Back Button Auto Focus - How it Works on Canon R7, R5 and R3
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มิ.ย. 2024
- New to Canon R7 or Canon R5 or Canon R3, and wondering how back button auto focus works. I go over the basics of back button AF and some of the camera set up necessary to get it working on your camera.
00:00 - Start
01:02 - Introduction
03:03 - Back Button compared to Half-Press
06:08 - Menu set up
13:44 - Back Buttons in Action
16:45 - SERVO not ONE SHOT
18:34 - AF Case Settings and how they influence AF perf.
24:43 - Conclusion
www.whistlingwingsphotography... - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
Great explanation, just got my R5 and pretty sure I have set the shutter half press to be eye detection AF, mainly because having big thumbs it takes me a while to find the AF on button, this gives me a chance to get the eye on focus if I fumble around a bit. The customisation on this unit is great, I use the DOF button as MODE select too...a lot easier than the top mode button. The 120fps video is just lovely !!! Watched most of your videos now, thanks for posting so many good ones !!!! PS the Pied Kingfisher sequence is spectacular !
Thank you Ron! Without exception, this is the best and most informative instructional video I have seen on this subject. I am also new to the R3 so I am glad you used the R3, which helped me further as I continue up the learning curve of this amazing camera.
Thanks the only video I found that clearly states to Hold-Down Back-button to keep AF working in Servo mode. Most other videos only show you how to setup but not how to use it. Thanks 👍
Thank you so much. You helped me a lot. I just switched from a 5D Mark IV. I had it all set up for back button and loved the way it worked. Took the new R6 II out last night and felt totally lost. I had no idea how to set up the back button and when I did, it was so not helpful. I think this will work better. And as an aside, I was shooting short eared owls with a friend that said “they move so quick I just keep having to continuously lift up and press my back button all the time.” I wondered about that as I was always holding mine down...and getting decent pictures. You helped clear this up for me….and helped me realize I was doing it correctly.
Thanks so much for this tutorial. Ive recently changed from Nikon to Canon. Quite a change and I almost regrette it. On my Nikon I used bbp too , but I never never knew this. And can’t recall having trouble with that. On the Canon (R7) I do!
As always: a brilliant video!!! Thank you!!
Kudos for explaining what so many experienced photographers miss. They assume beginners will know this (but frequently not, as I didn't) - 3:03 to 6:00 - SUPER IMPORTANT!!!
Very informative-- I am going to be getting a new canon mirrorless soon-- this is and will be very helpful
Aha moment:
"You have to hold the button down...to iniate or continue BB AF,"
Just realised the mistake I was making while photographing little terns from a boat today. Thanks Ron!
My pleasure, glad you found the video helpful.
IMPORTANT QUESTION!
The one thing that I don't understand is with regard to the two back-focus buttons: the AF-On and the * (asterisk). I understand that the AF-On button initiates the focus on the subject, and the * button has to do with the eye-recognition auto-focus.
What I haven't understood yet is the sequence of using the two. Do you use the AF-On to acquire, then press the * button and stay on it until you take the photo? Or, do you use the AF-On button to acquire, then press the * button to activate eye-detect, and then immediately *go back* to the AF-On button (and stay on it until you snap your picture)?
Very valuable information. Thanks!
Very welcome! Thanks for watching and commenting.
Ron- Thank you for this lesson! I have been struggling to get my back button focus to work the way i want. On the R5, the only focus i could choose was the eye tracking one, which was very annoying. With your setup, I was easily able to get my “*” to work as a focus point to my likes. You are my hero! ….Subscribed!👍🏼
Just discovered your channel as I was looking for information to improve my skills and use of my newly purchased R7. Many thanks for sharing these precious advices on back button autofocus, just had a quick try on birds in my garden and it clearly improves my success rate !
Glad to help! Thanks so much for watching and commenting. I hope you continue to watch and comment. Ron
I may have to watch this all over again. Your lesson, it seems, presupposes a pretty good command or understanding of these menus. I have only two 7D Mk 2s and a 60D and even with these I am not completely "comfortable" with the menus. I pretty set them the way my teacher told me to and left them that way.
OK Ron I watched it again just now (Tues. p.m.) and it made much more sense. VERY HELPFUL. And a lot of hard work on your part. Very generous of you.
