Autofocus on XS

Hello all. I have a Canon XS. I mainly take pictures of my daughter, but sometimes do portraits for friends and family. I generally use my 85mm lens for those occasions.

I am finding myself frustrated with my camera. It seems like the autofocus is slow. Is it me? Or is it slow on this model? I use center point only, continuous mode, and AI Servo. If I try to take pics of my daughter running around, I tend to get a lot of blurred shots. I know to keep the shutter speed high, and that doesn't seem to be the issue. The camera is totally fine for pics when she isn't really moving, but action type scenarios (a 2 year old in the park) it misses enough to frustrate me.

I stopped using my 'nifty-fifty' altogether, as that compounded the problem. Whoa, does the autofocus with that lens annoy me! And I don't use the outer focus points at all, because I had difficulty getting sharp pictures with those.

Should I change my settings? Or would an upgrade help me with this? Thanks for any insight.

marmatt1218 wrote in post #12303629
Hello all. I have a Canon XS. I mainly take pictures of my daughter, but sometimes do portraits for friends and family. I generally use my 85mm lens for those occasions.

I am finding myself frustrated with my camera. It seems like the autofocus is slow. Is it me? Or is it slow on this model? I use center point only, continuous mode, and AI Servo. If I try to take pics of my daughter running around, I tend to get a lot of blurred shots. I know to keep the shutter speed high, and that doesn't seem to be the issue. The camera is totally fine for pics when she isn't really moving, but action type scenarios (a 2 year old in the park) it misses enough to frustrate me.

I stopped using my 'nifty-fifty' altogether, as that compounded the problem. Whoa, does the autofocus with that lens annoy me! And I don't use the outer focus points at all, because I had difficulty getting sharp pictures with those.

Should I change my settings? Or would an upgrade help me with this? Thanks for any insight.

Could you post some blurred pics with EXIF data? AF speed shouldn't be a problem with 85 1.8.

I'll take some pics later and see what I can get. I am an avid deleter, and delete all bad shots on the spot. I don't have room on my computer for the bad photos! Thanks for reading. I'll see what I can do.

You probably were using the nifty fifty at 1.8 and with that narrow depth of field only a bit will be in focus, everything else will be more blurry, as you say.

I think that is the issue. If you set your aperture to 3.5 or 4.6, you should be fine.

Perfect storm, camera with mediocre focusing system, lens with a slow focusing system, shallow depth of field... You can get away with one of the above, maybe two, all three are going to be problematic together.

i agree with the others as a wide aperture is giving you a very shallow DOF and your subject is moving out of it too quickly.

The XS is known to have one of the better autofocus speeds of any budget DSLR. It's no 1-series camera, but I've never missed a shot because of slow focus...and children, like the small dogs that I shoot, tend to change direction very quickly. Now, have I missed shots in AI-servo? Yes, although that's more because of the pathetic RAW buffer.

I honestly don't like AI-servo with a slow lens, but the 85 1.8 should be plenty fast enough for it to work correctly. I'm going to have to echo a previous post and say that you should use a smaller aperture, maybe try f8.

If you do manage to take a few bad shots, post them up so we can read the EXIF data and we'll have a better idea of what's going on.

I do not shoot at 1.8. I want more than one eyeball to be in focus, you know what I mean? Although I never go up to f8, that's for sure. I tend to use 2.8-4.0.

Maybe I am expecting too much? When you take pictures of your kids on a swing, for example, how many do you expect to be in focus? 1? Most of them?

Thank you for your help. If the sun comes out (3 days of straight storms here!) I'll take my camera out tonight and see what I can capture.

Virto wrote in post #12303870
The XS is known to have one of the better autofocus speeds of any budget DSLR.

I would like to know what you're comparing it to as I was under the impression that Nikon equips even its budget models with good AF modules.

From my own experience the 1000D + 50mm 1.8 combo is pretty atrocious in anything but good light. I trust that particular combo as far as I can throw a sledge.

marmatt1218 wrote in post #12303892
I do not shoot at 1.8. I want more than one eyeball to be in focus, you know what I mean? Although I never go up to f8, that's for sure. I tend to use 2.8-4.0.

Maybe I am expecting too much? When you take pictures of your kids on a swing, for example, how many do you expect to be in focus? 1? Most of them?

With a swing you can predict the path of movement so you need to pan and you can double the amount of keepers. Keeper rate can vary and if you're shooting children or animals that like to move about in random patterns you're keeper rate may be 1 in 4 or worse.

jackerin wrote in post #12304015
I would like to know what you're comparing it to as I was under the impression that Nikon equips even its budget models with good AF modules.

From my own experience the 1000D + 50mm 1.8 combo is pretty atrocious in anything but good light. I trust that particular combo as far as I can throw a sledge.

The 50/1.8 has an atrocious AF. OTOH, the 85/1.8 is remarkably quick and accurate and the center AF point on my 1000d was just as fast and accurate as my 50d or even the nikon d90.

jackerin wrote in post #12304015
I would like to know what you're comparing it to as I was under the impression that Nikon equips even its budget models with good AF modules.

From my own experience the 1000D + 50mm 1.8 combo is pretty atrocious in anything but good light. I trust that particular combo as far as I can throw a sledge.

Nikon's budget offerings are very similar to Canon's AF wise.

jackerin wrote in post #12304015
I would like to know what you're comparing it to as I was under the impression that Nikon equips even its budget models with good AF modules.

From my own experience the 1000D + 50mm 1.8 combo is pretty atrocious in anything but good light. I trust that particular combo as far as I can throw a sledge.

To quote Popular Photography:
"Canon Rebel XS (yes this is a current issue) - For an entry-level model, autofocuses faster than many a pricier camera."

Now, if you put the nifty fifty on even a 1D4 and expect fast focusing, you're out of your mind. However, a quality lens like the 85f/1.8 or a 70-200 focuses very quickly without hunting.

Hey - I went out tonight, and I was not nearly as frustrated with the 85mm lens as I was when I would take out the 50mm lens. Perhaps my frustration is only tied that lens. Could be. I only recently put it away. So I did not get a ton of out of focus shots. I did get some, and here's a couple for you to see what I mean...

ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/640 sec
Aperture: 3.2
Focal Length: 85mm
Flash Used: No

I assume you are in servo. Are you holding down the shutter button halfway constantly or are you letting up on the button between shots?