Canon R3 Users: Are you experiencing (any) focusing issues? I am!

Hi everyone. I recently purchased a Canon R3, and jumped into the mirrorless world with two feet and an open mind. My former camera was a Canon 1Dx, and it's still going strong — after 10-years of use — with great results and awesome reliability. Sadly, however, my newly purchased Canon R3 is causing me some major heart palpitations and confidence worries, and I'm hoping (praying) that my experiences are related to my not yet knowing much about the R3's mirrorless settings or its operation. Yet, I suspect something more technical beyond my settings may be at hand, so thus my outreach.

Question for R3 users, are you experiencing (any) major focusing issues?

I'm experiencing at least five (5) unique issues:

For example:

1) When using "single point", "one shot" focus on a stationary subject (very basic stuff), my camera will (sometimes) not focus at all. It's almost like it locks up (i.e., it won't even hunt), but I can sense that it's trying to work (i.e., the focus box will light up red), but it just doesn't work. All I see is a blurry screen. Shutter button will not work. Then, as-if almost randomly and without my understanding, it will suddenly focus and the shot will be captured. I've tried changing various settings like my "shutter mode" from "electronic" to "mechanical" to see if that might be something behind it, but I'm getting the issue it in both cases. Again, I'm completely new to mirrorless technology, so perhaps it's a setting/mode function restriction I don't yet know about? When I handed the camera to my wife, she experienced the same thing.

2) When focusing on nearby subjects (but still respecting the minimum focusing distances of my lenses) my camera will again (sometimes) not focus on the subject, but this time, however, it will at least continuously "hunt" back-and-forth trying to focus, and the shutter will depress and capture a blurry image. Yet, in such cases it will often never achieve the focus. So, I power off my camera, and restart. That unacceptable solution has sometimes worked out, but clearly that's not a tenable response. I've experienced this with my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L lens (using the RF attachment ring) and the only RF lens I also recently purchased (the 50mm f/1.2L).

3) When more than one subject is in the scene, and layered, my camera (noticeably) struggles to focus on a foreground subject, but is perfectly ok with focusing on the background (or distant) subject. This experience is really annoying, and it's seriously eroding my confidence in using this camera. I often cannot get it to focus on the foreground subject despite moving my focusing point over the foreground object. On a combination of issues 2 and 3, I randomly noticed that Tony & Chelsea Northrup were also observing some of this, but they observed these things using other R3 settings and other subject dynamics I have yet to try. You can see their review here. At different points in their review, you can hear them clearly say that they were: “missing focus on a lot of the closer shots”; “Tracking focus is exponentially harder the closer the subject gets to the camera”; "At close range, the autofocus wandered a lot even when it was locked on […] it just hunted in and out”. In my experience, I would most certainly agree, but my issues appear worse because (sometimes) I literally couldn't shoot the image despite pushing the shutter button.

4) Sometimes, my focusing point will not move, despite my trying to reposition it. It just sits wherever it may be on the screen. Again, almost as-if it locks up.

5) When focusing with "eye control", which does somewhat work for me, I cannot get the camera to focus on the left side of the screen with my eye, despite several calibration attempts under different lighting conditions. It will only work top, bottom, and right. A second issue is that the focus won't "stay" where my eye is looking. Obviously, hard to explain in a forum, but while I'm clearly looking at a fixed point (almost stubbornly with intense concentration) I can notice the focusing box awkwardly drifting in a slow straight line to the right of the screen. Almost like a mouse button randomly locking up on you and it drifting off in a straight line to the corner of a monitor.

Final points: While my time and experience in using the Canon R3 is limited, I have had some wonderful experiences too. Like when I was able to photograph my newborn son sleeping without disturbing him. I was able to accomplish this by using the "silent shutter" mode and the tilt screen angled high above my head with subject tracking on in a very low ambient light situation under high ISO values. That whole situation and combination of features just worked out awesomely in a way my 1Dx never could, and it was honestly borderline ridiculous how my low light shot held from a distance above my head turned out tack sharp with no discernable noise. But clearly the other focusing problems I'm having are a no-go.