Ron wishing you continued success for the new year, warm regards from Stuart
Hey, thanks so much and the same to you.
Ron, this was truly the most helpful video on BBF setup for the Canon R series I've seen. The deep dive into those sub menus were areas that I had neglected to configure my set up, so no wonder my success with the focusing was so erratic and frustrating. Hopefully from now on, any deficiencies will not be the results of programming errors on my part! I do notice that the R5 does struggle in low light and you do have to push up the ISO but at least the pictures will clean up nicely. Looking forward to Spain and a test of the system. Thanks for all your helpful videos. Catherine Dalessio
My pleasure. Can't wait to shooting with you in Spain. Cheers.
This also applies to the eos R6 mkll. The menus are the same as the R3, with a couple of new features and more subjects. Thank you for enlightening me on setting up the 3rd button spot focus. I hadn't discovered "register/recall" in the "customize buttons" menu. Now have the perfect back 3button auto focus. Try the R6 Mkll if you get the chance. It's now my preferred camera over the R5.
Thanks so much for the input and adding to the discussion.
Thank you Ron. I have not been holding down the button and was getting erratic focus lock. Duh!
Glad to help. Thanks for watching and commenting.
THX! Solid and helpful information as always. ❤
My pleasure! Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment.
Thank you Ron for this advice. The AF Case A discussion was very helpful. I am going to give it a try, as there were times when my tracking could have been better.
thanks so much....very helpful!
You're welcome! Thanks for watching.
I bought the R3 and 100-500 2 days ago, much after having seen your pictures. I traded in my 2 D5 and 100-400. Never heard about back button AF before even though it was available I did not know about it.
So I went to take some practice bird pictures and WOW, I really need some getting used to it. The only con I can see is that my thump is not available for any other adjustments while doing the AF
Great instructive video as always but not specific to the R5 menu so I got lost a bit... Will try to find the appropriate instruction for setting up the 3 back bottons on the R5. I know you did a video on it at some point ! Thanks your doing a great job
Thanks for watching.
This is great. I think it’s the only video I’ve found that stresses holding down the back button to get the servo focus to work.
Hey, thanks so much.
Thanks Ron 😃
Nice video Ron.
Many thanks!
great video
Thanks!
I prefer to set the spot AF to the AF-ON button. Depending on the situation a different AF area selection is often more useful than spot and it is far easier to change directly - without taking the necessary dive through the menus like when changing the AF area selection on the other buttons. This adds a lot of quickly accessible versatility to a BBF setup.
Thanks for sharing!
Great simple video. I struggle with photos of birds where they are in the trees with twigs etc. And they move around a lot (small birds). I have tried Case 2 and i don't see the success as much. But will try Auto as you suggest. I do most other things on the R5.
Thanks for sharing
@@whistlingwingsphotography One question I do have is do you have this setup for C1/C2 and C3 for different conditions such as static bird/BIF etc
Hello great video. Well made and I liked your clear explanations.
My question is about the setting you use on the optical joystick AF-On button on the R3.
Once you set up the 3 BB autofocus buttons like you said, what setting do you set for the optical joystick on the R3? Do you disable it or do you keep the optical Joy stick setting on? If you leave the setting on, what setting do you use?
I find that my optical joystick setting keeps moving my spot focus point around on the screen when I place my thumb on it. I understand the flexibility of being able to do that when shooting fast moving sports like basketball and football but I was curious what your recommendation is for the optical joystick setting when you set up your three Back buttons the way you described in this video.
Thank you
Alex
Thanks for the great info. I'm awaiting my R7 camera and think BBF would be a useful set up. My question is what happens with the pro/pre-capture when that drive mode is selected? Does the shutter button need to be half presssed to invoke the pre/pro starting or does the assigned back button focus depression start the pre/pro capture?
This is the best VIDEO I have ever seen on BBF!! So well done and explained in a clear way. Thank you---if I could ask your advice? I am going to Costa Rica in 2 weeks for a Photography Workshop--would you rent a (Canon 400 f2.8 or 600f4) or take an R7 with an older 100-400 4.5-5.6 lens which would give me 600mm at f5.6 but on a crop sensor?
