Canon R1 - Testing Autofocus And Action Priority AF

[@AndiusTeijgeler]

I did customize the Back Button Focus to be able to switch between different frames per second. Fully pressed the highest speed and half pressed a lower number of frames per second.

[@thoroughbredstl]

How did you setup your shutter speed like that out of curiosity? Thanks in advance

[@AndiusTeijgeler]

@ Shutterspeed at 40 frames per second ar full press and the current setting, usually 20 frames at half press. This is done through the buttons custom setting in the menu, where I use setting 3.

[@jasyamaha]

That was a fantastic display of the focus system. I can definitely see the improvements over my R3. Thank you.

[@Tedb1975]

Nice break down of settings and autofocus performance with various sports. You guys at BYU Photo always break it down. Great analysis.

[@byuphoto]

Appreciate it!

[@The_Idea_of_Dream_Vision]

I never thought autofocus will get better when the fr5/6 were introduced. This is jus awesome

[@EQUITYEQ]

Good point about registering the uniform or logo...I will try registering the logo as a priority face and see how that works. Great video!

[@byuphoto]

I will be working with registered priorities more, I need to test specifically and see if action priority completely overrides registered faces.

[@kennethlui2268]

@@byuphoto I think R1 and R5 II allows 10 people to be registered. In soccer, you can exclude the goal keeper for that. Would that be better to focus only on the team you want to photograph?

[@stillsandvideo]

Thank you for such a thorough and informative deep dive. Best explanation and demo of the A1's focusing.systems out there. Long overdue. Thanks again. PS: your clips are tremendous.

[@byuphoto]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@schmedu]

Thank you for the video. By far, you produce the most informative and best tech videos about (Canon) photography. You don't rely on flashy titles or KZbin thumbnails but instead on deep knowledge. It's clear that you are professionals who engage with the subject matter daily. You discuss and share minor details and workflows that I also recognize and appreciate from my work on the sidelines - details that standard KZbinrs wouldn't even know about. Thank you for that. I fully agree with the conclusion at the end. The fact that you can't instruct the camera to prioritize jersey colors is actually surprising and should arguably be simpler to implement than face detection or ball recognition. According to a Canon employee, the small sensor on the bottom left at the back of the camera is intended for a future feature related to content authenticity. (Something like the Content Authenticity Initiative: restoring trust and transparency in the age of AI.)

[@byuphoto]

Thanks for your feedback, its pretty rare for Canon to put a feature in a camera but have it disabled at launch. It will be interesting to see how they roll it out.

[@kuau714]

So glad I stumbled on to your video on the R1 I just got mine a few days ago and heading out next week to shoot some worldcup downhill racing in Colorado this really helped me out thanks

[@byuphoto]

Glad it helped, have fun!

[@misterericwong]

Thank you for including the link to the autofocus guide in the description! 🤍

[@byuphoto]

The AF guide answers most of the questions viewers have asked me about the R1, great resource.

[@marcelrothmund2447]

The best I have ever seen in terms of focus behavior. Thanks a lot for this in depth video!

[@byuphoto]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@patrickcallow2888]

Mine is on the way. Thanks for the video. In fact you have soooo many great videos. Awesome channel.

[@byuphoto]

Thanks for watching, you'll love it!

[@mitchconn7712]

Thanks for the info on the AF. Would not have looked at the AF manual until you mention it. A lot of information there. I can’t thank you enough , great job …. I have a better understanding of the AF on the r1 now.

[@byuphoto]

You're welcome!

[@stefantschersich561]

Great testing! Never seen such a detailed analysis and i've noticed the same issues with action priority for soccer and basketball. Tried it a few times, but switched it off for now and hoping for "Action priority 2.0" to come with a firmware update. Again: great job!

[@byuphoto]

Thanks for watching!

[@MarkReese]

When you're using '1-point AF' or 'Expand AF area' w/ Subject Detection (People) turned on, does the R1/R5II/R3 still grab the eye/face even if your 1-Point or Expand Area boxes are on the player's chest or waist?

[@byuphoto]

I find that the boxes extend beyond what we see in the viewfinder, so they do pick up the face and eyes if you are on the check, if you want pinpoint AF you should use "Spot AF".

[@MarkReese]

@@byuphoto - Awesome, thanks for confirming.

[@davidmag479]

Good honest review. I had the same experiences with the Action Priority on the R5mkii and switched it off. OK if you're not under pressure to deliver images, but for pro-sports or freelance sports photographers its too big a risk to use as it misses AF at the wrong times.

[@flw88]

Chief, Thank you for the great video of R1 reviews!!

