Canon R5 hunting for focus

[machisoft]

That is sad to hear. I have 4 RF and 2 Sigma lenses with adapters. They ALL focus instant, accurate without a burp. So perhaps I got a good R5. All I know is it's virtually flawless. never had a freeze on it either.

Love my R5 and have had no problems shooting people or anything else ... BUT ... the settings have to be right and it's very easy to stuff up camera operation if the right "set" of settings is not used.

See my other post.

Cheers

 

[G Rash]

Interesting, isn't it. I had this experience yesterday when I used someone else's R5. I and my friend both have R5's - he uses the native R mount 24-105 L lens while I use my older EF 24-105 L lens with a Canon adaptor.

He was doing a shoot at the official opening of our church and handed me the camera half way through when he went up on stage. I picked up the camera expecting it to work exactly the same way that mine does and found that the focus (on face/eye detect) was hunting all over the place and not snapping to the subject the way that mine does. Ok, don't panic ... I had a very quick look through his autofocus settings and had to change a bunch of them to get the behaviour that I was after - listed below - and then I could start taking people photos quite happily.

There is no doubt in my mind that the complexity and wealth of settings for the R5 will make life difficult for a number of people until they have time to effectively work through a group of settings that works well for them in a specific shooting situation.

My friend and I have both had Canon DSLR's for many years and I think that he is a really good photographer but he admits to having been incredibly frustrated by the autofocus complexity for the first few months of owning his R5.

The key problem from my perspective is that, as with many other aspects of camera operation (eg exposure), there are settings that work together to give an intended outcome, so it's not just a question of getting a single setting "right" but understanding what that means in relation to other complementary settings.

I also feel that some of the Canon default settings are not the ones that I would have chosen for most users in most situation, but that is a longer conversation.

Granted that we don't know exactly what settings the original poster had when experiencing this problem, these are the settings that I changed on my friends R5 to conform with my setup.

AF method = tracking

Subject to deter = people

Eye detection = on

... were all set correctly so then I had to look at:

Servo AF Case = Auto (my friend had Case 3 set and not great for the environment we were shooting in)

Switching Tracked Subjects - this is not something to monkey about with and my friend had changed it for some reason so I set to "1" On Subject

Initial Servo AF pt for = the first setting rather than Auto - really important when there is a "target rich environment" for the camera to potentially grab for focus

... and I also turned off Continuous AF to conserve battery life and because who needs it when you're not working with fast moving subjects.

Anyway, my two bits of input.

Good point about the variety of settings that can impact AF on the R5 and R6. Thanks for taking the time to detail what you changed on your friend's camera. I watched a few videos on YouTube that covered the AF settings before I got the R5, so it seemed pretty easy to me, but I was already somewhat informed about the variety of settings. I've been quite pleased with the AF, although it could still be improved. It is at least equal to that of my Sony a6400, and way better than my a7riii. Plus, I greatly prefer the ergonomics of R5/R6.

 

[Michael G2]

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www.dpreview.com

There may be a bug in fw 1.5.2

I am using my R5 with the Canon 800/5.6

set to eye tracking - animal

if I set the AF to Continuous AF - Enable

the lens will hunt incessantly even when it should lock on to a flying bird.

if I disable AF Continuous the hunting ceases and AF works properly, until the camera goes into power save or is turned off and on again. Then it begins hunting again. The I need to rechoose AF Continuous disable (even though it is already set to disable) which stops the hunting, until the next power save…

would be great if someone else could test if they have the same experience.

 

[fairfaxian]

I was warned by the salesman when I bought my R5 that my EF lenses might have focusing issues. My Sigma 150-600s (used for BIF) is certainly having issues -esp in low light.
Im looking to upgrade to longer/ faster lens. All I can afford is the sigma 500mm f4. But I’m worried that any non RF lenses might have focus issues. Anyone with experience with R5 & longer telephotos?

thanks

 

[Kokopelli_Rocks]

I was warned by the salesman when I bought my R5 that my EF lenses might have focusing issues. My Sigma 150-600s (used for BIF) is certainly having issues -esp in low light.
Im looking to upgrade to longer/ faster lens. All I can afford is the sigma 500mm f4. But I’m worried that any non RF lenses might have focus issues. Anyone with experience with R5 & longer telephotos?

thanks

I just sold my Sigma 150-600c I bought to use on my R5 last year. The lens took very nice images even with the 1401 TC, but the AF was slower and the lens was heavy and a handful to hand hold. I bought a RF 100-500 with the RF 1.4x earlier this year and have not looked back. I love the lens and the combo. Great for BiF. I know there are faster primes, but the price is too much for me, plus I prefer a light kit. I recently sold most of my prime lenses (300mm and 400mm). Kept my SIgma 14 f1.8 ART and RF 800 f11. Rest of my kit consists of zooms.

