April 24, 2023

Canon R5 - back button autofocus

This is widely recommended. The idea is to disable the feature where half pressing the shutter button focuses and move that control to a button on the back of the camera. This lets you independently focus and then frame the image. There are 2 buttons on the back of the camera: "AF-ON" and "*" (or asterisk button). What she does is set up the AF-ON button to do "eye AF" and the asterisk button to do regular focusing. Pressing the asterisk once does single servo / one shot. Holding it down does continuous servo. Using the AF-ON button will look for an eye (and exactly what kind of eye depends on a menu selection -- human, animal, vehicle).

The second to last menu group (the icon is a camera with dots under it) is the "customize" menu. Go to Customize-3 and select "customize buttons"

The front button on my camera came set to "half press is metering and AF start", I change this to just "metering".

Next I go to the "AF-ON" button. I am offered a myriad of choices! It comes set to "metering and AF start". I select "eye detection AF".

Next I go to the asterisk button. It comes set to AE lock/FE lock. The second selection is "metering and AF start", but this can be fine tuned by pressing "INFO" to get a submenu that offers 3 settings. I make these "servo", 1 point AF, and AUTO.

She recommended "expand AF area", but I went with 1 point AF.

Lastly she has you press the "Q" button and change the second setting from "one shot" to "servo".

Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Digital Photography Info / tom@mmto.org