[@beanballshazam]

Great full tutorial. Especially using the ninja. So we can see the auto focus points. Love that 400 2.8. I just started photography last year. I’m really loving these videos. I rented the r3 but my shots were very noisy. The crossing of athletes was hard also. I’m hoping the r1 will be my future camera. Especially with bigger hands the r5 compared to the r3 is way to small. I love the way the r3 fits my hand.

[@byuphoto]

I love the size of the R1, its the perfect fit.

[@gonygonygo]

A+ video! Thank you for the content!!

[@RogerZoul]

Very interesting video. I wonder how the r5m2 compares to the r1 for this type of photography. Thanks.

[@byuphoto]

Check out this video to see the R5 Mark II with sports: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZCkkmdvbrtreM0

[@vashahunt2077]

The William Tell bit was genius. I think wire and need photographers will like ‘closest to the ball’ approach but there needs to be an option for keying on a jersey for team photographers for sure. And the volleyball on the R1 is superb!

[@riotrob]

Thanks for this. Any feeling for the high(er) iso image quality vs the R3? There has been a trend this year to go backwards; R5ii = worse, Z6iii = worse, a9iii = worse.

[@byuphoto]

Better performance at high ISO, We'll do a comparison soon.

[@diabeticderek]

Great video! Which CFexpress 4.0 card do you recommend (i.e. brand name, speed, capacity)? Thank you!

[@byuphoto]

I'm testing a Lexar 1TB card that writes at 3000 mb/s. I'm also looking at trying out the new Delkin cards. We should have a video talking about cards and buffers next week.

[@diabeticderek]

​@@byuphotoperfect, thank you!

[@MrIowahawks77]

great video, thaks for showing your AF settings at the beginning. can you do a video on. BACK button Focus/Cotrols, I have no idea how to do that

[@byuphoto]

The way I set up the AF in this video will enable you to do back button focus. Basically I'm using the AF-On button for spot focusing, * for tracking and all the shutter release button does is release the shutter. I go into detail about it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aovciH-wjNx0eKcsi=BRGDbiwpqbeC_SM9&t=698

[@alanherzberg6070]

@@byuphoto I’m uncertain what you mean by “tracking” here. I assume you mean face/eye tracking across the entire screen, without any selection of a point or zone of focus on your part. Is that correct?

[@azppmd]

Amazing review! Thank you for the R1 details and your insights.

[@mbismbismb]

The R1 AF is such a magic

[@cdiderich]

What I still haven't read about is how well the camera tracks small moving subjects, e.g. cyclists passing in front of a monument or marathon runners (i.e., postcard pictures)? The R3 often jumps all around, but not where I want it to

[@stefantschersich561]

I tested it with soccer all across the field, trying to keep the goalie in focus with a 400mm f2.8. Slightly better than the R3, but not as much as i was hoping for.

[@Whatever-f6v]

Very well said and showcase of the AF.

[@actionimagesphotography]

How was the iso on the new R1 in your opinion? Better or worse than the R3? Indoor and night games are the areas my system struggles. Great work by the way!

[@byuphoto]

Better than the R3, but I need to do a direct comparison.

[@pulper11]

When at around 37:20 you indicate you are trying out tracking in football (as opposed to single spot) are you in a wide tracking area or a more narrow one? Thanks.

[@byuphoto]

Mostly in "Expand Area AF"

[@TubaSolotheHiker]

Hello. I listened to most of the video, but I do not recall hearing anything about battery life in comparison to the R3. As of this moment I have no interest in precapture, and my R3's currently run in airplane mode. I realize you guys do a lot more with your R3's (like FTP/Networking/Sending Pictures to Photo Shelter, etc.). Anything you can say about the battery life in general? In your scenarios, do you notice at least similar battery life to your R3's when it comes to real working environments? Thank you!

[@byuphoto]

So far battery life is comparable with the R3 if not slightly better.

[@TubaSolotheHiker]

@ Thank you for the information and thank you for all the content you all produce. It’s been very helpful to me over the last few years. All the way back to the 1DX Mark III. I just ordered my R1 Yesterday from B & H. It’s supposed to be here Monday. Very excited to see the differences between the R3 and R1! Have a great day!

[@3-piece129]

Great video and shots. Are they all SOOC or were they edited? Specifically the football ones. They were very clean. I gather they were shot at F4, what about the other settings because there isn’t any noise in them. Thank you!

[@byuphoto]

Only the photos from the intro and the closing montage are edited. Everything else is captured by attaching a Ninja recorder to the camera for playback. The images are pretty clean.

[@vashahunt2077]

The William Tell bit was genius. I think wire and need photographers will like ‘closest to the ball’ approach but there needs to be an option for keying on a jersey for team photographers for sure.

