AF spot size on Eos R vs. 5D Mk 4

[daniela]

Hi Guys!

I´m considering to buy an used Eos R to bridge the time until an pro-orientated "R"-version appears on the market.
My question for birding:
How is the AF spot size for the Eos R vs. the Single-point Spot AF of the 5D MK iV? (for pinpoint focussing) Is it equal small?

Thanks
Daniela

 

[LesC]

You can set the AF point on the EOS R to normal or small. I have mine set to small which is the same as the single AF point on my 6D MKII which I guess is the same as that on the 5D MKIV - it's pretty small anyway.

 

[YuengLinger]

The 5D IV has a smaller, Spot AF point, more suitable for precise focusing.

Understanding Canon 5D Mark IV Autofocus – AF Points & AF Areas

In our previous post about the Canon 5D Mark IV, we covered the basics of how auto focus works for still photography and the different auto focus modes. If you’re wondering wha…

blog.lensprotogo.com

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Daniela, The "R" has a small spot option which does not seem to me to be quite as small as my 5D MK IV, but its adequate for most everything. I don't think its a issue. I seldom use it.

 

[daniela]

Thank you for your postings.
I hope the spot of the Eos R is small enough for my needs. I use the small spot of my 5D IV very often, when I shoot small birds or birds that are far away. Using the small spot, most of my pictures are "eye-sharp".


By the way, I left Canon this summer with buying an Sony Alpha 7 R Mark 4 combined with the Sony 200-600mm lens. This is an very good camera, good picture quality at low Isos, but an confusing menu. My need seemd to be satisfied, Canon does not offer such an combination with high MP, fast AF and 600mm at low weight.
But in practice, I am not satisfied. There is an small AF spot missing. The flexible spot is not small enough. So many pictures are not sharp at the eye. It is an lottery game, if the eye is sharp or something around, like nearer parts of the bird. Stopping down is possible in bright conditions, but if you need faster exposure times, this works not well.
I will switch back to the EOS R or 5DIV and my heavy primes. My 5DIV is out of duty - forever - a new body is needed.

 

[AlanF]

Thank you for your postings.
I hope the spot of the Eos R is small enough for my needs. I use the small spot of my 5D IV very often, when I shoot small birds or birds that are far away. Using the small spot, most of my pictures are "eye-sharp".


By the way, I left Canon this summer with buying an Sony Alpha 7 R Mark 4 combined with the Sony 200-600mm lens. This is an very good camera, good picture quality at low Isos, but an confusing menu. My need seemd to be satisfied, Canon does not offer such an combination with high MP, fast AF and 600mm at low weight.
But in practice, I am not satisfied. There is an small AF spot missing. The flexible spot is not small enough. So many pictures are not sharp at the eye. It is an lottery game, if the eye is sharp or something around, like nearer parts of the bird. Stopping down is possible in bright conditions, but if you need faster exposure times, this works not well.
I will switch back to the EOS R or 5DIV and my heavy primes. My 5DIV is out of duty - forever - a new body is needed.

I use spot focus on my Canons all the time as well for homing in on small birds surrounded by foliage, and haven't bought a Canon DSLR without it for that reason, but I haven't noticed it is necessary for sharp eye focus. If the bird is close enough that the narrow depth of field means that you have to focus on the eye, then the normal large square should be small enough to focus around the eye. With the introduction of animal eye focus to mirrorless, the problem of missing eye focus should go away. Does the animal eye focus on your A7RIV work?

 

[daniela]

I use spot focus on my Canons all the time as well for homing in on small birds surrounded by foliage, and haven't bought a Canon DSLR without it for that reason, but I haven't noticed it is necessary for sharp eye focus. If the bird is close enough that the narrow depth of field means that you have to focus on the eye, then the normal large square should be small enough to focus around the eye. With the introduction of animal eye focus to mirrorless, the problem of missing eye focus should go away. Does the animal eye focus on your A7RIV work?

