bleirer

I'm trying to set up my C1 settings, Canon RP. Bewildering array of choices. My C1 will be for handheld outdoor, hiking, etc. FV mode. For focus I think I've settled on having the half shutter press be exposure lock while pressed and not focus, freeing my thumb for touch and drag AF on the black lcd when my eye is at the viewfinder, with AF lock set to the af on button also under my thumb. My working assumption is to track with my thumb and then move my thumb to af on if needed to lock focus, and use the half shutter press to lock exposure if needed. Any better options, in your opinion? Or, how do you personally do back button focus?

CamB Loc: Juneau, Alaska

None of the above. I've set BBF to use with both the buttons on the front of my camera. I operate it with my fingers. Using either button gives me a choice depending on how I am holding my camera. This keeps my thumb free to smear my glasses. I am a left eyed shooter. I use Nikon but Canon must have programable buttons on the front too.
...Cam

Robert1 Loc: Davie, FL

Pardon the ignorance, but what BBF stand for in photography?

Tigger1 Loc: Surrey, BC Canada

Hi Robert. BBF stands for Back Button Focus. A technique where you set up a camera to use a programable button on the camera for focus only leaving the shutter button for shutter release only. Instead of the typical factory preset half press for focus and full press to release (fire) the shutter.

Hope this helps your understanding of BBF.

bleirer

Hi Robert1, bbf is back button focus. This involves unlinking auto focus from the shutter button, and instead using a button on the back, af-on for example, to initiate auto focus. it's useful when you want to keep the focus at a certain point rather than it being reset by pressing the shutter when you take the picture. In one shot mode It's not usually an issue because your first locked focus is held as long as the shutter button is half pressed, but in servo mode focus is not locked so if you recompose you can focus on the wrong thing unless you have another way to hold the focus. One can definitely live without it, because it is awkward holding your thumb over the back button. I am not claiming any expertise on the subject myself, just trying out different settings on a new camera. There are lots of you tube videos.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

The front of my Canon camera (7DII) has 2 buttons: depth of field preview and the button that removes the lens. NEITHER button is used for BBF.

Robert1 Loc: Davie, FL

OK. Thank you guys. I got it.

bleirer

When you start exploring it, there are a lot of ways to do the same or similar thing, I'm not sure which is the right way. For example one could keep the shutter button at default, but program one button to switch back and forth from one shot mode to servo mode. So your bird lands, your thumb switches to one shot, it flies and you hope your thumb switches to servo in time.

Or another video said keep the shutter button at default and program one button to turn off auto focus while you hold it. So the bird lands you hold your thumb down to turn off focus while you recompose and shoot, release the thumb and you are back in servo. A plus to this method on my camera is that you get manual focus and focus peaking without having to switch to one shot.

If you want it to be easy on a tripod, it would be easier on the thumbs to unlink focus from the shutter button and set one back button to focus and another to exposure lock.

There are probably other ways, once you start going down the rabbit hole.

rydabyk Loc: Florida Panhandle

That is one issue that I have been having with my EOS R. The button just does not line up for me. I also have the 6D and that button is directly under my thumb every time but with the EOS R I am sometimes feeling around for it. I'm tempted to just put the focus back on the shutter button for now.

James Van Ells

I have set up two adjacent button for BBF. The reason is quite simple, when I am in cold climates I am usually wearing gloves and it is difficult to find the correct button.

Bill P

BBF is just another example of a camera company adding a "feature" just because they can, not because it does anything better.

bleirer

It looks like many buttons allow it. Menu maybe, with your left hand, and reassign menu elsewhere, or * button is closer to the thumb

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I've been using BBF since my film days with EOS-3, EOS-1V and Elan 7E (EOS-33?) cameras. It is anything but "some useless feature" added by the manufacturer "just because they can". In fact, it's a highly popular feature among folks who shoot any sort of action... sports, wildlife, etc. It's also fully usable with more sedentary subjects (in fact, that's the whole point of it). After learning how to use BBF, along with a few other focusing tricks, I saw the number of shots I lost to missed focus drop dramatically... even with active subjects.

The reason to use Back Button Focusing is to be able to use AI Servo focusing as your default mode for both stationary and moving subjects. AI Servo is Canon's name for continuous focus (Nikon calls it "AF-C", I don't know what other manufacturers call it). AI Servo is primarily intended for moving subjects. However, it also can be used with stationary subjects, as well. When you're able to keep the camera in AI Servo mode, thanks to BBF, you're ready for anything... moving or stationary, stopping or starting to move... without need to pause to change settings.

If you leave auto focus assigned to the shutter release button half-press, you aren't "doing BBF" and will not be able to use some techniques - like focus and recompose - while the camera is in AI Servo mode. That would usually cause the camera to re-focus someplace other than where you want it to.

BBF puts the photographer in more full control of when the AF system starts and stops... and potentially more control over exactly where camera and lens focus. It's more work for the photographer, but thmany shooters consider it well worth the extra effort when they're rewarded with a far higher percentage of correctly focused shots!

If preferred, many of the Canon allow you to swap the functions of AF-On and * (AE Lock) buttons too. On some cameras I did that because the AF-On button wasn't as large and prominent as the * button... or because the AF-On button was more of a "reach" with my thumb.

