PhotoPlus_Issue_128_July_2017

EOS S.O.S
Speed up AF setup
Ask Brian!
Confused with
your Canon DSLR?
Email EOSSOS@
futurenet.com
You need to be able to move AF points
around the frame when capturing fast
action using AI Servo tracking focus
Faster focusing
Tweak your camera focus settings for quicker performance
E
OS camera focusing systems
are highly developed tools with
a myriad of options to suit them
to a huge range of subjects. All this
flexible capability means that you might
not be working with the focus system
as efficiently as possible and missing
pictures as a result.
When your subject is unpredictable,
fast-moving and only appears briefly,
you need to have the camera ready and
set up properly. If not then you’ll take a
while to get the right settings and miss
the photo opportunity. For me this
means I can readily change the location
of my AF point, and on the right
cameras change the AF area too.
One of the best configurations is to
change the multi-controller to provide
direct selection of the AF points. You’ll
usually find it in the camera’s custom
controls. Direct selection of AF points
means that your thumb on the back of
the camera can change the AF points
whilst the camera is in front of your
face. If you’ve got an EOS 7D Mark II or
EOS 5D Mark IV you can also have the
AF Area Selection lever set to change
between the different AF areas easily.
These two settings speed up the way
I take pictures with my cameras.
With so many choices of AF area
it can be a lot of taps on the AF Area
Selection lever to get between the AF
areas that you want to work with. Of
course, this is faster if you disable any
AF areas that you don’t use. On the
5D Mark IV there are seven different
arrangements of the AF points. I mostly
use just three of them. I turn off the
ones I don’t use, which means I’m
faster at changing the AF area. With
only three areas active I must press the
AF area selection button just three
If there are too many AF area selections to
choose from it can be slow to move between
the ones that you prefer to use
times, instead of seven, to get around
all the AF area selections that I use.
First seen on the Canon EOS 7D,
orientation-linked AF points can be
another incredible timesaver. Simply
change the camera from landscape to
portrait orientation and the AF points
move automatically. There are three
different orientations: level, grip-up and
grip-down. One some cameras you can
also have different AF areas for each
orientation too.
I continue to be amazed at the
number of photographers I meet who
have never optimized their camera for
their kind of photography!
The Canon Magazine 89