Spot AF vs Zone AF with animal tracking (1 Viewer)

[RichMan]

I'm looking for a better understanding of my AF methods. I currently have the AF-ON button set to Animal-eye detection and tracking, the * button to AF start, and the AF point button to AF method selection. I can scroll through my AF methods (spot, expanded, zone, ect....) with the selection button and then use the * button to focus. If I have a good view of the bird, I can just use the AF-ON button to do eye detection and tracking. That's the setup, but not the question.

Question 1:
I have noticed that when I focus using spot AF, the camera focuses on whatever is in the little box and the box turns blue when focused. Pretty straightforward. However, when focus using Zone AF, the camera puts several little blue boxes on an item inside the zone. The little blue boxes appear to try to group around the bird if one is in the frame, but not always. I was hoping someone with more experience could provide some information on what is going on in these AF methods.

Question 2:
When I use the AF selection button to select 'Face Tracking' and then press the AF start button (I have it set to the * button) the camera will lock-on and track an eye, but if I put the little white box on another object (with the bird still in the frame) it will often lock-on to that non-animal object and track it and not find the birds eye. However, when I use the AF-ON button (I have set to Eye Detection AF) it will jump right to the eye. I guess I'm saying that Animal Eye AF and tracking works much better using the AF-ON button set to Eye Detection AF than it does when selecting Face+Tracking AF method and pressing the AF start button. Again, just looking for some more insight into this.

Thanks

 

[Steve]

Hello Rich, Welcome to Birdforum, unfortunately I cant help you but Im sure someone will happen along and answer you shortly.

 

[Owen Krout]

I'm taking a bit of a guess here as I don't have the newest Canon tech, but it sounds to me like "Face Detect" is referring to human face detecting. Hence it gets confused when it can't find a human face. The "Eye Detect" however looks for just that, an eye to focus on, including either human or animal. The point focus simplifies the process for the computer as it doesn't have to search, just focus on whatever is on that spot. Zone focus allows the Face Detect to search for a human face and when one is not present, make the best guess it can as to what to focus on. Canon auto-focus does tend to "stick" to anything it locks on to and while that is great for birds in flight, it can be frustrating when it picks out the wrong thing to focus on and won't let go of it. When that happens either manually focus to indicate what you are interested in or quickly point away, focus on anything else and return to the bird your interested in and let auto-focus try again.

Hopefully, someone else with experience with the latest tech can answer more definatively.

 

[RichMan]

Looks like you're correct. When in zone, it puts a lot of little blue boxes around the face. It's set to Animal Face detect, so it finds animal's faces better, but it will lock onto human faces too. I'm testing this at home on pictures of birds, humans, and dogs, so I'll have to do some more thoughtful testing in the field. I'm thinking that for static subjects (birds), eye detect would work best if close enough, and spot AF if it can't lock on. I'm not sure about birds in flight. I've always used eye detect, but I've heard (on YouTube) that zone might be better. The zone box is about 1/3 of the screen, and I'm not skilled enough to keep a bird in that box at 500mm. Thanks!