Glad it was helpful! It depends on what camera body and what you are going to be photographing most IMO. Are you doing mostly hummers, or are you going to be also shooting quetzals, sloths, and stuff in the deep dark areas. It would be great to have a zoom and the 400 2.8 along on the tour. With the 400 2.8 I would def. have both TCs as well. When I go to Costa Rica I have my 100-500 and 600 f/4 with me along with a 16-35. I also have my 1.4x and 2x TCs. I really like my 600 for "macro" work. Frogs and snakes. It does a great job and it provides some very unique images compared to a true macro lens. I hope this is helpful. Ron
@@whistlingwingsphotography thank you so much. That’s extremely helpful
Hello Ron, great video. Can I reverse the star and af-on button setting to be af-on for Eye and star to be for Zone? if so will the fine detail settings still be possible to use? Thanks,
Hi Ron
I had a chance to use an R3 for a week and set it up similar to your set up, when using af-on button with af area set in man menu, if I change the af area using configured buttons it just reverts back to the main menu setting? is that not possible with afon button.
Thanks
Best tutorial so far for my new R6ii. Thanks 👍🏻
Thank you! This video was really helpful!
By the way, based on your review, I bought a FlexShooter Pro Ball Head on the used market and it's all I shoot with!
Glad you like the video and the FlexShooter. Ron
I have Canon R7.. I just wondering R7 and R5 and R3 are same way to auto focus??
And thank you for your great expaltion.. From korea
Hi, Ron: I keep coming back to this video, which was very helpful for configuration of my R7. Thanks so much for putting it together. But I have a question about what happens when you assign one of the back buttons to zone or spot AF with servo on, tracking off, and subject/eye detect on. I assume that it looks for an eye in the focus zone, but there is no indicator to tell me where it finds the focus or whether it's even limited to the focus box. Am I understanding this correctly? Thanks again for an excellent series and for sharing your lovely photos.
When you have a back button set up to initiate AF with metering start, have the AF area set to one of the flexible zones, and also have eye detection on, but tracking off, the focus is limited to within the zone brackets. When you press and hold that back button down you should see blue squares on the subject and more specifically on the subjects head it the AF can find the head. The AF will not indicate a single square on the subjects eye when in zone with subject tracking off. However, the AF will "track" the subject within the zone. If you want the AF to track the subject throughout the entire frame and show you exactly where it is focusing, then you need to turn subject tracking on. The initial subject acquisition will be within the zone brackets, but once the AF has locked onto the subject and hopefully the subject's eye the zone brackets will disappear and the AF will track the subject throughout the entire frame. For me, when I use zone, I generally turn subject tracking and eye detection off, but I generally use zone when shooting in difficult scenarios for the AF to find the subjects eyes. I hope this helps. Ron
@@whistlingwingsphotography Thanks for replying so promptly. That's very helpful. I was expecting to see the a single square on the eye with eye detected turned on. When using one of the smaller focus areas (i.e. not one of the flexible zones) where there there are no blue squares, does it also identify a head within the focus square? Thanks.
Thanks Ron for the informative video. I have been using back button focus for a very long time on the Canon 7D and 7D mark ii with zero issues.
I have the R5 and R7. I have really struggled with keeping achieving focus even with focus box on subject and also seem to have high percentage not entirely in the frame when shooting birds in flight. I have my AF Servo cases set up like you recommended in previous videos but today learned from you that I may need to go back to auto or change my case 2 to the opposite. I was used to pumping back focus button for years but that doesn't seem to work on the R5 and R7 like the old 7D's.
Any thoughts on why I struggled to get camera to focus and stay in frame. I use Canon RF100-500 with RF 1.4x most of the time. Could it be because I am zoomed out too far to instantly focus?
Thanks for watching and commenting. With regards to getting focus the bird being big enough in the frame if the background is dirty can make a big difference. So, zooming in might help. Have the scene bright enough with help as well I have found. Keeping the bird in the frame has to do with VF lag and if you are shooting Mech. shutter at less than full fps the lag can be enough to throw some folks off panning with a bird. I find lag is no issue if I shoot Elec. shutter at full frames per second. Also, make sure you have the VF set to "smooth" and not "power saving" That will make a big difference with tracking. Ron
@Whistling Wings Photography Thanks Ron for the suggestion. My backgrounds are clear blue or gray skies and I use H+ and Electronic shutter for several months and previously Electronic First Curtain shutter currently and shutter. My VF is set to smooth. I used to use Auto cases. Now I use 2 or 3. I will experiment with the Auto case and without 1.4x extender.