 

[fairfaxian]

That is sad to hear. I have 4 RF and 2 Sigma lenses with adapters. They ALL focus instant, accurate without a burp. So perhaps I got a good R5. All I know is it's virtually flawless. never had a freeze on it either.

 

[ProDude]

I was warned by the salesman when I bought my R5 that my EF lenses might have focusing issues. My Sigma 150-600s (used for BIF) is certainly having issues -esp in low light.
Im looking to upgrade to longer/ faster lens. All I can afford is the sigma 500mm f4. But I’m worried that any non RF lenses might have focus issues. Anyone with experience with R5 & longer telephotos?

thanks

I just sold my Sigma 150-600c I bought to use on my R5 last year. The lens took very nice images even with the 1401 TC, but the AF was slower and the lens was heavy and a handful to hand hold. I bought a RF 100-500 with the RF 1.4x earlier this year and have not looked back. I love the lens and the combo. Great for BiF. I know there are faster primes, but the price is too much for me, plus I prefer a light kit. I recently sold most of my prime lenses (300mm and 400mm). Kept my SIgma 14 f1.8 ART and RF 800 f11. Rest of my kit consists of zooms.

I have to admit, having owned many L lenses as well as offerings from Nikon and others over the years, there has never been a lens with quite the level of shear performance, build quality and usefulness as the RF100-500L. I never expected to be using it so much, but ironically it get's perhaps the most use of my 6 lenses on my R5. Sharp as a tack, instant focus and great focus tracking. Yeah it's a bite in the $$ area but once you've had it you forget about that.

 

[fairfaxian]

I was warned by the salesman when I bought my R5 that my EF lenses might have focusing issues. My Sigma 150-600s (used for BIF) is certainly having issues -esp in low light.
Im looking to upgrade to longer/ faster lens. All I can afford is the sigma 500mm f4. But I’m worried that any non RF lenses might have focus issues. Anyone with experience with R5 & longer telephotos?

thanks

I just sold my Sigma 150-600c I bought to use on my R5 last year. The lens took very nice images even with the 1401 TC, but the AF was slower and the lens was heavy and a handful to hand hold. I bought a RF 100-500 with the RF 1.4x earlier this year and have not looked back. I love the lens and the combo. Great for BiF. I know there are faster primes, but the price is too much for me, plus I prefer a light kit. I recently sold most of my prime lenses (300mm and 400mm). Kept my SIgma 14 f1.8 ART and RF 800 f11. Rest of my kit consists of zooms.

I have to admit, having owned many L lenses as well as offerings from Nikon and others over the years, there has never been a lens with quite the level of shear performance, build quality and usefulness as the RF100-500L. I never expected to be using it so much, but ironically it get's perhaps the most use of my 6 lenses on my R5. Sharp as a tack, instant focus and great focus tracking. Yeah it's a bite in the $$ area but once you've had it you forget about that.

 

[Kokopelli_Rocks]

That is sad to hear. I have 4 RF and 2 Sigma lenses with adapters. They ALL focus instant, accurate without a burp. So perhaps I got a good R5. All I know is it's virtually flawless. never had a freeze on it either.

So your Sigma lenses are focusing quickly? I’m on the cusp of getting a Sigma 500 f4 for my R5. But having focus hunting with BIF & other scenarios using Sigma 150-600S. Was not the case w 7DII. Would be very disappointed if Sigma 500 not optimum w R5. RF lenses for my purposes are $$$$$.
Also looking for tips on R5 settings for BIF.

