80d focus points

When shooting BIF sometimes bird is in focus other times not. When using single point or zone 9 focus points I will check where focus points locked in they show locked on bird/birds and shot is not in focus, or when shows focus points locked on background and not on bird/birds they are in focus as in image below any ideas why.

How are you focusing? With AI-Servo, the camera will try to track movement with a pre-selected focus point. If that focus point hasn’t already been focused on, and you have zone AF points active, the camera will hunt for a subject (hence it’s better to first focus on subject). There’s also settings for adjusting tracking the best tracking scenario.

its on AI Servo I have customized tracking, focus first before taking shot etc, focus point blinks when I am on bird sometimes image is crystal clear focused perfect and no focus points are locked on and sometimes it shows focus points locked on and it is not in focus other times it works like i think it should and I get perfect photos

Partially, it could be the af point is slightly off from the box represented, and partially it could be what AF is doing, there is 'wiggle room' on what is 'in focus' particularly when using 3rd party lenses, but there is also a large difference between older and newer lenses and the body they are paired with.

Lens Rentals has an excellent series to help understand the limitations of AF.

Also, I have found that how well the battery is charged may come into play... older batteries at lower power may also affect AF performance in the last 10-20% of charge.

Lens Rentals Part 1. Auto Focus

The actual AF points in the camera, and the superimposed ones on the image review don't line up, just keep that in mind. It is a rough approximation. Also, if an AF point loses focus, the lens may rack focus to get back to finding focus. This is especially noticeable on 3rd party lenses.

Yes, the actual focus point size is large enough to see the wingtips of the birds that are flying in the image.
When in Servo AF, there's always a certain time delay from losing focus until the camera tries to adjust it. I don't have any 80D, but I presume that time out can be set in that model too. At least it can in the more advanced models.

chiefdeck wrote in post #18705507
When shooting BIF sometimes bird is in focus other times not. When using single point or zone 9 focus points I will check where focus points locked in they show locked on bird/birds and shot is not in focus, or when shows focus points locked on background and not on bird/birds they are in focus as in image below any ideas why.

Hosted photo: posted by chiefdeck in
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forum: Canon Digital Cameras

You do realize that if you use a specific AF zone but recompose before shooting, the AF zone in red will still be the one chosen at the time of focus, but it may not be laying on top of anything in focus in the frame?!