After using a Canon 1Dx Mark II for all my Macaw photos/videos since 2016, your R3 autofocus videos were so well done, I decided to rent a Canon R3, and then buy one. Thank you!
Ron, Another great "how to" video! I especially like that your presentation is slow enough to allow the viewer to make the changes as you go along. Many times, the presenters of these types of videos speak quicker, making it very difficult to keep up as the video goes along. You have been guilty of that in the past. :-) I appreciate your efforts and the time spent creating these videos.
Thank you for this because you have clearly explained the details and subtleties of using the R3 autofocus system. I've been using my R3 everyday since before xmas and have learned much about the new features. You have taught me some important lessons about how flexible the camera can be for different scenarios. Thank you.
Omg I just got the r3 your videos helped me a lot with settings it up Thank you!!!!! So far I love this r3 I do not do birds but after seeing this video I might give it a try I can not wait to try the zone with my dog running Thanks alot
Ron, that was really excellent, thank you. I recently upgraded from Canon D7 Mark II with 100-400 mm EF mark 2 which I used for 7 years. I loved it value for money wise but wanted to take the next step. After considering various high end DSLRs, I decided to take the leap to mirrorless and bought an R3 and 100-500 RF. I understand the limitations to subject tracking and where to use it and where it won't work so well. I've already found the bird in flight tracking just incredible. Where I am struggling is small birds in cluttered backgrounds. I figured that single focus points with no tracking would give me like for like (or better) with the 7D2. It is not. I tried to get some sort of baseline using simple servo mode with both cameras. I'm using a telegraph cable (about 3/4 inch diameter) at about 45 feet distance with a clear sky background. The 7D2 with the 100-440 grabs this pretty reliably. It's not an easy target but it focuses as I knew it would. Using the R3 and the 100-500 (and I did try the 100-400) in servo mode with tracking turned off, it simply won't detect that cable. I've upgraded the firmware to 1.3.0 and tried various focus areas. I hope I'm overlooking something. Are you able to offer any advice please?
Sir, I am overwhelmed with the best and most thorough analysis and explanation of the af-system of the R3 you did. I own the R5 since ist came out and the R3 since last december and learnt a lot. Your video is by distance the best in the last time and the first I‘ll loaded down for loking again. Many thanks for your good work!🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙👏👏👏.
I rarely comment but this video is absolutely outstanding. Thank you for your time and generosity of sharing your information. Finally I know why I had tracking when I didn't want it even if I toggled it off...all in purple! Thanks so much!!
many thanks for a fantastic insight into the auto focussing capabilities of this camera, I love the idea of assigning different backbuttons to cater for different photographic situations, in particular the ability to quickly change to spot focus
100% agree with your conclusions on Subject Tracking Ron. I've found that when its on in the main AF1 menu, the camera decides which subject you want to track. However, if you have it OFF in the AF1 menu, but activated in your customised AF back button, combined with Spot AF point, you have much greater control over where the tracking starts. If you put your spot AF pt on the target, and press your back button AF, the tracking button will jump from the torso of the target to the head of the target and will hold as long as the targets face is generally facing your or at least side-on. If the tracking drops off, its much easier to re-instate it by releasing your AF button and re-engaging the target. The tracking will then re-commence where it left off.
Thank you so much! This was an extremely helpful video on the R3 Auto Focus. I picked up a handful of incredibly helpful tips that I've used in sports photography. I was grossly underutilizing the flexible zones as one example - it's been a game-changer for me. Greatly appreciate you taking the time to pass on the knowledge. Cheers.
