R5 Settings for Soccer

Abe27 wrote:

Ive noticed that shooting my son's soccer games have proven more challenging due to face detection being turned on. Sometimes, it focuses on other players in the foreground/background or other objects during the fast fast game. Have you all found settings that make it easier to focus on the intended subject? Do you turn face detection off, shoot in servo mode or one shot AF? I am using the R5 with a 100-400 4.5-5.6L lens.

There are already good suggestions but I'll jump in.

Depending on your distance and the lens used can dictate on how to shoot. There is a whole menu section on focus, a ton of options for your this very reason. The farther away you are the less need for eye focus and most times it shuts itself off if an eye is too far away. it will switch to a larger box. You can also adjust your tracking speed in the menu so it doesn't bounce around so much if a player runs in front of your intended subject. Sorta of a delayed focus reaction to make sure a changed really happened if that makes sense.

Moving subjects usually always work better in servo focus mode. Kinda why there's a mode for that.

Sports can be challenging to master but keep shooting and learn from what doesn't work. These new cameras are so configurable you should find your sweet spot for your style. Remember, you have "Custom" setting options when selecting shooting mode labeled C1, C2 and C3. So you can set your C1 to be for those soccer games. Say Av mode and aperture of 2.8 or whatever, servo mode and human eye detect. C2 could be say landscapes and set things that is your default starting point for that. I used to do kids sport portraits, I set a custom mode to be full manual, ISO at 200, shutter at 1/200 and one shot focus and an aperture of f/8. That was my starting point and tweak for the days ambient light and set my strobe output to match. It's real flat lighting but it looks good for the kids sports portrait.

Good luck and hope I gave you a few things to try that works for you. After you get the settings figured out, try back button focus. It takes a bit to get used to after years of shutter button focus but after a few shoots it becomes second nature and your shooting will improve with less missed focus shots.