Altogether, I really, really want this to work out, and give the future of mirrorless cameras a chance. Yet, I must confess, a large part of me is wondering if I made a mistake by not going with the 1Dx Mark III. One last point before I close this long message, the AD-E1 adapter is absolutely necessary, and I was livid when I read Canon said it was an "optional" accessory. Careful: The official discourse on this is not consistent, and this situation only came to my attention when I couldn't get any of my numerous Canon flashes to fire on my R3, then looked at the manual to find out why. The shoe fits, but the flashes will either not fire at all, or if they do, they will fire with a full 1/1 power dump. The manual I read clearly noted this, so there is nothing optional about that AD-E1 block if you plan to use a Canon 600 EX-RT flash, and at the very least, after spending nearly $8000 on a camera, Canon should have just automatically included it in the box. That, in my mind was a clear design flaw and a massive customer oversight, but perhaps Canon really does think it's an option because (rumor) they are working on a flash that powers off the R3's battery, but good luck with that too because this thing is voracious on batteries next to my 1Dx experience. I get about 415 pictures over a full charge. I've already ordered extra batteries. Cheers, Jeff

I have the R5 and am experiencing the the same problems in points 1&2 of your post. The only workaround I could find was to manually focus on the subject and then the autofocus would take over. This is a major problem with my 100mm ef macro lens. My rf 24-100 also has the same problem. I never had these issues with my 5D iv. Very interested in the replies.

if number 1 involves a horizontal line.
this video might explain your experience.

Interesting, I never had any issues with my R5. I played with the focus options in the menu and started experiencing weird focus issues but I just reset it to default and it works best for my style which is mostly portraits and still life like landscapes.

To have a $6000 camera and have to suffer through what the OP is having is shameful.

To the OP, have you tried playing with the focus options in the menu? I can't help with that as I never held or shot the R3. But I would guess its an easy fix there. If not I would call Canon and talk to them before returning the camera.

AtmaWarna wrote:

if number 1 involves a horizontal line.
this video might explain your experience.

I had no idea about this. I wonder how many people know or actually don't have a clue that this AF system is present in these existing and really expensive Canon ML bodies. That's amazing, and not in a good way.

If what Tony says is true that Canon is waiting to put that quad AF system in the R1, wouldn't that be a major slap on the face for the customer that is buying the expensive R5 and R3 right now?

The main thing to say is that coming from a DSLR, the focussing algorithms work differently on Canon mirrorless cameras, even those you are familiar with, and you will need to change the way you use them. The cameras are also now so customisable it is very easy to programme in conflicts which result in the camera failing to function the way you want it to. I suspect that many people who are frustrated with focussing issues are experiencing this without realising. I know you have the R3, but I recommend you get Nina Bailey's excellent e-book on the R5 which has nearly 80 illustrated pages explaining in clear language, how and why the AF system works the way it does, why you need to think differently compared to your DSLR, and how to set it up to achieve what you want. Good luck!

Jeffrey_Meyer_Photography wrote:

Hi everyone. I recently purchased a Canon R3, and jumped into the mirrorless world with two feet and an open mind. My former camera was a Canon 1Dx, and it's still going strong — after 10-years of use — with great results and awesome reliability. Sadly, however, my newly purchased Canon R3 is causing me some major heart palpitations and confidence worries, and I'm hoping (praying) that my experiences are related to my not yet knowing much about the R3's mirrorless settings or its operation. Yet, I suspect something more technical beyond my settings may be at hand, so thus my outreach.

Question for R3 users, are you experiencing (any) major focusing issues?

I'm experiencing at least five (5) unique issues:

For example:

1) When using "single point", "one shot" focus on a stationary subject (very basic stuff), my camera will (sometimes) not focus at all. It's almost like it locks up (i.e., it won't even hunt), but I can sense that it's trying to work (i.e., the focus box will light up red), but it just doesn't work. All I see is a blurry screen. Shutter button will not work. Then, as-if almost randomly and without my understanding, it will suddenly focus and the shot will be captured. I've tried changing various settings like my "shutter mode" from "electronic" to "mechanical" to see if that might be something behind it, but I'm getting the issue it in both cases. Again, I'm completely new to mirrorless technology, so perhaps it's a setting/mode function restriction I don't yet know about? When I handed the camera to my wife, she experienced the same thing.

2) When focusing on nearby subjects (but still respecting the minimum focusing distances of my lenses) my camera will again (sometimes) not focus on the subject, but this time, however, it will at least continuously "hunt" back-and-forth trying to focus, and the shutter will depress and capture a blurry image. Yet, in such cases it will often never achieve the focus. So, I power off my camera, and restart. That unacceptable solution has sometimes worked out, but clearly that's not a tenable response. I've experienced this with my Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L lens (using the RF attachment ring) and the only RF lens I also recently purchased (the 50mm f/1.2L).

3) When more than one subject is in the scene, and layered, my camera (noticeably) struggles to focus on a foreground subject, but is perfectly ok with focusing on the background (or distant) subject. This experience is really annoying, and it's seriously eroding my confidence in using this camera. I often cannot get it to focus on the foreground subject despite moving my focusing point over the foreground object. On a combination of issues 2 and 3, I randomly noticed that Tony & Chelsea Northrup were also observing some of this, but they observed these things using other R3 settings and other subject dynamics I have yet to try. You can see their review here. At different points in their review, you can hear them clearly say that they were: “missing focus on a lot of the closer shots”; “Tracking focus is exponentially harder the closer the subject gets to the camera”; "At close range, the autofocus wandered a lot even when it was locked on […] it just hunted in and out”. In my experience, I would most certainly agree, but my issues appear worse because (sometimes) I literally couldn't shoot the image despite pushing the shutter button.

4) Sometimes, my focusing point will not move, despite my trying to reposition it. It just sits wherever it may be on the screen. Again, almost as-if it locks up.

5) When focusing with "eye control", which does somewhat work for me, I cannot get the camera to focus on the left side of the screen with my eye, despite several calibration attempts under different lighting conditions. It will only work top, bottom, and right. A second issue is that the focus won't "stay" where my eye is looking. Obviously, hard to explain in a forum, but while I'm clearly looking at a fixed point (almost stubbornly with intense concentration) I can notice the focusing box awkwardly drifting in a slow straight line to the right of the screen. Almost like a mouse button randomly locking up on you and it drifting off in a straight line to the corner of a monitor.

Final points: While my time and experience in using the Canon R3 is limited, I have had some wonderful experiences too. Like when I was able to photograph my newborn son sleeping without disturbing him. I was able to accomplish this by using the "silent shutter" mode and the tilt screen angled high above my head with subject tracking on in a very low ambient light situation under high ISO values. That whole situation and combination of features just worked out awesomely in a way my 1Dx never could, and it was honestly borderline ridiculous how my low light shot held from a distance above my head turned out tack sharp with no discernable noise. But clearly the other focusing problems I'm having are a no-go.

Altogether, I really, really want this to work out, and give the future of mirrorless cameras a chance. Yet, I must confess, a large part of me is wondering if I made a mistake by not going with the 1Dx Mark III. One last point before I close this long message, the AD-E1 adapter is absolutely necessary, and I was livid when I read Canon said it was an "optional" accessory. Careful: The official discourse on this is not consistent, and this situation only came to my attention when I couldn't get any of my numerous Canon flashes to fire on my R3, then looked at the manual to find out why. The shoe fits, but the flashes will either not fire at all, or if they do, they will fire with a full 1/1 power dump. The manual I read clearly noted this, so there is nothing optional about that AD-E1 block if you plan to use a Canon 600 EX-RT flash, and at the very least, after spending nearly $8000 on a camera, Canon should have just automatically included it in the box. That, in my mind was a clear design flaw and a massive customer oversight, but perhaps Canon really does think it's an option because (rumor) they are working on a flash that powers off the R3's battery, but good luck with that too because this thing is voracious on batteries next to my 1Dx experience. I get about 415 pictures over a full charge. I've already ordered extra batteries. Cheers, Jeff

Hi Jeff, I own a R3 and up to now I'm not having the problems you are having ? I think something may be wrong with your body, lens or adapter ?

The first thing I would suggest would be a factory reset and maybe try if different lens or adapter if possible ? Hopefully this will resolve things ?

I also I have a few questions/suggested things.

Are you using back button focusing ? Does the camera work properly using the vertical grip ?

Regarding the flash I find it strange as my 580 ex and a 3rd party flash work brilliantly as well without any adapter ? The only reason you need the adapter is to maintain the water proofing of the camera and nothing else.

Have you set the camera on the correct subject to detect if using the Eye tracking ?

In single shot shooting have you tried using other AF area selections to give the AF a greater chance of acquiring focus, have you turned off the Eye tracking ? are you shooting with the servo focus still on ?

Regarding you battery, I found that shooting in Servo drive mode and eye tracking I'm constantly getting a 1,000 + shots easily. Personally since I started using mirrorless I found the servo focusing that good I very use sing shot at all.

I came from using a 1DX II and I found it was a total mindset to shoot on a mirrorless body.

There are so many things it could be as coming from a DSLR to mirrorless is a bit of a steep learning curve especially with the R3 which has a complicated AF system.

Let us know if my suggestions help ? If not let us know and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of your problems ?

I started another topic/post of R3 hints and tips and maybe the other R3 owners might able to help suggest something ? if you post on there as well.

All the best sorting it out Chimpy.

Batdude wrote:

AtmaWarna wrote:

if number 1 involves a horizontal line.
this video might explain your experience.

I had no idea about this. I wonder how many people know or actually don't have a clue that this AF system is present in these existing and really expensive Canon ML bodies. That's amazing, and not in a good way.

If what Tony says is true that Canon is waiting to put that quad AF system in the R1, wouldn't that be a major slap on the face for the customer that is buying the expensive R5 and R3 right now?

I agree with you and believe the potential for the R1 to have quad pixel auto-focus and a higher pixel count make waiting for an R1 development announcement before purchasing an R3 very compelling.

Dan W wrote:

Interesting, I never had any issues with my R5. I played with the focus options in the menu and started experiencing weird focus issues but I just reset it to default and it works best for my style which is mostly portraits and still life like landscapes.

To have a $6000 camera and have to suffer through what the OP is having is shameful.

To the OP, have you tried playing with the focus options in the menu? I can't help with that as I never held or shot the R3. But I would guess its an easy fix there. If not I would call Canon and talk to them before returning the camera.

I have a an R5. I did a complete factory reset on it and I highly recommend it. All the reset menus. I did that when I was in FW 1.4. I’m now running 1.5.

Batdude wrote:

AtmaWarna wrote:

if number 1 involves a horizontal line.
this video might explain your experience.

I had no idea about this. I wonder how many people know or actually don't have a clue that this AF system is present in these existing and really expensive Canon ML bodies. That's amazing, and not in a good way.

If what Tony says is true that Canon is waiting to put that quad AF system in the R1, wouldn't that be a major slap on the face for the customer that is buying the expensive R5 and R3 right now?

This has been an issue with DPAF, even on DSLRs including the 6Dii and 5Div. So, not something new on mirrorless.

He is just bringing this up now, because he thinks Canon will move to quad pixel AF on the R1.

One thing about ML cameras is Face/Eye AF has changed everything. Eye focus (not your eye control) while awesome is still only a few years old. The key to these cameras is pre-focus or as I have nicknamed it "force focus".

I really like this video. Watch the Canon clips and see how he uses Expansion AF to force focus on the subject before switching to Face/Eye.

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

Also just for something to do if you are struggling I highly recommend a complete factory reset. All the menus. I found it helped me with my R5. I can't pin point it.

Also careful with the Case number and Switching Tracked Subject settings. I'm not 100% convinced that these two menus work together in Face/Eye AF.  Try leaving it on Case 1 which is factory and Switching Tracked Subjects to Initial Priority. This won't help with initial AF acquisition but it makes AF more sticky once it acquires the subject.

Hoka Hey wrote:

Hi Jeff,

I see that this is your first post. Welcome to the forum!

Sorry that you are having difficulty. Much of it may be from the switch form a DSLR to mirrorless.

Do not get hung up on TN's videos. They are mostly clickbait. He is really great at faking sincerity and acting the expert. That's how he makes his living and he's quite good at it. It's mostly entertainment.

I gave up on them both when he tried to demonstrate a hybrid EF/RF retraceable mirror system with cardboard and chopsticks. Then his wife couldn't focus in anything with an R5 and some 30 year old 500mm lens. I wish I good get the time I wasted on those two back.

Based on a lot of the issues you bring up, I'd suggest that you reset your camera to default setting and start again.

Here are solutions for your issues:

1. I was albe to replicate your issue using the EF Macro 100 2.8 IS on the R3 using Spot AF One Shot AF.

You have set the AF3 Lens drive when AF impossible to "Off." Set this to "ON."