Thanks for the tips on setting up the different focus areas/modes on multiple back buttons. Works great. Regarding the “Subject Tracking” menus item vs the “Start/stop tracking” button toggle, that seems a bit confusing. I’m using an R6m2 and it borrows the AF system from the R3, but it has relabeled those items as “Whole area tracking Servo AF” and “Start/stop whole area AF tracking” which is maybe a little clearer (I think they function the same as in the R3 though). Tracking is always on when Servo AF is ON and and the AF-ON button is pressed. The “Subject Tracking” menu item is not turning off tracking, but Whole Area tracking during Servo AF. When set to ON, “Whole area tracking Servo AF”/“Subject Tracking” allows tracking a subject across the whole frame once servo AF has been initiated. Basically, when you push the AF-ON button, the camera acquires focus within your chosen AF area and then switches temporarily to “Whole Area”. This only works in Servo AF obviously. With Servo AF ON and “Whole area tracking Servo AF”/“Subject Tracking” set to OFF, tracking only occurs within your chosen AF area. If a tracked subject leaves the AF area, then the camera will try to acquire a new subject in the area. On the R6m2 this menu setting can also be changed on the AF point selection screen. “Start/stop whole area AF tracking”/“Start/stop tracking” begins tracking a subject across the whole frame (starting from your chosen AF area) as soon as the toggle button is pressed. Pushing the toggle button again stops tracking and reverts back to your chosen AF area. This works in Servo or One-shot and regardless of whether you are pushing the AF-ON button. It is useful for in situations in which you want to maintain tracking but don’t want to always be actively focusing (save some battery). On the R6m2 the Set button has this function by default, but I swapped the Set and M.Fn buttons. So, as you elude the menu item and the button toggle really are two different functions. The menu item causes the tracking to switch to Whole Area after Servo AF is initiated (regardless of your chosen AF area). And, the button toggle starts tracking across the whole area regardless of wether or not you have AF-ON (in fact you can toggle on/off whole area while Servo AF is running). The menu item is more of a global workflow setting while the toggle is an on the fly switch to override the global setting. Once whole area tracking AF is initiated (in Servo AF) I don’t think there is a difference in the actual tracking. I like having the AF-On button set to a Zone and “Whole area tracking Servo AF”/“Subject Tracking” set to OFF. I can then switch to Whole Area tracking with the M.Fn toggle if need be. Thanks to you, I also now have the * button set to single-point AF with “Whole area tracking Servo AF”/“Subject Tracking” ON after initial focus is achieved. I hope this helps anyone trying to set up these two functions.
Exceptional content and clear explanations with live views of how the settings affect AF performance. It is clear that the R3 has a much more complex and widely variable auto focus system that enables AF across a wide range of photographic scenarios.
This helps to understand the R7 focus system. It's crazy how much better it is than my 90D. For sure I need to set up a button to change the different AF modes. Thanks for the video.
That was a fantastic video, have the EOS R, and waiting for my R3 camera to come that I ordered. The Autufocus settings blow my mind! What a camera AF system.
Still waiting for my R3 to arrive, but love watching your very well made and very clear instructional videos! Thanks so much for your time and efforts!
Excellent video Ron that got me over the hump to better understanding the R3 AF system. Before this video I was just pushing AF buttons and not really knowing what it was doing with subject detection/tracking or why. This really cleared up a lot for me. The R3 AF system is quite different and far more advanced than the R5. Thanks!
Thank you for your time and the information on this camera. You have made it easier to understand I did make the purchase on the r3 you have been a great help .
Nice informative video. Thanks a bunch for doing amazing such stuffs. Just wanna add something useful here. Instead of going through the menu to toggle subject tracking ON/OFF, when you press quick control (Q Button) and if you are on AF area, you can toggle subject tracking ON/OFF just by pressing info. Canon has really put serious thoughts into R&D of this camera. Can't wait for whats next on R1!
Thanks for the comment. There are a few ways to toggle tracking on and off. you can also set the toggle to the M-fn2 button on the front of the camera.
@@whistlingwingsphotography Yeah, but its immensely useful button with quick access in both H&V holding. Ultimately its personal preferences but its nice to have the options available 👍
Thank you! I’m anxiously waiting for my R3 to arrive and sure appreciate the time you have spent helping us all get a head start using the camera. The versatility seems overwhelming compared to my old, but wonderful 1DMk4. I am also mostly a bird photographer so this was perfect!
