hj Loc: Florida

I am shooting community college soccer daytime pics using a Canon 80D with the EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens. I'm confused which focus setting I should use on the Canon 80D. Thanks for suggestions.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

Do you mean aperture and or shutter?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Try the following settings and 80D manual references:

AI Servo - Chapter 3 - Setting the AF and Drive Modes, pg 116

Zone AF (or Large Zone AF) - pg 120

High Speed Continuous Shooting - pg 138

If you use Manual for your exposure, try working from f/5 at all times with your 70-200L. Let the ISO vary against your desired shutterspeed.

Have your IS active at all times. In AI Servo, half-hold the shutter and let the camera / lens continuously focus as you track the action, then push all the way to capture images in bursts of 1- to 3-seconds.

Chromodynamics6 Loc: Beverly Hills Ca.

I'm guessing AI Servo

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

I think hj is referring to the auto/manual focus settings - S A C M on my camera. S= single shot-camera focuses and locks with half depression of the shutter button; A= switches between S and C depending on the motion of the subject; C= continuous re-focus as the subject moves; M= manual focus. For sports I prefer the Continuous focusing. One of the other variables is the type of focus selected, i.e., spot, center weighted or multi segment. To follow an individual player I normally use spot but, you have to make sure the "spot" is on the right place, or the right person. Occasionally, if I know where the action is going to occur, I'll be in M and zone focus on a certain area keeping in mind the Depth-Of-Field with different apertures.

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

Sorry duplicate post

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

For sports photography, I would ONLY use AI Servo focus mode and I'd use it with Back Button Focus (to set that up, on 80D all you need to do is disable AF from the shutter release button... using the button customization menu to set that to "meter", instead of "AF").

Most of the time I use Single Point, manually selected. It's up to you which point to use, but I often use the center one, switching to others only for special shots.

On 80D you also have two "Zone" patterns that you might try. I'd experiment with the smaller of those. This will likely cause some missed focus shots because when multiple AF points are enabled, the camera will usually go to the one that's active and covering something closest to you. That may not be where you wanted it to focus. (I don't use Zone much on my 7D Mark IIs... I prefer to use Expansion Points... but 80D doesn't have that option.)

You can increase your "acceptably focused" shots a bit by stopping your lens down between f/5.6 and f/8. More depth of field can help hide some slight focus errors. The downside to using smaller apertures will be that backgrounds won't be blurred as much, separating the subjects as nicely. So look for plainer or more distant backgrounds to photograph the subject in front of.

Definitely DON'T use AI Focus or One Shot focus modes. One Shot is for stationary subjects. AI Focus really isn't a focus mode at all. The camera is supposed to determine whether or not the subject is moving, then switch to use either AI Servo or One Shot, as appropriate. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, in my experience.

There's no "Focus Confirmation" given in AI Servo... you have to trust the camera and lens. If you hear your camera "beeping" during focus, you're in the wrong focus mode to be shooting sports (I hear this all the time at sporting events... and I know most of those photographers' shots will miss focus!)

The lens you use will also make a difference in focus speed.... Canon USM or "ultrasonic" lenses are generally the fastest (also Sigma HSM and Tamron USD). Canon STM or "stepper motor" lenses are okay, but not as fast to acquire or as good tracking movement (don't know if other manufacturers have similar). Canon "micro motor" lenses (not marked either USM or STM) are their slowest focusing and most difficult to use for sports photography.

With slower focusing lenses, if you are unable to get the AF to track the subjects, you may need to pre-focus on a point where you know the subject will be and then wait for them to arrive, tripping the shutter at exactly the right moment.

You also cannot safely manually override the micro motor AF system without first turning it off at the switch. USM and STM lenses can be manually focusing any time without risk of damage to the AF mechanism. This allows you to use a de-focus/re-focus technique when needed. Don't do that with micro motor lenses. It will damage them.

There may be some other tweaks that can be done to the 80D (there are with 7DII), but I wouldn't get into those without experimenting carefully, to see what they do and how they work for your particular skills.

Practice is important, too. Some of it comes down to your skill and ability.

With sports photography it's all about getting as high a percentage of in-focus shots as possible. We all have some misses... we just try to keep it to as few as possible.... and we don't share them! It ain't always the case, but when I'm "in practice" and using my gear correctly, I'll get fewer than 2% of shots with missed focus (and it's always hard to say for certain whether it's the camera & lens or me that's at fault).

Other stuff besides focus....

For daylight shooting I usually use M + Auto ISO now (I set the shutter and aperture, the camera chooses the ISO to use). I often dial in +1/3 or +2/3 ETTR too... but that depends on the situation and the particular camera model. With particularly light colored or dark colored situations, I'll dial some Exposure Compensation in, as needed.

I use Canon's Evaluative metering 95% of the time in good daylight.

I shoot high speed continuous mode all the time, but I only shoot short bursts typically. Even doing that I often shoot several thousand images at an event (with two or three cameras)... and am spending too much time post-processing already, so I just try to rein myself in and not take to many shots.

I shoot RAW and in Adobe RGB most of the time, in broad daylight I'll use Auto White Balance. I'll make JPEG, sRGB proofs from my images. Later, if and when needed I'll make more fully finished images in whatever file type, color space, size is needed.

hj Loc: Florida

Yes as some have surmised my confusion is which area selection mode to use... single point, zone AF, large Zone AF and 45 point AF. I always use Al Servo and IS. Heading to church so will review responses when I get home this afternoon. Look like lots of info already given, but some contradiction between photographers, such as one says to almost always use single point and another says to never us it for soccer.

khorinek

This photo was shot with my Canon 5D III, 70-200 f/2.8 IS L lens at Shutter Priority, Shutter Speed, 1/1000, Aperture F/6.3, ISO 2500, zoom 400mm (with a 2x Extender) Using single point focus, AI SERVO and Back button focus and high speed continuous shooting. At 7:00 pm on a sunny, early evening.

(Download)

ggab Loc: ?

ggab Loc: ?

Also, Read pages 416-423 in your manual. They address custom functions related to AF.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

If the half hold is too much of a pain, you can also switch to back button focus. But it is a matter of personal preference for sports shooting. I use BBF for most running events unless I am shooting all runners as they cross the finish line where I switch to half holding. Using BBF at a finish line can lead to a numb thumb and you aren't sure if it is engaged or not.
If you are not great at tracking, you may want decrease the tracking sensitivity so that the camera does not switch to a new subject before you are ready.
Since soccer is a sport wiht sudden changes in direction, you will also want to think about tracking acceleration. A setting of +1 might be good, but you could also try +2 but it gets a little wonky for me at +2.
First image priority is a setting you will want to think about. I prefer to lean toward confirming focus prior to the first image shutter. But if you are relying on burst mode, this will slow it down a bit.
For second image I tend toward the shutter side. I mean I am shooting in burst for a reason.

Gampa

Chg Canon’s recommendations are spot on. Good luck.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

ggab Loc: ?

Agreed with these settings. If my first shot, in burst mode, is not in focus the camera will not take a picture.
What's the point of taking a bunch of pictures that are not in focus??
This requires anticipation of action and tracking the action through the viewfinder instead of just picking the camera up and shooting, but you will get more keepers.

Good luck.