EOS R5 & R6 Custom AF
Canon’s R5 and R6 mirrorless require a little more autofocus setup than usual to get the best results
Ask Brian! Confused with your Canon DSLR? Email EOSSOS@ futurenet.com
From my workshops and inbox, it’s clear many photographers have found that the autofocus on the EOS R5 and EOS R6 takes some effort to get the most from it.
There are three main factors to consider: AF mode, AF method and subject to detect. For moving subjects or photographers in awkward positions, use Servo AF, so the camera refocuses right up until the picture is taken. One-shot is for static subjects, such as buildings, landscapes and still life.
With eight AF methods, a lot of photographers revert to a trusted single AF point and in doing so miss out on much of these cameras’ autofocus capabilities. It’s a leap of faith to trust the EOS camera to find your subject and focus on it, but it does this so well.
Face detection and tracking, plus the three zone AF methods, are the intelligent options that find a subject in the frame and move AF points in response to it moving around while keeping it in focus with Servo AF. You need to choose the subject to prioritize people, animals, vehicles or no priority. If your camera is set to animal priority, it tracks people as long as there are no recognizable animals in the frame. For the spot, one-point and expand AF methods, there’s no intelligent subject tracking – it is down to you to keep the AF point on the subject and repositioning it if the subject moves.
Eye detection only works when using the face detection and tracking method, and when set, it prioritizes focus on the eyes if they are visible.
Some people use the AF-ON, Ae-lock and AF selection buttons to directly switch AF methods or focus mode, with multiple back buttons configured for AF. This is workable as long as you remember which button does what!