Older Canon and even a few of the most entry-level recent/current models don't have an AF-On button to use for BBF. Instead a Custom Function is used to stop the shutter release half-press from activating AF and reassign it to the * button. There are a couple choices in the Custom Function where this is done. Since you'll no longer have the * button to do AE Lock, one option is to have the shutter release half-press always activate AE Lock. For most people this is not a a good choice. While AE Lock is useful at times, it's sort of a specialized function and having AE Lock on every shot can all too easily cause exposure problems.

Another setting ("Option 3" on all Canon I've seen with this set up), disables AE Lock entirely, taking over using the * button just for AF. I always used this setting because it's pretty easy to simply switch to M (manual exposure mode) to get the same effect as AE Lock (rather than having to dive into the menu and change the Custom Function settings just to take a few shots with AE Lock).

This doesn't pertain to the cameras with an AF-On button though. (Except for the 40D and 50D when they're used with the BG-E2 or BG-E2N battery grip.... because those grips don't have an AF-On button, even though the cameras do... the reason is the grips pre-date the 40D, were designed for use with earlier cameras that didn't have the AF-On button. Canon never updated the grips to have the button too.)

The only thing that confounds a lot of people about using BBF and AI Servo as your default setting is that there's no Focus Confirmation, like there is in One Shot. If you think about it, this makes sense. One Shot achieves focus, then stops, locks and gives you Focus Confirmation. Because AI Servo runs continuously until you lift off the button, focus doesn't stop and lock so there's never anything to confirm. With no Focus Confirmation, you have to learn to trust yourself, the camera and the lens, that focus will be achieved. You have to learn how long it takes for focus to "do its thing" (varies depending upon ambient light, subject contrast and detail, lens focus drive, among other things). With some cameras and quiet running lenses, it can be hard to tell if AF is even running! Some of the newer models, such as 7D Mark II, have a little "AF" indication that appears on the focus screen to reassure you that it's working (if I recall correctly, this can optionally be turned on or off).

While on the subject of Focus Confirmation, I recommend enabling the audible "beep" that's used for that purpose. Since this only works in One Shot focus mode, the beep alerts me when I have the camera set to that mode. If I'm shooting moving subjects, I know right away that I need to change my settings and avoid taking a bunch of incorrectly focused shots. While shooting sporting events I often hear other peoples' camera beeping at them... and I know for certain that the majority of their shots of the active subjects will be mis-focused. They should be using AI Servo, which tracks subjects and keeps focus up-to-date. With One Shot that stops focusing and locks as soon as focus is achieved, all too often moving subjects will have moved away from that point of focus before the shutter is released. No doubt they will blame the camera and lens, when that happens!

Another benefit to using AI Servo as your default mode... and being able to do so by using BBF... is that a lot of modern zoom lenses are varifocal designs. Those types of zooms do not maintain focus when the focal length is changed. If using One Shot focus mode, you have to consciously make a point of re-focusing after making any adjustments with the zoom.... otherwise your images will miss focus. However, if you are using AI Servo the camera and lens will automatically update and correct focus... you don't even have to think about it. Parfocal zooms are designs that maintain focus while being zoomed... they are more complex and costly to produce, as well as requiring more exacting calibration. In fact, some... possibly even most modern zooms are at best partially parfocal. A lot will maintain focus during zooming when focused at a distance, but not when focused close to their minimum distance. But, so long as you are using AI Servo focus mode, it won't matter. Any loss of focus is immediately and automatically corrected. However, to use AI Servo all the time, better use BBF!

AF point selection is another thing entirely... It's separate from whether or not you use BBF. You describe doing point selection using the Touchscreen, which is one option on mirrorless or when using Live View on cameras with that type of LCD screen. Some other Canon use a "joystick", while still others use a "multi-directional" button pad for this purpose. Depending upon model, there also are "AF Pattern" selections. All Canon have at least two: All Points/Auto Selection and Single Point/Manual Selection. Only the latter requires use of the joystick, multi-directional button or the LCD Touchscreen. Many Canon now have additional AF patterns: Zone, Large Zone, 4-Point Expansion, 8-Point Expansion and Spot Focus (Higher Precision Single Point... no relation to Spot Metering). I haven't used the EOS R or RP mirrorless, but with the huge number of AF points they each have, I wouldn't be surprised if there are additional patterns possible with them.... if not now, maybe in the future with firmware updates or in the next generation models of these cameras. There are various ways to switch between the focus patterns. For example, 7D uses a two-button combo, while the 7D Mark II has a dedicated "collar" around it's joystick. All these additional focus patterns utilize the joystick, multi-function buttons or Touchscreen for selection purposes.

PattyW60 Loc: Northwest Illinois

Thank you for this informative reply, Alan!! I learned about BBF a couple years ago, from this forum. I tried it out and never looked back. I love it!!

bleirer

"Because AI Servo runs continuously until you lift off the button, focus doesn't stop and lock so there's never anything to confirm. "

On the RP you get a blue square for focus confirmation when in servo, a green one in one shot, and orange for no focus lock. I assume the R is the same.