Can Canon AF do real time tracking of objects (not just faces,eyes,cars,animals etc)?

Jens H wrote:

Thanks! Thats a good video, I wish I had seen it when I owned the Z6II. So indeed, that is what I wish for and Nikon seems to be capable to do this.

I have the R and the R7. I just checked what you are asking about. With the R, yes it can do it, and it works just fine for focus and recompose (although I usually prefer just to position the focus point on the object I want, using the incredibly useful touch and drag capability). The better the contrast between the object you want and the background, the more likely it is to stay with it while you move the camera around. So, for the object in that linked video, it would have no trouble at all (I tried with something similar). With objects with less contrast themselves, and that stand out from the background less well, you can induce the focus to drift by moving the camera around fast. I'm not sure why you'd do that, though. With the R7, the AF is more sophisticated (way way beyond the Nikon). You need to set 'subject to detect' to 'none', and then it sticks to whatever you point the AF frame (you get to set the size of that too) at like glue. I don't have the R6II, but I gather the AF is similar to the R7. If so, the previous poster is simply mistaken about how it behaves.

But you said you use this for landscape shooting? Why not simply position the AF point over where you want the focus to be, after you've composed? It's not that the Canons can't do what you want. It's just that there's simply no need. Mirrorless AF lets you position the AF point pretty much throughout the whole frame. Focus and recompose was a technique from the days of limited AF spread in DSLRs. You can do it with the R or R7, but you don't need to. As for tracking moving objects, the R7 is the best I've ever experienced at this. Its performance is way beyond the Sony A6XXX cameras. You do need to set it up correctly, though. Pretty much every report of unreliability I've read comes down to using the wrong settings.