[@mikede2464]

Wow....face tracking is unbelievably good....incredible.

[@tomraymond1181]

Jaren, Sincerely appreciate you taking the time to put this video together. These are my questions / comments: Your AF points are displayed on the screen in red. With my R1 they are blue. Can the color be changed, because we can react faster to red than blue ? Notice you shoot outside (3 point) BBall long after the ball has left the players hands (no defender in their face). To me the scene is over as soon as the ball is off their fingers. Comment ? I have only shot two BBall games with the R1, and I agree about not using precapture there. A batter at the plate should show off what precapture can do. Of Everything you shot, the results with Volleyball are a major, major improvement. It remains the hardest team sport to capture, but the R1 will certainly improve your chances of great images. Any thoughts on autofocus performance with RF vs EF (with adapter) on the R1 ? I have noticed difficulty in focus on the R3 with players small in the frame (far away) with EF glass. Finally, wanna make a quick $100 million ? Invent the "remove ref" PS tool that not only clones out the ref, but layers in what was behind his/her black pants ! As an old timer who started out shooting manual focus on film for many national clients, SI, ESPN, Athlon, etc. we certainly have come a long long way.

[@byuphoto]

When you playback an image the AF point shows up red, it is blue while I am actively photographing. Ability to set your own color would be a nice addition. As to the 3 point shots, I'm shooting a bit more than normal to check out AF behavior in sequences, not a reflection of how much I capture normally. I notice very little falloff when using EF lenses with adapters. My 400/500/600 are all EF and work great, but i just bought a new 400 rf lens so I can compare the two as soon as it comes in. Time for refs to start wearing camo or ref the games while sitting behind us photogs.

[@johnrowland7739]

Thanks, great video. Freelance sports photography doesn't pay much so it is nice to know everything about a camera before dropping 6G's on it. No mention of rolling shutter so I guess that is not an issue? (except maybe a baseball bat)

[@adamx12m]

I see many AF similarities with the R5m2, especially at 40:30 when the player with the ball is obstructed by other players the AF will just jump for no reason after only 2 or 3 shots of not being visible all while at 30fps. Same exact thing a 1:14:27, drives me crazy. With football the AF jumpiness was improved when I set the case to -2, +2. Your R1 sequences do appear to be a little more sticky with the long sequences but agree with your comments at end about more sticky AF needed. For me I've configure the shutter button with AF, subject tracking ON and no eye tracking with a small vertical AF area defined and use the back button like the 1dx's with no whole area, no subject, no eye tracking, spot af. So depending on the action toggle between the two buttons. I've also seen w/R5m2 sequences where 25 shots will be in focus and then two are OOF and then the next 20 are in focus, this has been repeatable and it's always two images. At 53:00 the R3 would do this quite a bit, AF on some random face. Takes a lot of practice to trust smarter AF. Nice job sharing your R1 findings, Canon is improving AF but more work to do. The sensor on back I read was a motion sensor for detecting a person’s face or body and is currently disabled.

[@byuphoto]

Good suggestions, I'm going to play with settings a bit more this week. Always room for improvement.

[@adamx12m]

@@byuphoto I've also seen the R5m2 be able to register a face with a helmet but no idea if this would improve stickyness since I haven't tested. I'm doing the same thing you are but with DPP analyzing the focus points and nuisances, very helpful since quite a bit exif data with camera settings is shown.

[@easer777]

Changing the preferred uniform could be done with a custom button, toggling the two (or more, for instance in cycling) colours....

[@byuphoto]

Love the options that this would give us!

[@RCP-productions-videos]

Which CFepress card do you recommend for fastest write speed?

[@byuphoto]

Just published a video on it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZm5pH1nprmal9E

[@Hibachi-It]

Does your shutter speed matter when you’re shooting action priority?

[@byuphoto]

Nope.

[@michaelandryley]

I would be interested in the face tracking ability difference when taking a face shot from a portrait versus a face shot of how the player looks when they are game ready (less makeup, hair pulled back, etc)

[@byuphoto]

According the the AF guide from Canon "Registering people in an image that is close to the actual shooting circumstances can improve performance. For example, when photographing a rugby player who will be wearing headgear during a game and data registered without the headgear produces insufficient detection results, registering an image of the player wearing the headgear can improve performance."

[@richschmitt100]

Can you show better photos as samples?

[@karahoffmanphotography9246]

I photographed Skattebo in high school since he is from this area!

[@byuphoto]

Incredible Athlete!

