-= Canon EOS R6 owners unite! Post photos and discuss.

Woof

Mountains close to my house.

I wasn't going to share this pic, because well the head is not in good focus.

I was after exactly this kind of shot: a Northern lapwing in flight, wings spread and backlit, knowing the setting sun would do nice things to those feathers. And then the R6 couldn't not just not find the eye, it couldn't find the face. It consistently focused on the inset of the legs, or on a wing, but never on the face. I switched to spot AF but then the moment and the bird were gone. This happened again and again with birds up against the sun, Godwits too. I had a whole series of out of focus heads. It was quite maddening. And Spot-AF didn't help. I still ended up with soft heads. The latest firmware update has improved the Eye/tracking AF truly significantly and I hope they fixed whatever this was too, but I won't know until I get back into the field, shooting these birds again.

Here's the bird. I could only do a small crop and I probably oversharpened the head to make it look like it was in focus. But it was not. Such a pity, because he was right in front of me and it's a great pose and had the face been in focus, I could have had the bird fill the frame more.

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Levina I sometimes find that using expand AF works best in some situations. Especially when shooting geese and the AF grabs the wrong bird. In your photo the eye is at an angle that would make detection difficult.

Don1 wrote in post #19328929
Levina I sometimes find that using expand AF works best in some situations. Especially when shooting geese and the AF grabs the wrong bird. In your photo the eye is at an angle that would make detection difficult.

Thanks, Don. That could be an explanation but the problem is that it missed focus consistently with backlit birds, regardless of head turn and where the eyes were. The sun in my back, no problem. So I tend to think it was the backlighting that threw the AF off.

Before this experience, and shooting from home or in a nearby park, I shot back-button focus exclusively like I always have, with Eye-AF tracking as my basic AF method on the AF-ON button and with Zone-AF as assist. But I have changed my set-up since and put AF back on the shutter. I never thought I would do that again but I did and I find it works better. I now have Eye-AF on the shutter button and Zone-AF on the AF-ON button. Spot-AF is on the * button.

When I was testing this set-up I had it registered in C1 and found myself liking it so much better that it almost immediately became my default method. I have BBF now under C1 for when I need that.

Going through all my R6 images, deleting tons of shots, a lot of them gulls. But sometimes I come across an image and think "that's not bad".
Magpie on another grey day with flat light. I don't often see them carrying nesting material.

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Very nice I would be pleased with that.

Mike Dodd wrote in post #19330096
Very nice I would be pleased with that.

Yes, I’m pleased. I just wish light would have been nicer. Thank you!

HELP!!!!

Finally brought and received my R6. I'm happy even though I have yet to go out and take pictures. Been setting up all the menu stuff which is quite an eye opener.

Here is my "first" issue which I'm sure some of you R6 owners will know the answer.

IBIS ... I read that when you have an image stabilized lens on the camera and the IS is turned on that the IBIS automatically is active in addition to the IS on the lens assuming it is turned on. Then I read that the IS (Image Stabilizer) mode in the Camera menu Page 7 #1 is not even present when you have an IS capable lens mounted on the camera. Apparently that menu item was only visible when a non-IS lens was mounted on the camera. This must have been in the early days and now when I look at that menu item it does appear and you can Enable or Disable it.

So my question is 'should that item be enabled to be sure I have IBIS working'?

i-G12 wrote in post #19331064
HELP!!!!

Finally brought and received my R6. I'm happy even though I have yet to go out and take pictures. Been setting up all the menu stuff which is quite an eye opener.

Here is my "first" issue which I'm sure some of you R6 owners will know the answer.

IBIS ... I read that when you have an image stabilized lens on the camera and the IS is turned on that the IBIS automatically is active in addition to the IS on the lens assuming it is turned on. Then I read that the IS (Image Stabilizer) mode in the Camera menu Page 7 #1 is not even present when you have an IS capable lens mounted on the camera. Apparently that menu item was only visible when a non-IS lens was mounted on the camera. This must have been in the early days and now when I look at that menu item it does appear and you can Enable or Disable it.

So my question is 'should that item be enabled to be sure I have IBIS working'?

You got one! Congratulations!

As to IBIS. Are you sure it's not "Digital IS" you are seeing in that menu when a lens that has IS is mounted? Because Digital IS that is for movie recordings, not for stills.