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Does your LCD screen flash when focusing with the R5?

Started Nov 28, 2020 | Discussions
BaldCol Regular Member • Posts: 327
Re: Does your LCD screen flash when focusing with the R5?

This behavior happens with both the R and R5, by the way.

and R6

PicPocket Veteran Member • Posts: 5,897
Re: Does your LCD screen flash when focusing with the R5?
1

CWaterston wrote:

Deak wrote:

Has anyone found the cause for this yet?

I have not, but it seems to happen only when light levels are low, suggesting that somehow the camera's electronic viewfinder (EVF) is responding to the camera's attempt to adjust metering, even when the focus assist beam is turned off.

I would think that this behavior should be categorized as a bug, since the EVF itself could not possibly be assisting the camera's metering. I suppose you could argue that the EVF is "reflecting" everything that the camera sees and for that reason the flashing is appropriate. But if that were the case, why wouldn't the EVF also flash when light levels were higher?

There is likely a threshold of minimal signal the sensor needs to register to be able to AF. When the actual signal is low, that probably comes from a digital boost to excite the AF sensor (same as bumped ISO, but only during AF hence the flashing). The EVF just sees what the sensor does. A brighter scene doesn't need any flashing because you can just finish AF much quicker (think faster shutter). One you have enough signal, the AF system can take off. I'm not sure what happens if there is so much light that the fastest shutter speed with heavily overexpose, but that scenario is anyway impractical for it to not matter in practice

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sea_dragon Contributing Member • Posts: 836
Re: Does your LCD screen flash when focusing with the R5?

I just experienced this with the R6 Mark II that I purchased yesterday and didn't know what it was. I can reproduce it on the fly.

If I'm in single point AF and the focus box straddles a vertical line between black and a slightly lighter area, both the EVF or LCD screen will show a brief flash of white as focus is obtained.

Based on what I read in the manual, this is likely normal behaviour:

https://cam.start.canon/en/C012/manual/html/UG-05_AF-Drive_0060.html

AF Shooting Tips

  • Even when focus is achieved, pressing the shutter button halfway will focus again.
  • Image brightness may change before and after autofocusing.
  • Depending on the subject and shooting conditions, it may take longer to focus, or the continuous shooting speed may decrease.
  • If the light source changes as you shoot, the screen may flicker, and focusing may be difficult. In this case, restart the camera and resume shooting with AF under the light source you will use.
  • If focusing is not possible with AF, focus manually ().
  • For subjects at the edge of the screen that are slightly out of focus, try centering the subject (or AF point, or Zone AF frame) to bring them into focus, then recompose the shot before shooting.
  • With certain lenses, it may take more time to achieve focus with autofocus, or accurate focusing may not be achieved.
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