shooting as it's moving towards me, it never figures it out and re-focuses/locks back onto the face even though I KNOW it detected it initially.
I dont know how many times I have switched settings, but currently mine look like this:
AF operation: Servo (I have tried one shot, don't really understand the difference but every forum says to use servo?)

AF Operation -

AF method: Face Detect
Subject to detect: I have always made sure to switch it respectively between people and animals

For general people/ animal, face/ eye shots I would recommend -

AF Operation: Servo AF,

AF Method: "L"(Face)+Tracking,

Subject to detect: People/ Animals, and

Eye AF: Enabled.

("L"(Face)+Tracking is the only AF Method where you'll get Face/ Eye detection and tracking).

Continuous AF: Disabled (Every thing I have found online says to disable as it causes focus issues, I've used it enabled and didn't find it to make anything worse)

This means the camera is continuously trying to acquire focus and it will drain your battery, so I would only consider using it where having 'continuous focus' is a specific requirement.

I have switched the "Case" for the Servo AF mode (page 3 of AF settings) to try all of them and haven't noticed a difference, right now I've been testing it on "subjects that accelerate or decelerate quickly but haven't had good enough weather to test it out properly."

For generic people/ animal shots Case 1 is a good catch-all. I'd only move on from there if you have problems and the AF needs to be more flexible/ agile/ sticky for your purposes.

I want to say nearly 70% or more of photos I take will be out of focus, either completely or just enough that the face is blurry in the wrong spots. If I'm in relatively low-lighting/gloomy day/etc and I have to be in a higher ISO it tends to be even worse, but I'm finding this issue even on very well-lit days, even when I have used external lights. If I am trying to be fast-paced nearly ALL of my photos will be out of focus.
Is this just how it is and it's still considered "spectacular" ...or am I missing something that every other Canon R6 user does?

If the above gives a <30% hit rate, something seems amiss - have you tried other lenses?

Phil

Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow