Canon R7 focusing

[steve kingdon]

Evening All
I am trying to help a NIF with a problem he has on focusing with his new R7 and RF100 - 500 lens and hope someone may be able to help.

He was at Lakenheath on both Monday and Tuesday when the wx was great, bright blue skies etc. so nothing in the background {clouds). A couple of F35s came in together, first couple of shots were great (on approach) but then the camera started to hunt around and had several blurred shots, then it picked up the aircraft again in focus as they were going away/landing. This happened on several occasions and so missed a few good side on photos. (I would have thought that the focusing would have at least stayed on one of the aircraft even if the other was not in focus).

Like many of the new Canon R series cameras he had this on vehicle focusing at 1250th

If anyone has an R series camera especially a R7 that can help my colleague or any tips, he will be extremally grateful. He is aware that he has only had the camera and lens a few weeks and still getting to grips with it but has forked out a far few quid for this equipment and not getting the photo's he had hoped..........so far.

Kind regards

Steve

[Yorker]

Have your friend check out a few of the videos on setting up Canon R5/6/7 for 'Birds in Flight'. They go into all the details re mechanical/electronic shutters, focus points, camera menu settings to the optimum level.

What they usually suggest is setting the back buttons for different focus techniques. So one button can be set for spot focussing and another for vehicle or animal tracking. I've used this technique on the R5 as the spot focussing works well at distance, whereas sometimes the (animal/vehicle) tracking is only useful when the subject comes within a certain distance. It takes time to get used to, but works.

I had the same problems setting up with the focus point jumping around all over the place - hence resorting to tutorial videos - but with patience it now works very well.

[steve kingdon]

Hello Yorker

Thank you for email and suggestions. I will pass this onto my friend and he can try this out at his local airfield (Stansted) and see what results he gets.

As you say, it's a bit of patience, trial and error with these new R series cameras or any new camera come to that.

This will be a good start for him.

Thanks again

Steve

[EGDR]

The vehicle tracking mode is really tailored for cars and bikes. It can work with aircraft but there will be hiccups - I've found (at least with R5/R6) with airliners for example it likes to specifically pick engine nacelles as its subject. Seconding the recommendation to map the back buttons to quick select focus modes.

[steve kingdon]

Hello EDGR

Thank you for your help and suggestion.

Kind regards

Steve

[davem]

The other important setting to be aware of (which I learnt the hard way about) is to make sure that "Lens Drive when AF impossible" is set to ON. I think the default is OFF and I ruined a lot of photos on Skye for a week with the 100-500 not getting to grips with things and not continuing to hunt for AF in certain situations.

Dave.

[steve kingdon]

Hello Davem

Thank you for your suggestion and will pass this on to my friend.

I may be wrong but from what I understand (I'm sure I read it somewhere or someone told me) that these new RF lens can be updated with firmware as well or updated to the camera?

Thank you again Dave

Kind regards

Steve

[Senna4165]

Friend of mine got the r5 had same problem as above set for birds of prey bird in flight picks up the nose of aircraft and tracks it

[steve kingdon]

Hello Rooster,

Thank you for your reply and will pass this suggestion on to my friend. Someone I spoke to also suggested this.

Kind regards

Steve

[steve kingdon]

Hi Davem

If you are still out there, can you point my friend in the right direction to find the "Lens Drive when autofocus impossible" please. I assume it is in one of the menus on the camera?

Kind regards

Steve

[KeBul]

Hi Davem

If you are still out there, can you point my friend in the right direction to find the "Lens Drive when autofocus impossible" please. I assume it is in one of the menus on the camera?

Kind regards

Steve

Yes in the menu...

It is in the AF section, 3rd page, 3rd item down...

Should be set to "Continue focus search" - ON

Kev

[steve kingdon]

Hello Kev

Thank you for your help. I will pass this onto my friend.

Kind regards

Steve

[Jason Grant]

Have your friend check out a few of the videos on setting up Canon R5/6/7 for 'Birds in Flight'. They go into all the details re mechanical/electronic shutters, focus points, camera menu settings to the optimum level.

I agree with Yorker. I recently purchased the R5 and 100-500L. My first trip with the camera was to Lakenheath, it worked well but I struggled with a few different situations. I am very familiar with canon gear, having used it all my life. I photographed a charity football match on my next trip out with it and struggled with focusing. I then decided to watch a youtube tutorial on setting up my R5 for bird photography, it was so helpful. I changed many (not all) the settings to suit and also changed the focusing area to letterbox, this has really helped. My camera now tracks the jet (AI servo) and instantly refocuses on the jet if something like wires are detected as the jet passes behind. I still use the shutter button for focusing (its a habit thing). I have just finished a trip to the USA and have been very impressed with the results, it is now setup for me. I love the camera, especially being able to see the focusing points on the subject. My advice, watch the youtube tutorial, then adjust setting to suit, then get out there and practice until satisfied.

[steve kingdon]

Hello Jason

Thank you for your reply and I shall pass this on to my friend. Was there a particular you tube tutorial my friend should watch; can you recall the one you watched as the settings could be similar for the R7 which my friend has. I will also suggest to him to see if there is any YT tutorials for bird photography for the R7.

Kind regards

Steve

[EGDR]

The R6 Mark II was announced last night and some tweaks were made to the subject detection so you can now specify aircraft as a subject for the vehicle tracking mode. Based on what happened to the R5 and R6 when vehicle tracking was launched with the R3, this may trickle down to the R7 with a future firmware update.

[steve kingdon]

Hello EDGR and All

Fingers crossed and Canon do bring out a Firmware update that will include planes in the vehicle tracking for the R7

Anyone has contacts with Canon that could suggest this to them - lol.

Steve

[steve kingdon]

Hello All

Just a quick update on what my friend has found out since you have all replied.

He previously had a Canon 7Dmk2 and thought that he could set his R7 with similar settings plus using the vehicle mode - it doesn't work like that. The R series of cameras are a whole new ball game, and you basically have to start from scratch. He has since been to Stansted and tried the basics again without the vehicle tracking and found that that worked okay with some great results.

He has since bought a book by Nina Bailey who is a Canon wizard (only £7.99 - with lots of useful tips) and signed up for the EOS quarterly magazine. In the free copy he received someone was using an R5 and set for "people" to use to track motorbikes. The next time my friend goes to Lakenheath he is going to try "people" mode and also the "bird" mode and see what results he gets.

Nina Bailey is also coming out with an eBook for the R7 as well which will give a lot more details on settings if anyone is interested.

If anyone has any useful tips on settings for aircraft, please share, so he can get ready for the show season next year.

Kind regards

Steve

[IanH]

Just a quick question for anyone and perhaps Jason given his US experience, has anyone managed to find a way around the problem of bending stationary vertical objects when tracking aircraft using the electronic mode? I understand why it does it but its a fix that's badly needed. In simple terms for example, if you track an aircraft landing which passes trees, floodlights, posts etc, they will bend over which just looks horrendous. The only fix I can see so far is not to use it!! The issue you then face with mechanical mode is that the image jumps around. I have 'sort of' got used to that by adjusting my technique but.....

I'm sure Canon will bring out a more expensive camera with a different sensor to allow the write speed to cope, but thats no use to any of us with the earlier models.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[EGDR]

Just a quick question for anyone and perhaps Jason given his US experience, has anyone managed to find a way around the problem of bending stationary vertical objects when tracking aircraft using the electronic mode? I understand why it does it but its a fix that's badly needed. In simple terms for example, if you track an aircraft landing which passes trees, floodlights, posts etc, they will bend over which just looks horrendous. The only fix I can see so far is not to use it!! The issue you then face with mechanical mode is that the image jumps around. I have 'sort of' got used to that by adjusting my technique but.....

I'm sure Canon will bring out a more expensive camera with a different sensor to allow the write speed to cope, but thats no use to any of us with the earlier models.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Your only real way around it in that scenario is to use the mechanical shutter mode. This is a technical limitation of the sensor. The EOS R3 performs better in this area due to its BSI stacked sensor design, but at present it's the only camera in Canon's lineup with such a sensor.

[RS2]

Just bumping this to the top to see what peoples experiences with the R7 focus systems are. As a previous 7dmk2 1d 90d user etc have found it really difficult to aclimatise to the R7. Still unconvinced on AF set ups for aircraft, have tried all sorts with varying results. Im not just talking tracking and subject, looking at all the associated options in the sub menus. Be interested to see how folks are getting on.