R7 and BIF

KatManDEW wrote:

itsallBb2me wrote:

KatManDEW wrote:

I got a lots of good opportunities with short ear owls in flight the last couple days, and I failed miserably with the R7. Nothing near as good as I have gotten with the R5. And I don't have near as much "saddle time" with my R5 as I have with my 7D2. I dare say I think I could have done as good, of not better, with my original 7D, as I did with the R7. I am positive that I would have done better with the owls and my 7D2.

I have tried two different recommended R7 BIF settings from YouTube, the second of which was this one;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQwyMzlj1gE

but the R7 was just totally undependable or reliable. It positively would not lock onto the owls with high grass behind them. A couple of flights were long enough that with a tripod and gimbal head I was able to manually bring the owl into focus, but when I then hit a back button to focus, the focus would totally lose focus, and focus on I don't know what.

A couple times while waiting for the owls I looked down the road each way at other photographers, and the R7 would put a square on one of the photographers, without me pressing a focus button, but when I pressed one of the back buttons it would focus on something (nothing?) else. Just totally undependable or reliable. The owl photos that I got with only sky behind them are not any better than I got of BIF's and my original 7D!

It seems as if, every time you hit the back button, the camera lost focus. So here is my question: why hit the button?

Very early on I gave up trying my RF 100-500 for BIF with the R7 , and I've been using my EF 200-400.

I spent very little time setting up the R5 focus for BIF, but I have gotten drastically better results with it than I have with the R7.

I will post some example photos ASAP. For now I too worn out and frustrated, after more futile attempts photographing the owls today.

I don't think it was actually focusing when it displayed a square around the people. And what if I wanted to photograph another person other than the one the R7 displayed a square around?

I use the joystick for that. It reliably switches eyes/faces/bodies, depending on the ED settings.