QUESTION - around 11:00 you say that for the register recall settings you want Metering Mode set to Spot but the camera screen shows this as evaluative metering mode, which is correct
I l have used BBF for some time. Aside from the increased battery usage issue, why not use continuous focus setting? Or is there a use for continuous focus setting with or without BBF?
Continuous AF has the camera focusing all the time. For me, that is no good as I often pre-focus in prep for my next shot and then point the camera somewhere else while I am waiting for the next shooting opportunity. Thus, the camera would refocus off of my pre-focus spot if set to continuous AF.
Hey Ron, wanted your opinion. Would you personally use the r7 w/ rf 100-500 or instead the r6mii w/ rf100-500 + 1.4 tc, thanks!
I can't really say as I have not had any appreciable time on the r6mkII. Sorry.
thanks for the wonderful information! Seen too many not remind the audience to hold down the backbutton... Also, for fast shutter speeds, do you disable image stabilization?
Glad it was helpful! Yes, I turn IS/IBIS off with fast shutter speeds
I am curious as to why you would turn off IS?
@@eskay2250 IS/IBIS can cause a slight distortion at fast shutter speeds.
@@aarong2374 thanks for explanation 👍
For the R7 l set my third autofocus button to my depth of field button on front of camera which is not perfect but my pinky finger reaches it well enough to get by.
Awesome. Thanks for the input.
R7 or R6ii for wildlife photography can’t decide 😢
Very informative video! I do have one issue that I think you weren't very clear on. Maybe it's just my interpretation but when you decide to set up back button focus, it's not necessary to disable half press on the shutter button. Since back button af overrides the half press when the chosen back button is continuously depressed, it doesn't affect focus when you use back button. What it does do, is eliminate a third option on a camera like the R7 that only has two back buttons. It's quite easy to use the half press option as an additional customized af focus setting. You made the most important point that you need to continue to depress the back button for that to work, otherwise it will default to the half press focus option. Disable that and you actually lose a customizable feature. Am I wrong here?
What happens when you want to use BBF in a more static shooting situation with half-press AF still enabled? For example, You use BBF to get focus on a static bird in a bush using "SPOT" set to your AF Point Select button. Once you have focus you let up on the BB to stop SERVO focus so you can compose your image just the way you want it and so the AF does not inadvertently focus off the bird. Now go ahead and take the picture. Ooops. When you go past half-press to take a picture the camera refocuses using whatever AF method/area you have set as "default" and you most likely lose focus on your bird. It is not about a conflict when holding a BB down and shooting, it is when you let up on the BB to stop SERVOS AF. For me, if I am going to use BBF I do not want AF still active on half press. Of course, this is just me and others may find having an other AF option on the half press out weights the potential conflict it can cause with BBF.
@@whistlingwingsphotography I guess it's definitely about individual shooting style. I usually leave the half press to an af zone for mostly static birds. If I use BBF I am committed to holding the button down continuously until I take the shot. That is true. I guess you would have to weigh the pros vs the cons. Definitely enjoyed the video and appreciate the feedback!
Thank you very much, this answers a question i have long tried to find a reliable answer to!!
To me, DSLR cameras needed back button focus because you often had to focus and then recompose. So you wanted control over AF separate to the trigger. But with mirrorless being able to focus anywhere on the image, I dont see the point. Dont use it now and dont miss it. What am I misunderstanding?
One thing you are not considering is by using the 3 back buttons on a camera like the R3, R5, R6II, etc that you can have 3 AF methods/areas available to you in an instant just by moving your thumb. You cannot do this using half-press AF. I and constantly switching AF methods/areas as I am shooting a subject depending on what it is doing and where it is with respect to elements that may compete for the AF's attention. Back button is still the way to go IMO if you want to take full advantage of the incredible flexibility of these camera's AF systems.
WAY too slow and repetitive.