Well, Mr. Alan, it works on animals and persons that are just some meters away from you and have normal sized eyes, like an dog or cat. With smaller eyes like the eyes of an Robin, it struggles often. I´ve tried it frequently. I have an Robin that is quite "trustful". I can come 3 m near to him and take pictures of him. But 50% of the shots are not really sharp and the AF takes a long time until it hits the eye, or not.
Problematic are also hairs in front of the eye. The whiskers of our cat and the long hairs of our dog misled the AF and produce sharpness on them, not on the eyes.
Mostly, on bigger eyes you can trust on the Alpha 7´s animal-eye-AF. It works. But the engeneers can still do a lot of improvements.

In my special situation (small bird eyes, or larger birds that are far away, or birds that are surrounded by wood, grass, e.g.), I was not able to get it working properly. Sometimes the AF "finds eyes", where there are no (misinterpretation of structures), or does not find any structure to get sharp. Animal AF turned off, the Af works faster, but the spot-AF-field is often to big to hit the eye.

Here the 5D Mk IV did an better job with the small AF-spot.

If anyone knows something I can improve on my Sony body, tell me

Daniela

 

[AlanF]

Well, Mr. Alan, it works on animals and persons that are just some meters away from you and have normal sized eyes, like an dog or cat. With smaller eyes like the eyes of an Robin, it struggles often. I´ve tried it frequently. I have an Robin that is quite "trustful". I can come 3 m near to him and take pictures of him. But 50% of the shots are not really sharp and the AF takes a long time until it hits the eye, or not.
Problematic are also hairs in front of the eye. The whiskers of our cat and the long hairs of our dog misled the AF and produce sharpness on them, not on the eyes.
Mostly, on bigger eyes you can trust on the Alpha 7´s animal-eye-AF. It works. But the engeneers can still do a lot of improvements.

In my special situation (small bird eyes, or larger birds that are far away, or birds that are surrounded by wood, grass, e.g.), I was not able to get it working properly. Sometimes the AF "finds eyes", where there are no (misinterpretation of structures), or does not find any structure to get sharp. Animal AF turned off, the Af works faster, but the spot-AF-field is often to big to hit the eye.

Here the 5D Mk IV did an better job with the small AF-spot.

If anyone knows something I can improve on my Sony body, tell me

Daniela

I must admit I find it much easier to use a DSLR for bird photography than a mirrorless precisely because of point focus. I passed on the 80D as it doesn't have point focus and bought the 90D as it does, amongst other improvements.

 

[Kit Lens Jockey]

Even the small AF point on the EOS R is larger than the small AF point appears on the 5D MkIV.

However, I say "appears" because I can remember reading somewhere, I forget where, that the "small" point that you see in the viewfinder of the 5D is not necessarily the actual size of the focusing point. The little square inside the square in the viewfinder is just a symbol, indicating that you're using a smaller point.

Overall, using the EOS R, even though I wish the "small" AF frame size was even a little smaller, I haven't had a lot of issues with it being so big that it causes problems with shooting. As long as I put the middle of the point on what I want to focus on, it usually gets focus ok.

 

[mkamelg]

By the way, I left Canon this summer with buying an Sony Alpha 7 R Mark 4 combined with the Sony 200-600mm lens. This is an very good camera, good picture quality at low Isos, but an confusing menu. My need seemd to be satisfied, Canon does not offer such an combination with high MP, fast AF and 600mm at low weight.
But in practice, I am not satisfied. There is an small AF spot missing. The flexible spot is not small enough. So many pictures are not sharp at the eye. It is an lottery game, if the eye is sharp or something around, like nearer parts of the bird. Stopping down is possible in bright conditions, but if you need faster exposure times, this works not well.
I will switch back to the EOS R or 5DIV and my heavy primes. My 5DIV is out of duty - forever - a new body is needed.

This camera model has some problems when working with long zooms. Please, start reading from this post https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4419725?page=6#forum-post-63246107 until the end of the thread.