If I remember right there were several issues with the Sigma 500 f4 AF and R5 & R6s that required a firmware update from Sigma. I remember conversations a little over a year ago because I was concerned if I bought a Sigma 150-600c if I would have any issues. I believe the issue was solved. You might want to do some searching on old posts here and in the 3rd Party lens forum.

I personally found the Sigma 150-600c has decent AF even when using a the Sigma 1401 1.4x. I ultimately sold the lens and bought the Canon RF 100-500. I should just bit the bullet and skipped the Sigma, but I was getting a nose bleed on what I was spending last year.

 

[BigBen08]

I wonder if the OP ever got his problem fixed. Looks like he left the building.

 

[Kokopelli_Rocks]

I was warned by the salesman when I bought my R5 that my EF lenses might have focusing issues. My Sigma 150-600s (used for BIF) is certainly having issues -esp in low light.
Im looking to upgrade to longer/ faster lens. All I can afford is the sigma 500mm f4. But I’m worried that any non RF lenses might have focus issues. Anyone with experience with R5 & longer telephotos?

thanks

I just sold my Sigma 150-600c I bought to use on my R5 last year. The lens took very nice images even with the 1401 TC, but the AF was slower and the lens was heavy and a handful to hand hold. I bought a RF 100-500 with the RF 1.4x earlier this year and have not looked back. I love the lens and the combo. Great for BiF. I know there are faster primes, but the price is too much for me, plus I prefer a light kit. I recently sold most of my prime lenses (300mm and 400mm). Kept my SIgma 14 f1.8 ART and RF 800 f11. Rest of my kit consists of zooms.

I have to admit, having owned many L lenses as well as offerings from Nikon and others over the years, there has never been a lens with quite the level of shear performance, build quality and usefulness as the RF100-500L. I never expected to be using it so much, but ironically it get's perhaps the most use of my 6 lenses on my R5. Sharp as a tack, instant focus and great focus tracking. Yeah it's a bite in the $$ area but once you've had it you forget about that.

Thanks. Great to hear. Alas, where I live golden hour light is typically blocked by hills. And targets are often distant. My sigma 150-600s barely has enough reach. And I’ve really been looking to an f4 lens. I hear nothing but praise about the RF 100-500. But the 7.1 max ap might be too slow here. Wondering if the ff sensor & superior glass might just do the job. How are your low light images? BIF?

I am pleased with the results I get in low light. The AF performance is outstanding. Last month I was at Navajo bridge shooting Condors. I arrived just after 7:30 PM, the sun was already behind the cliffs, but still light. I was able to shoot for over 35 minutes with the RF and the RF 100-500.

 

[Kerrigan]

Thank you for your post Machisoft.

I have had my R5 for about 6 weeks and am aware of the focus issues the camera presents. I use EF lenses which include Canon and Sigma. I love the bird tracking.

To get around that the focus issue I just use my screen and point back to my focus point if I lose focus.

However my issue was my camera hunting for focus with the lens cap on when looking at the screen to change settings. Upon following your settings in your post my problem is now solved.

Thank you. It was most frustrating to have my camera doing that and thinking it was a faulty unit.

 

[cfieldgate]

Do you have this set on C1 (or C2 or C3) with no updating? If so, after timing out it goes back to the saved settings. Save the change to whichever C setting you are using.

 

[souvikdgp]

Hi everyone,

This is going to be my first post in this forum, so hello everyone

I just upgraded from the 5Div to the R5. Im using 4 EF lenses:
- 16-35mm f/2.8L
- 24-70mm f/2.8L
- 70-200mm f/2.8L
- 200-400mm f/4.0L w. 1.4ext

I bought the standard EF-to-RF adapter from Canon with the multifunction ring.

So, I have been using the R5 for a few days and I'm experiencing a lot of focus hunting on all lenses. It goes back and forth trying to figure out where it's focusing - of course it's more on the longer lenses, but even on the wide angle it's hunting.

I have really been troubleshooting on both this forum, other forums and on Youtube - can't really figure out the solution.

Could it be a faulty camera body?

All suggestion is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

/HC from Denmark.

Shouldn't be the case. Can you check couple of options in you camera menu? 1. Continuous focus is turned off and 2. Initial AF point is set to the first option (I don't recall the exact phase).

Very difficult to guess from what you have posted, but these two points came to my mind.

--
See my work @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/souvikchatterjee/