Having trouble locking focus for 7D mark ii

I'm having trouble locking focus for birds in flight. Using my 7D mark ii and my 100-400. Set it to BBF and servo.

I tried everything from a small zone, to the middle 1/3 zone, to the entire full zone. Oftentimes for birds in flight the AF is jumping around everywhere!

What settings do you usually use? Does it vary depending if it's flighting towards you, away from you, side to side, etc...? Do you all switch "cases" often?

Thanks for your advice in advance!

For this particular one the focus points are exactly on his head, but the picture looks terribly out of focus.... Any suggestions please?

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Set AF to Case 1. Tracking sensitivity to -2. AF auto switching to +1 or 0.

Set your camera to Surround AF or Expand AF. The zone modes are only good against clear sky type situations, IMO.

If your lens has a focus limiter, use it.

Practice, practice, and then practice some more.

It was set to Case 1, default settings. Maybe your adjustments will help. I'll try.

I tried surround and expand AF and still had trouble really locking on.

"Practice, practice, and then practice some more." - Good advice!

Yep - take it out of zone. Use single point or single expanded and start in the center.

huntersdad wrote in post #17345633
Yep - take it out of zone. Use single point or single expanded and start in the center.

Thanks! Do you find it hard to track flying/quick moving birds with single point/expanded? I guess it's practice makes perfect. I know it's probably ME, not the camera. lol

Also, I have found that turning the IS (image stabilization) OFF when shooting flight shots can help.


if youre running a high shutter speed (and you usually are for flight shots) you do not need the IS on and the IS can slow down your ability to take a quick shot.

Take a look at how fast your markII is tracking and slow it down, you can see the focus went to the water. its a very complicated AF and there seems to be a big curve in the road.

I pay mo attention to the focus point red dot and look for where the true focus is, I'm not convinced the dot is keeping up

Yes, practice makes perfect when it comes to tracking.

I've never tried the IS off thing. I prefer it on using my 600 to stabilize my viewfinder. I'd turn it off on my 100-400.

I find zone very distracting with the focus points moving and jumping around. Single or single expanded has always been my go to. If I fall subject, release AF and start over. No big deal.

I also turn tracking down at least 1 notch, sometimes 2.

Thanks! Do you all use back button focus? If so, once focus is locked (relatively) do you "pump it" or hold it down? Thanks again everyone!

Here is a good read on what I think many call bump focusing.

http://www.birdphotogr​aphers.net …Bumping-the-focus-for-BIF

I do use back button focus and I do bump if I'm not getting the focus points where I want them. This I shot using all 65 points with face detect just to give it a try when I just got the 7D mark II ,.. I held on his face ,..the camera locked on to his eyes and color of his face then I could move the frame and put him in the frame where I wanted. Never tried this with any other camera I have owned. I'm lovin the 7d markII ,..yes the points were flyin all over his face but I took dozens of images and there all like this except for the one's where he moved and caused motion blur.

IMAGE LINK: https://www.flickr.com …98082677@N06/15​694657676/