7d2 AF Servo question

Hi All, I'm having a little trouble getting good AF when the subject is coming towards me fast! I'm talking about rugby players running straight at me to get a Try (Touch Down for the Americans among us)

when on 10 fps burst I'm lucky to get 40% in perfect focus.

What settings do you all use in this situation?

Lens 70-200 f 2.8L is 2


Thanks in advance

I don't have any settings advise, but you should try to keep the active AF point/s away from swinging arms and legs. Try for high-contrast areas on heads or shirts. You might want to use single AF or spot AF points.

Oh, and there should be AF settings for you to review, regarding the 'rate of acceleration/change', and the time a new object can be in front of your subject, before the new object gets focus priority.

The same settings for basketball should work, I use case 4 I believe. Here is a canon guidebook on how to use and set up the af system for different situations. http://learn.usa.canon​.com …os7dmk2_afGuide​book.shtml

Part of the reason anyone sets a camera to 10 fps burst is in the hopes of getting some keepers in a string of shots.
ie: do not expect 100% keepers at high FPS.


The other option is to try and time shots.

IMHO Single point spot focus works the best,start with case 1,after that everything is just a tweak depending on what sport your shooting.Should be good to go.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #17983684
The same settings for basketball should work, I use case 4 I believe. Here is a canon guidebook on how to use and set up the af system for different situations. http://learn.usa.canon​.com …os7dmk2_afGuide​book.shtml

Thanks for this info.

I wouldn't try spot focus unless you have a lot of high contrast patterns on the subject(s) and it's moving slowly/predictably. It takes more processing for the camera to keep up and may slow down its ability to track - this according to the Canon training videos and manuals.

Make sure you have initial and subsequent shots set to focus priority instead of release priority, or else the camera will shoot when it's not at optimum focus.

If the subject is accelerating or decelerating, there's a parameter for that in the AF tuning; otherwise the default setting 0 is good.

Despite the recommendations, I always have better luck with tracking sensitivity set very low; the camera seems to grab a contrasty background very easily if my focus point slips off the intended subject even slightly.

Agreed, canon even stated that spot focus is slower.

Milutiche wrote in post #17982340
Hi All, I'm having a little trouble getting good AF when the subject is coming towards me fast! I'm talking about rugby players running straight at me to get a Try (Touch Down for the Americans among us)

when on 10 fps burst I'm lucky to get 40% in perfect focus.

What settings do you all use in this situation?

Lens 70-200 f 2.8L is 2


Thanks in advance

Have you tried case 4? It may suit the scenario that you are shooting in.
another setting I used is set 1st shot to "Release" priority and 2nd shot to "Focus" priority.
I used the 4-point AF Expansion or the Single point (non-spot) AF.

Thanks for the replies, I was playing around with the different cases in the first AF Sub Menu but hadn't changed the AI Servo 1st image priority & AI Servo 2nd image priority, I've now changed them to focus priority and not release priority now so hopefully I have a few more hits and a few less misses.
I normally shoot with a group of 5 focus points selected (AF Expansion)

Thanks for the link @Teamspeed

edit: I've set up a custom function and tried it out in my dully lit lounge with my two little girls jumping off the couch, it is so much better, although the fps is well down

Fps was down due to slower shutter speeds, and not necessarily the AF settings changes.

I think it's more due to the fact that it's actually refocusing for each shot because I had the SS set to 1/1000

Milutiche wrote in post #17984002
Thanks for the replies, I was playing around with the different cases in the first AF Sub Menu but hadn't changed the AI Servo 1st image priority & AI Servo 2nd image priority, I've now changed them to focus priority and not release priority now so hopefully I have a few more hits and a few less misses.
I normally shoot with a group of 5 focus points selected (AF Expansion)

Thanks for the link @Teamspeed

edit: I've set up a custom function and tried it out in my dully lit lounge with my two little girls jumping off the couch, it is so much better, although the fps is well down

hmmm... Did you delink metering from AF by employing back button AF-ON technique or back button AF-OFF technique?

Hi, yeah I've been using BBF for about a year and most of the time I prefer it, occasionally when I'm shooting lots of people like in marathons etc I go back to shutter button focus because my wrist gets too tired using bbf

Milutiche wrote in post #17985391
Hi, yeah I've been using BBF for about a year and most of the time I prefer it, occasionally when I'm shooting lots of people like in marathons etc I go back to shutter button focus because my wrist gets too tired using bbf

I see.... Maybe a hand strap would help. I am using the "Clutch" from Peak Design.

I configure AF-ON button for "AI Servo" and * button for "One-Shot" focusing.

Good luck!

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=cv6Zuxtyyeo