Ron... I do a lot of birds in flight... with my R5. I just ordered the R5 MII which I should have on 8/22. I know one of the new features of that unit is Pre-Capture... and the R3 has the same feature... My question is, will Pre-Capture activate when using back button focus... TIA....... George of Tampa Fl
Great video. Thanks. I am revisiting this now that I have spent more time with my camera (R5). Is it correct that the R5 does not have "subject tracking" like the R3? Only face tracking and/or eye detect tracking? Also, when you select a large zone where there are many potential focal planes in the zone, how does the camera select the focus plane to use when you activate auto focus? This has always confused me a bit.
Thank you so much for your R3 videos, you explain it so well and its a shame you don’t write the Canon manuals! Seriously though so useful and thanks again.
Thank you for a excellent video explaining the R3 system. I do understand your first two back button focus purposes, but what is your purpose for the 3rd back button , and when will you use the 3rd button
I have 3 buttons set on mine because I shoot small birds in tight cover. Single point Auto Focus, then Center Zone, then Eye Detect. Works perfectly....most of the time. Depends on how quick the bird and how quick I am 😉
Yep. Most of the time. As we all know no AF system is perfect. It still takes some knowledge and skill by the person behind the camera to get the shot; at least some of the time.
Great video Ron! I am shooting with the R7 on Eye Detect and Servo Autofocus, but withTracking turned off. With this configuration the camera still tracks and focuses on eyes even though Tracking is turned off. Am I missing something by not turning on Tracking. Thank you. Norm
When you are in Eye detect you get tracking by default. If you turn on Tracking when you are using, say, spot AF, you will that once the camera gets focus on a subject the AF switches instantly to tracking throughout the entire frame. That is what is what turning tracking on does for you in one respect. Cheers, Ron
Ron, love your videos! They’re very well thought out, and planned. If I may, just an observation: But shutting off the multi-controller from being able to move the focus points, or zones, you are not taking full advantage of the new technology, and they (Canon) needs a better way to be able to adjust the size of each custom zone…it is like having to know the secret handshake to get into that screen where these adjustments are to be made!
Hey, thanks so much. Really appreciate the feedback. With regard to turning off the mulit-controller, I use tracking AF for 90+ percent of my shooting scenarios, so I really do not find a need to move the AF areas around manually. Now, that is just me. I like the multi-controller and if you need it def take advantage of it. Also, generally when I use zone AF I set the position of the zone in the frame when I set the size of the zone, so again, I generally do not need to move it around. I agree completely that having to go two menus deep in button presses is cumbersome for changing the zone sizes. I have not found a work around for this either. Maybe Canon will make it easier in the future. It is all we can hope for.
@@whistlingwingsphotography thank you for the reply. May I also ask, where is Florida are you and so you ever do a bird photography workshop down here? I am in Boca Raton, just north of Ft. Lauderdale by 30 minutes.
Ron, do you find yourself using the R3 for high ISO situations as well? It supposedly has the best high ISO performing sensor of any full frame camera.
Yes, I do. I love the low light performance of the R3 and I also love how clean the images are when I use higher ISO to get really fast shutter speeds. Well above 1/8000s. Great to have that performance for sure.
@@whistlingwingsphotography I agree. The high ISO performance and shutter speeds up to 1/64000 of a second create opportunities that I've not been able to capture before.
Yes, of course. All AF systems will lose focus at times. There is still the need to be a photographer and have some skill and knowledge to get the best out of the R3 including its AF system. But, the R3's AF system is very good when shooting BIF against backgrounds.
