Alternating between shutter button and BBF

I posted this on on another thread and didn't get any replies, so I thought I'd give it a shot here.

I've been happy using BBF exclusively for about eight years, shooting mainly birds when I started. However, in the past two weeks, I've become increasingly frustrated missing focus when shooting warblers and other small birds. Getting a later than normal start this year, thanks to World War C, means foliage is thicker than I like, with birds darting in and out of cover quickly. So, I decided to give shutter button focusing a try, thinking it just might cut my reaction time by a split second. The result has been a surprising increase in my keeper rate. I'm using a 7DmkII & 400/5.6 lens, BTW.

So, my question: I'd like to be able to easily switch between BBF and shutter button focusing (SBF?), without going through a menu. Right now I have the SBF settings as a custom function. Is there a better way for me to do this?

I've set up the C1 mode for Manual exposure, BBF (and fixed ISO and single focus point). In any of the P, Av, Tv and M modes, the focus is set to the shutter release button (and auto ISO, and the AF button is set for AF lock). Switching between P, Av, Tv and M modes does not change the button functions, but switching between any of the C modes, the buttons can have distinctly assigned functions.

My wife is comfortable with using a DSLR, but she's not a fan of BBF. So when she uses one of my bodies, she'll set the mode she wants and it behaves as expected. I use the C modes and it behaves the way that I want. (I've set C2 for Av mode and BBF...)

For fast action situations, I'll use Av mode which give me shutter button focusing and auto ISO. When my lens is on a gimbal and the geometry between my hand and the camera can be changing, I can appreciate that my thumb and finger on the buttons may not be as comfortable, but the shutter button is always there.

So switching between configurations is a matter of how quickly you can change the mode dial, if that's fast/easy enough for your needs.

Thanks, dasmith. This is sort of what I've been doing, except I'm using the custom modes for the shutter button and BBF as the default for the other modes.

I have C1 set for the shutter button, evaluative metering, and the center focus point expanded. To poke through some of the heavy foliage I've been dealing with, I've been sometimes switching to spot metering (something I very rarely use) and single unexpanded focus point. The problem is it resets to the original settings after maybe a minute, so I have to go back to the menus to get the setting I want for the next shot. My workaround for this is setting up C2 with the alternate settings, which is OK. What would be better, though, is if there's a way to toggle between just BBF and the shutter, without using a menu, and without anything else changing. Hope I made sense here.

tomj wrote in post #19066170
I posted this on on another thread and didn't get any replies, so I thought I'd give it a shot here.

I've been happy using BBF exclusively for about eight years, shooting mainly birds when I started. However, in the past two weeks, I've become increasingly frustrated missing focus when shooting warblers and other small birds. Getting a later than normal start this year, thanks to World War C, means foliage is thicker than I like, with birds darting in and out of cover quickly. So, I decided to give shutter button focusing a try, thinking it just might cut my reaction time by a split second. The result has been a surprising increase in my keeper rate. I'm using a 7DmkII & 400/5.6 lens, BTW.

That's something that is often missing in discussions about preferences regarding the initiation of AF. How fast is your subject, and how narrow is your angle of view? Either of these can make it much more difficult to fiddle with the camera in real time. It is hard enough just getting the subject in the frame, and seeing it, if the lens starts out out-of-focus. I don't like fumbling with buttons and camera grip with 560mm or 800mm with an APS-C OVF, especially when the subject is offering photo-ops that last only 1/4 second. I want to choose different shutter buttons for different settings (MF vs AF, flash vs no flash, etc), not turn knobs or press other buttons.