[@cdiderich]

What would be interested to see/read about is by how much does the R1 autofocus improve in terms of output (versus focusing)? How many more "great" pictures does the R1 allow to get from one match over an R3 (for example). Is is 10%, 20%, 50%, or more? Maybe you at BYU could try to collect such statistics over the year? When looking at the volleyball pictures in the video, yes the autofocus works great and simplifies the photographer's work. But there are no pictures to me that I would not have gotten with an R3 [with my expertise of shooting volleyball for more than 30 years] (maybe with more tries)!? The question from a pro as myself is, do I get sufficient additional return on investment with more/better keepers over the next three to four years (up to the R1 mark II comes out) to switch from R3 to R1 (which is about net $4'000 per camera)?

[@byuphoto]

Quantifying how much better a camera is than its predecessor is a difficult challenge, because the answer will be different for each photographer depending on what they shoot, how they shoot, their experience, etc. My guess is that this is a great example of the law of diminishing returns, the more experienced photographer is going to see a smaller advantage than a less experienced photographer would. All I can say for myself is that I'm getting more images (maybe 20%?) with the R1 and the upgrade is well worth the cost.

[@cdiderich]

@@byuphoto I fully agree with you assessment. It really depends on what and how you shoot (and if you want to change the way of approaching the job with the R1). I definitely will have to try the R1 in my setting to see where I would land, especially as (based on what I read and hear) the "only" major differences between the R3 and R1 (apart from price) are pre-shooting and quality/modes of autofocus. In the past, Canon made my decision to upgrade easier as the cameras had more quantifiable relevant differences.

[@mikede2464]

Interesting...wonder why the focus point displayed does not reflect the actual focus point.....

[@cdiderich]

To address buffer overflows, Canon should have implemented CFexpress 4.0 instead of 2.0!

[@byuphoto]

Just tested buffer with a new CFexpress 4.0 card and it doubled the frames I could capture before running into the buffer, I'll post a video about it next week.

[@cdiderich]

@ Interesting, especially as the camera only supports 2.0, but maybe 4.0 cards allow the camera to fully exploit the 2.0 protocol!?

[@diabeticderek]

​@@byuphotoAmazing! I'm going to purchase the R1 in about a week. I'm crazy excited. Which CFexpress 4.0 card do you recommend (i.e. brand name, speed, capacity)? Thank you!

[@cdiderich]

What I would love to see is a "do not focus on" mode allowing the camera to ignore nets, water splashes (swimming, etc.), rain, sand (golf bunker shots), etc.

[@byuphoto]

Would be a killer feature!

[@ilitout]

Really interesting even if I'm not a Canon user. I wonder if you try to register a football player wearing a helmet...Maybe the AI will recognize any of your team helmets? Just an idea!

[@byuphoto]

As I understand it registering a face will only look at facial features, It can't recognize a helmet, plus when wearing a helmet faces are hard to detect, I'll be testing this more next week in the studio.

[@nickdual]

I subscribed, you do so, Bro and Colleague

[@JGZphotography]

As a professional sports photographer, I opted for two Canon R5 M2 cameras instead of the Canon R1 camera. I've equipped them with battery grips for extended use and easier vertical handling, which is uncommon. The R5 M2s have surpassed the performance of my previous Canon R3s. Today, I photographed two high school varsity basketball games, and the R5 M2 proved to be a game-changer, as described in your video. I captured 9,400 frames in CRAW with 55% battery life remaining in the grips. The R5 M2 matches the R1's action priority, pre-shooting, and tracking features, yet comes with a significantly lower price. Its 45 MP sensor is beneficial for tighter crops. In my view, the R1 is merely a refined R3, more aptly named the Canon R3 M2.

[@byuphoto]

R5 M2 is an awesome camera, my biggest complaint is the buffer when shooting sports. I will test the buffer with a faster CF Express card that I just ordered. Having used both I will say that the AF performance in the R1 is a step up.

[@darylhermann3792]

How do you handle the noise in the R5ii. I have it as well and find that above 4000 ISO because of the 45mp sensor there is a lot of noise in the raw files. How are you shooting raw or jpeg. If jpeg what are your settings. I agree the R5ii is definitely better than the R3 when it comes to autofocus etc. and while it is great to have that extra resolution, it comes at a bit of a cost being noise and low light capabilities. How exactly are you overcoming this? I’d love to know. Because I’m close to exchanging my R5ii for an R1 (the only thing holding me back is the 45mp). Honestly if the R1 came with a 30-35 mp sensor it would have been a no brainer……

[@richschmitt100]

You explain your settings too fast. Is there any reason for that?

[@f1joeh]

Is there any reason why you’re not using "Playback Speed"? You can find it in the KZbin settings menu.

[@krisbrantner1630]

Its a video... can you only watch it once?

[@richschmitt100]

@@krisbrantner1630 a lot of professional photographers don’t have the time maybe an amateur like you does.