2. The only way that I could replicate this complaint was any attempting to focus at less than the Minimum Focusing Distance or by trying to focus on a subject that had not definition like a painted wall without any definition or by trying to focus on a vertical line.

There is not solution for trying to focus on a subject without any contrast. You have to have some contrast in the image for the camera to focus on.

Likewise, there is not solution for trying to focus inside the MFD.

If you are trying to focus on something that only consists of horizontal lines turn your camera to the side. This is typical in mirrorless cameras. I can't think of this ever being an issue in real world shooting. It is very rare to have a moving subject made up of entirely horizontal Lines and if the subject is not moving, you can tweak the manual focus to get the camera in focus.

3. Focusing on the background and staying there is typical for Mirrorless cameras. The R3 is the best that I have shot for not doing that.

The solution is to use Servo AF and Whole Area AF. Also set a back button to do spot AF. If the camera goes to the background or the wrong target, you can toggle the half press of the shutter button and that will often bring the focus back. If toggling the half press of the shutter button doesn't work, then use the back button spot AF on your target and it will correct immediately.

4. I can't replicate this. Call Canon support. They are exceptionally helpful. Canon has some of the best phone support I know of.

5. I can't replicate this. The Eye Control AF works for me the few times that I've used it.

The battery life with the R3 is amazing. I regularly shoot thousands of images on one battery. If you are only getting 450 images on a battery, something is very wrong. One thing that might help is setting AF3 Preview AF to Disable.

Take some time to get used to your new camera. I've shot tens of thousands of images with R3, all in Electronic shutter, and it has the best AF that I have ever seen.

Of course there is always the possibility that mirrorless is just not for you. That's OK too.

Good luck and have fun.

Hoka Hey wrote:

Hi Jeff,

I see that this is your first post. Welcome to the forum!

Sorry that you are having difficulty. Much of it may be from the switch form a DSLR to mirrorless.

Do not get hung up on TN's videos. They are mostly clickbait. He is really great at faking sincerity and acting the expert. That's how he makes his living and he's quite good at it. It's mostly entertainment.

Based on a lot of the issues you bring up, I'd suggest that you reset your camera to default setting and start again.

Here are solutions for your issues:

1. I was albe to replicate your issue using the EF Macro 100 2.8 IS on the R3 using Spot AF One Shot AF.

You have set the AF3 Lens drive when AF impossible to "Off." Set this to "ON."

2. The only way that I could replicate this complaint was any attempting to focus at less than the Minimum Focusing Distance or by trying to focus on a subject that had not definition like a painted wall without any definition or by trying to focus on a vertical line.

There is not solution for trying to focus on a subject without any contrast. You have to have some contrast in the image for the camera to focus on.

Likewise, there is not solution for trying to focus inside the MFD.

If you are trying to focus on something that only consists of horizontal lines turn your camera to the side. This is typical in mirrorless cameras. I can't think of this ever being an issue in real world shooting. It is very rare to have a moving subject made up of entirely horizontal Lines and if the subject is not moving, you can tweak the manual focus to get the camera in focus.

3. Focusing on the background and staying there is typical for Mirrorless cameras. The R3 is the best that I have shot for not doing that.

The solution is to use Servo AF and Whole Area AF. Also set a back button to do spot AF. If the camera goes to the background or the wrong target, you can toggle the half press of the shutter button and that will often bring the focus back. If toggling the half press of the shutter button doesn't work, then use the back button spot AF on your target and it will correct immediately.

4. I can't replicate this. Call Canon support. They are exceptionally helpful. Canon has some of the best phone support I know of.

5. I can't replicate this. The Eye Control AF works for me the few times that I've used it.

The battery life with the R3 is amazing. I regularly shoot thousands of images on one battery. If you are only getting 450 images on a battery, something is very wrong. One thing that might help is setting AF3 Preview AF to Disable.

Take some time to get used to your new camera. I've shot tens of thousands of images with R3, all in Electronic shutter, and it has the best AF that I have ever seen.

Of course there is always the possibility that mirrorless is just not for you. That's OK too.

Good luck and have fun.

Good suggestions Joe, nice stuff, unfortunately I'm unable to get my hands on my camera at the moment/today so I couldn't really give a detailed answer as good as yours. I suggested a full reset on my first post and a few thoughts on the problems discribed.

Yours and the other guys posts should hopefully help the OP.