That circle appears when you are in Spot Metering mode. Given I shoot full manual exposure, and thus the meter does not come into play in manipulating my exposure, I use the circle associated with spot metering as a reference to the center of the frame when using a tracking AF. The circle is like a rifle sight to me, with my goal being to get my subject in the circle before I initiate AF. Do so, helps the AF know what I want it to focus on and results in AF lock on the first try much more often. Cheers, Ron
Great video, Ron! Glad you go into so much detail. I don’t have the R3 yet so my question is about the R5. I use eye detect tracking most of the time and it works great as you know, but I get frustrated when there are two birds or more (such as ducks one behind the other and all eyes visible) when I want the camera to track the eye of the front most duck. Invariably the camera goes to the eye of the duck behind. Have you experienced this? Thanks!
Yes. It can be frustrating. And with the R5 there is no option to have subject tracking/eye detection working when using SPOT AF via the Register/Recall Shooting Function like you can on the R3. On the R5, SPOT AF is just spot AF. I have not found a great way to deal with the situation you mention with the R5. The way the R5 is set up Subject Tracking is "buried" as an AF method and Eye Detection is only available when using the subject tracking AF method. So, much more limited than the R3. I wish I could give you a good solution for the R5, but it really does not exist for me.
The way I do it with my R5 is to use zone on the Register / Recall Shooting function and that tends to grab the nearest bird. That's the only workaround I've found to this problem.
Ron this is a great video, thanks for taking the time to put this together and going into the deep details. I am a new R3 owner so mostly studying things here until I can get out and do some shooting. Can you clarify one thing....do you have to hold down any of the back button focus buttons while you are shooting or does subject tracking track with no button depressed? I am still not sure I want to configure for back button focus vs shutter button focus. It seems that custom configurations are highly tuned to the subject matter (like subject selection Vehicle/Animal/People) and what is really required here is a selectable profile that you can store separate button customizations depending on what you are shooting? i.e. there aren't enough buttons on the camera. I guess what I am asking is do you think subject tracking lessens the motivation for back button focus? Note I am mostly an aviation photographer but sometimes do animal or people also. Best Regards, Tim
First answer, yes, you must keep the back button depressed. Once you let up on the button the AF stops focusing. Second answer, no, not for me, subject tracking does not lessen the need for back button focus. All the options for customization of how the AF works on these cameras really makes using back button AF all the more necessary, in my mind, if you are to take full advantage of the flexibility. To deal with the different types of photography I use the C1-C3 Custom Shooting Modes. For me having 3 AF methods at my thumb tip make all the difference and is indispensable.
Thank you for the reply Ron and the clarification. Two more question (sorry)...1) does the Enable Eye Detect button toggle between on/off with each press? Not sure exactly the scenario you use this in. 2) You mentioned that you use the custom shooting modes C1-C3, is it possible to reset the button assignments only (but leave the C1-C3 settings)? I think so but wonder if you ever do that? Thanks again for the great video, I've watched it at least three times and I finally think I understand what you saying :-) Regards, Tim
@@timblank7767 Regarding your first question, I am not sure I understand what you are asking. If you are inquiring about the AF-ON back button that I have set to initiate Eye Detect with tracking, then no, it does not toggle between on and off. It just starts eye detect AF every time you press and hold the button down and stops eye detect AF when you let go of the button. So, it is not a toggle. If you are talking about my use of the M-fn button up by the shutter button to toggle Subject Tracking on and off, then yes, it is a toggle of sorts, but only if you have Subject Tracking turned off in the AF menu. Then the button will toggle Subject Tracking on and off with each press. Here is a bit of an addition to this that I did not cover in the video because you can only cover so much. You can use the M-fn2 button on the front of the camera to toggle Subject Tracking on and off and with this button it actually is working on the Subject Tracking setting in the AF menu. By contrast, mapping the M-fn button to do Subject Tracking on/off toggle does not work within the AF menu like I stated in the video. It really is a different way of working with Subject Tracking compared to what you get when turning Subject Tracking on via the AF Menu or by using the M-fn2 button the front of the camera. I will probably do a video about this difference in the near future.
