Rudy,
Thanks so much for your reply. I have plenty of questions, but will start with a few. ...
Do you use autofocus on your R5? I find that manual focus just doesn't work in a birds in flight scenario. Are there particular settings that you recommend for the R5? (I know the camera well, so not looking for all the detail, just anything particular that you find more useful that usual)
...
Thanks again
Lane
Hi Lane,
Sorry for the delay but I'm finally done....
How I track birds in flight in video mode with the Canon 5:
The problem:
In video mode, when it comes to tracking subjects, especially moderate-to-fastmoving subjects like birds in flight for longer than a few seconds at a time, the R5 can easily lose focus. Keeping the focus locked on a moving subject for as long as possible, and when lost, re-acquiring the focus quickly has been one of my main goals in learning wildlife videography over the past 2 years since buying the R5.
Camera setup:
In the Customize buttons menu, in the video column, set items as follows:
[MODE]:MODE
[AF-ON button]: Metering and AF start (this refocuses the camera quickly, especially in Zone AF
[* AE lock button]: Eye detection
[AF point button]: Pause Movie Servo AF
[DOF preview button]: AF point selection (use top wheel to scroll through AF modes)
[M-fn button]: Still <- -> movie switching (prevents focus hunting when subject is stationary)
[SET button]: Set AF point to center
Note: in the RED7 menu - Shutter btn function for movies: Fully-press - Start/stop mov rec
AF -some observations and experiences
My preferred look for wildlife video is well stabilized footage shot on a good, solid tripod and a decent video head. All the information here assumes the use of these tools.
Because the R5 easily loses focus on medium-to-fast moving subjects it can't be simply aimed at a subject in AF + tracking mode and left unattended. For subjects like slow swimming ducks it's OK to stand back from the camera in AF+ tracking mode and view the subjects on the LCD while moving the video head with a handle to get smooth tracking, but for regular birds in flight this has not worked well for me. Instead, I put my eye right on the viewfinder eyepiece and closely follow the action while actively working the various AF buttons as needed. It takes a fair bit of practice to learn how to do all this handling without introducing too many bumps and shakes into your footage. Just pressing the AF-ON button can make your footage shake so practice is needed.
For medium-to-fast moving subjects
For medium-to-fast moving subjects 90% of the time or more I use the Zone AF mode rather that AF+ tracking mode. And the object of the game here is to keep the subject that you're tracking in the centre of the 4-corner square overlay in the middle of the viewfinder as much and as long as possible. If your shooting several birds such as a row of flying geese, place the AF square over the lead geese or whichever ones your are wanting to feature and every few seconds or more press the AF-ON button which repeatedly refocuses the camera. This will ensure that the R5 doesn't surprise you and suddenly pop out of focus. Pressing the AF-ON button while you're smoothly panning the camera on a tripod causes little or no shake in the footage.
This technique is pretty easy to master as long as the birds are flying on a fairly level, predictable flight path as geese typically do. Where things get tricky is with birds that suddenly move up or down enough to move them out of the 4-corner square in the viewfinder. When that happens the R5 typically looses focus very quickly and this is where the rapid focus recover in the Zone AF node is great. Just move the square back over the subject and keep pumping the AF-ON button until focus is reacquired. In post I blend together these two or in-focus flight scenes with the fade-to-black transition and it all looks great. By the way, the focus recovery process is quite a bit slower when shooting in 4K120 that the other video formats.
For slow moving subjects
For these kinds of subjects I often still use the Zone AF method described above because I'm very comfortable with it and get consistently good results. However, as I've learned to trust the R5's AF+ tracking mode more I now use that mode quite a bit for slow moving subjects.
For stationary subjects
Often I come across stationary subjects that stay in the same focal plane. These typically do not need to be refocused after the initial focus is acquired, until they move out of the focal plane. In these cases I don't leave the AF Servo running, but I pause it with my middle back button which has been mapped to that function as you can see in the list above.
Here's a typical wildlife scenario. I spot a Green Heron flying into my area of a pond and I'm busily pumping my AF-ON button as I'm trying to track it as long as I can. It lands on a log near me to me and then just stands there for a long time without moving. It's a perfect chance for some great close-up footage. Now here's where a common problem can occur. The constant refocusing of the AF Servo mechanism can sometimes cause the image to twitch slightly which can be especially noticeable in the eyes. Some of us discussed this in the Back Country video forum and how we deal with it. The way I deal with it is to disable the AF Servo temporarily with the Servo pause button. This is a toggle button so when you press it again the AF Servo resumes. This is like moving from AF mode to manual mode seamlessly in an instant.
Well, I think that about it. Sorry it's taken so long for me to get this done, but I wanted to do a thorough job that would be a help. If you have any questions let me know.
Cheers,
Rudy
