Interesting Revelation with 7D2, Sports, and AF configurations...

I have shot the 7D2 for NBA for a few years now, and 2 years ago I moved to the 5D4 for a majority of shooting. Last night I had alot of time at the game to try some new things on the 7D2.

It is conventional wisdom, or at least general consensus, that spot AF just isn't really for fast action. I have stated this in fact myself, as has Canon, and a number of others have stated this too.

Last night I messed around with my general NBA settings. The reason was that single AF point on a player with the crowd behind him would often render an image where the camera moved off the player onto the crowd, something I don't get with the 5D4. The reason is, as I believe, that the AF point is larger than the box in the viewfinder, again general wisdom/consensus.

So I moved to the following settings:
- Spot AF
- AF setting - Tracking Sensitivity = -2
- AF setting - Acel/Decel = +2
- AF pt switching - -2

I shot alot of the game with these settings, and even at 10fps, almost all frames, the player I was tracking was in focus throughout their play, whether they were going up for a dunk, making a fast break, etc. I had a few missed shots, but generally the results were better than before with just single point or single point with assist, and a slight change to the AF settings.

The Spot AF was fast enough to track a player, surprising, given the Canon documentation stating that mode isn't really made for action, and that mode coupled with the AF settings, seemed to work very well.

Color me surprised!

Sometimes the unexpected is the only thing that works as expected.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18785044
I have shot the 7D2 for NBA for a few years now, and 2 years ago I moved to the 5D4 for a majority of shooting. Last night I had alot of time at the game to try some new things on the 7D2.

It is conventional wisdom, or at least general consensus, that spot AF just isn't really for fast action. I have stated this in fact myself, as has Canon, and a number of others have stated this too.

Last night I messed around with my general NBA settings. The reason was that single AF point on a player with the crowd behind him would often render an image where the camera moved off the player onto the crowd, something I don't get with the 5D4. The reason is, as I believe, that the AF point is larger than the box in the viewfinder, again general wisdom/consensus.

So I moved to the following settings:
- Spot AF
- AF setting - Tracking Sensitivity = -2
- AF setting - Acel/Decel = +2
- AF pt switching - -2

I shot alot of the game with these settings, and even at 10fps, almost all frames, the player I was tracking was in focus throughout their play, whether they were going up for a dunk, making a fast break, etc. I had a few missed shots, but generally the results were better than before with just single point or single point with assist, and a slight change to the AF settings.

The Spot AF was fast enough to track a player, surprising, given the Canon documentation stating that mode isn't really made for action, and that mode coupled with the AF settings, seemed to work very well.

Color me surprised!

I consider myself fairly well informed about camera settings for shooting [wildlife] action shots, but I've never read that spot point focus isn't the best choice for action shots. To the contrary, I've been using the smallest single point that the 7D2 offers for a number of years now [and I probably got the idea from this forum] and have suggested it to others on this forum. My reasoning is that I don't want the camera focusing on anything but the bird's eye, not the wave behind the bird. Aim small, miss small.

As far as camera settings:
I'm on Case 2
Tracking: -1
Acce/decel: +1
Switching: 0 (i don't have the option to go negative on Switching on any Case. Not sure how you are doing this.

Sports shooting where a player is moving around between other players is a bit different from wildlife, because tracking needs are a bit different, at least in most situations. Canon specifically states in their learning center articles that spot AF takes a bit longer to control and calculate, and thus it isn't the best option for sports/fast action. However it is indeed fast enough to lock and track players as they move around between each other and make fast breaks/moves, if I set up other settings to compensate.

It may be lens as well though too. I tried spot AF in the past with the old 70-200 2.8 lens, but perhaps the MKII of the 24-70 and 70-200 both AF faster making up some sort of delta that couldn't be overcome with the older versions of these lenses. In any case whatever allows this to work, I am pretty happy. The only issue now is high ISO noise vs the 5D4... I make due, but am spoiled by the 5D4.

What are your 5D4 settings for this NBA situation?

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18785044
So I moved to the following settings:
- Spot AF
- AF setting - Tracking Sensitivity = -2
- AF setting - Acel/Decel = +2
- AF pt switching - -2

I use single point AF and 0/1/-2 for those settings.

I tried spot AF on the 5D4 as well, and either it isn't quite as fast, or I need to try a different set of values. I tried the 7D settings and it didn't do as well at all. It will take another game for me to play around a bit to see if I can get spot AF to work on the 5D4. I have tried to use the same settings on both cameras over the past couple of years, and the two do not like the other's settings, they don't operate the same way.

This shot was a bit surprising, and I know in the past with my old settings, while tracking a player that gets caught up with other players in the area, the 7D2 would have switched off the player.

Full frame, then partial crop... Just interesting set of events last night and thought I would share my findings.

That spot focus in general would have more problem tracking something is easy enough to understand. With a smaller area to consider, the risk that the subject has no useful contrast within the peephole must increase.
But I presume the good result mentioned in this thread was due to the fact that there was a lot of, seemingly, useful contrast outside the actual subject, and the camera let itself be fooled to track this irrelevant contrast, instead of the intended one.

Correct, that is what is happening, I am shrinking the considered AF area down, I use that mode all the time for portraits, kids candid shots, wildlife, etc.

I have tried it in the past for sports but as Canon calls out, and we have discussed many times, it seemed slower to react and lock at times. However that mode, in conjunction with tweaks to my AF settings, shows that it can be useful in fast paced sports when tracking one player's movements amidst a sea of 9 other players.

I just wanted to bring this to the attention to the sports shooters out there, it isn't really relevant to many other areas of photography.

I have been using the smallest expanded group (5) for T&F but maybe need to reconsider that