As always very useful info thanks! I think I have found that with the manual focus turned on, I am able to pull the focus off the background or sky (when it picks that up) faster then pumping the focus with a quick twist in the right direction on the ring. I find it helps me to see a bird in the sky faster when my pre-focus was off as it often is? At least I think it does?? Once I press my thumb down on the back button focus method of choice the manual focus ring is disabled (at least on my RF lenses it is). Since I almost never take pictures of birds with my thumb off of a back button I don't believe it has impacted my focus on pictures (I seem to do that all on my own). But I am ready to stand corrected. Thanks again, your videos have cost me a lot of $$ ;) but have also added a lot to my skill set as a newbie bird photog!
Hi Ron, as always a great tutorial. I have recently sold my 1DX MKII and I am pulling my hair out weather to get the R3 or R5. Lack of cropping is my only issue with the R3 and it has many advantages over the R5, BUT the R5 has those megapixels which for feather detail is very useful. If you could only keep one, would it be the R3 or R5? Cheers Ian (UK)
I would keep the R3. The flexibility of the AF, 30fps, bigger buffer, better EVF performance all factor in. The 24mp are more like 30mp when you look at the quality of the images you get. When the R1 arrives we will have best of both. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment/
Sure I did. I stated that the R3 AF is fundamentally different than a camera like the R5, which has AF methods, the R3 has AF areas and all areas can have face detect with tracking and also eye detect. Thus, there is no face + tracking as you put it. Check this out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-71qUW1MOISQ.html. And this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hPyiha0pMhE.html. And this: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tMdnNLUcBWg.html. Cheers, Ron
Thanks so much for the comment. I do have a Sigma 150-600mm and I do notice that the focusing speed and accuracy are not as good as with adapted Canon EF lenses or RF lens. I have only done a little testing with the Sigma so I base my impressions on a very small sample size. Thus, please take that into account.
What if I’m sports photo maker but can’t get eye of athlete all times ex glover covers or helmet no eye etc then does camera do head /face det I hear r56 both can detect helmet no ?
If you like the R6 and the resolution of the camera is not an issue, I suggest going for the 24mp R3. The low light capabilities, AF flexibility, and AF performance are really great. Go with the R5 if you need the 45mp.
Everyone says the Sony A1 and Nikon z with 3D tracking improved are better at af than canon r3 ......I seen tests where the r3 vs r6 not much better iso in r3 as in r6 lol and 20 FPS is way than enough I’m sports shooter but culling 2,88 vs 10,000 photos is an easy choice. If the r6 had the same stacked bsi sensor as it should have not the flag ship 1dxiii sensor add the knobby af on point changer with or without eye calibrated start of ai servo......wait for R6 or R2C2 where the r3 knobby af will come with every body .
Seems like The trial and tested, time proven, bullet proof AF method is: single point spot AF, acquire tracking, reframe. It might not be the fastest but it simply works.
That is certainly one way you can look at it. It is the def the best way to go if you have multiple targets. If you have single targets zone and eye detect work really well. I do use eye detect from that starting point of a zone for really fast subjects so I don't have to the the spot on the bird to acquire the ability to track. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
I also wish the R3 had a higher res sensor, but I will say this. When I compare the images from the R3 to those from my 5DIV (which as 30mp) the R3 images are right there as far as detail goes when comparing images with similar crop ratios. So, the R3 provides images similar to a 30mp camera IMO. I personally want what the R3 provides but with 45mp like the R5. The R1 will be the camera to do that IMO.
I have used all of them. I shot the a9II for over a year and have played around with the a1 a lot since it has come out. The Canon R3 eye tracking is better than the Sony and the Nikon, well I won't even comment on the Nikon. They are all good. But, for the type of photography I do the Canon AF and the overall Canon colors, ergonomics, handling, etc. works for me. Overall, I am not a Canon or any other companies fanboy. I shoot what works best for me and as I continue to try a lot of equipment right now Canon checks the boxes for me.
