R5 Focus settings

Hi everyone.

I have finally got round to fiddling about with the settings on my R5! Anyway I'm trying to get the "best of both worlds" scenario where I can use the back button AF to give me focus (separating AF from the shutter button) but also allowing me to use the star button to switch to eye AF

I followed instructions on this YouTube video,

View: https://youtu.be/-nnRqgXu7QI


The relevant part streets at 10mins 55 secs however I am now finding that I can only use back button focus with the EF button (which works normally)and when I try to use the star button to switch to I focus it will not allow me to do it.

When I look at the AF settings menu it seems to suggest that I can only do this if the tracking option is enabled. This makes perfect sense to me and I can't work out how it cold be different.

Can anyone tell me how this chap managed to get the two buttons working in the way that he did?

Thank you

I'm not clear on where you're getting off track from his description; and I'm not sure what you are referencing by the EF button. But, I'll take a swing here:

1. Open your menu and go to the AF.1 menu (first purple menu)
2. Set 'Subject to detect' to "Animals"
3. Go to the C. Fn3 screen (3rd orange menu w/ the camera icon)
4. Open 'Customize buttons'
5. Set Shutter Button to 'Metering start'
6. Scroll down to AF-ON and set to 'Metering and AF start'
7. Scroll down to * button and set it to 'Eye Detection AF' (not 'Eye Detection'; they are two different controls in that menu)

That *should* get you rolling; if not, lemme know which step is going awry for you and we can dig in further

Thank you. I've got it now. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong but it is working as stated. When I had EF button I mis-typed and meant AF-On button

I am using eye AF mostly but just want to override it occasionally. Is there a way to have the shutter button default to Eye AF and have one of the back buttons use spot AF temporarily instead?

EDIT
How about I use the control ring on the lens and set that to AF function and then just use that to select Eye AF or Spot AF with just one click of the ring?

willie45 wrote in post #19264772
Thank you. I've got it now. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong but it is working as stated. When I had EF button I mis-typed and meant AF-On button

I am using eye AF mostly but just want to override it occasionally. Is there a way to have the shutter button default to Eye AF and have one of the back buttons use spot AF temporarily instead?

EDIT
How about I use the control ring on the lens and set that to AF function and then just use that to select Eye AF or Spot AF with just one click of the ring?

You can swap your settings on the AF-ON/* buttons to put Eye Detect AF on your AF-ON for primary use and set * to Metering/AF Start and then make sure your normal AF setting is set to Spot AF. You may get away with setting the control ring that way, but I've found the best usage of that control to be changing Exposure Comp on the fly, myself.

Thank you. What I'm wanting to do is to have the camera set for Eye AF as default but with the option to override this when possible and revert to Spot AF. I have a condition which causes painful thumbs and I'd like to minimise their use as much as possible. As I use Eye AF mostly, if the AF On or other back button switched that on, I'd be having to press down with my thumb pretty much 90% of the time so I'd like to have to only occasionally press the back button for spot AF. I can't see a way to do that so I'm looking for a workaround.

Hope that makes sense

willie45 wrote in post #19265250
Thank you. What I'm wanting to do is to have the camera set for Eye AF as default but with the option to override this when possible and revert to Spot AF. I have a condition which causes painful thumbs and I'd like to minimise their use as much as possible. As I use Eye AF mostly, if the AF On or other back button switched that on, I'd be having to press down with my thumb pretty much 90% of the time so I'd like to have to only occasionally press the back button for spot AF. I can't see a way to do that so I'm looking for a workaround.

Hope that makes sense

I may not be understanding your setup completely then. Are you not using the back button auto focus setup? We may need to get a little more creative in use of the custom mapping and custom controls to get you where you want to be....

Hi. I started off trying the back button AF and found it a bit uncomfortable. I have a feeling it might cause me a fair bit of pain in the long run. I'm actually hoping to find a way to use the animal eye AF as standard and switch to spot AF if needed.

I'd like to avoid back buttons completely if possible, hence my question about using the control ring as I thought it might let do this. As an alternative, If I can't avoid it totally, if I only needed to press it occasionally to activate spot AF then that would be a reasonable alternative so I wondered if I could have Eye AF as default with the shutter button and another button to engage spot AF.

I suppose the other option might be to use the DOF button to engage Eye AF, though a bit fiddly.

willie45 wrote in post #19265467
Hi. I started off trying the back button AF and found it a bit uncoomfortable. I have a feeling it might cause me a fair bit of pain in the long run. I'm actually hoping to find a way to use the animal eye AF as standard and switch to spot AF if needed.

I'd like to avoid back buttons completely if possible, hence my question about using the lens ring as I thought it might let do this. As an alternative, If I can't avoid it totally, if I only needed to press it occasionally to activate spot AF then that would be a reasonable alternative so I wondered if I could have Eye AF as default with the shutter button and another button to engage spot AF.

I suppose the other option might be to use the DOF button to engage Eye AF, though a bit fiddly.

Ok; that's clearer...thanks! Ok, so, go back to your custom button setup and:
Set your Shutter button back to "Metering and AF Start" so you can re-enable AF there
Go to the AF menus (purple, AF1)
Set AF Method to face tracking
Set 'Subject to detect' to Animal, assuming you're working w/ birds/wildlife
That'll have you working with the face detection by default with no thumbs necessary

From there, it's finding a button that works for you to map the switch to. In fiddling around with it, it seems like your thought of mapping the control ring should work fairly smoothly, assuming you are planning to only be shooting with RF lenses.
Go to Custom pg 3 (C Fn.3)
Go to Customize Dials
Set the Control Ring to "Select AF Method"

Then, you can use the ring even while half-pressing the shutter to toggle between desired AF methods as needed. Let's see how that handles for you, at least. It'll get your thumbs much more out of the equation at the very least 8)

Thank you. I have an adapter with a ring on it for my EF lenses so I had hoped this would work.

It seems using the control ring will bail me out