I finally got a chance to sit on the beach and play with the Canon R5’s autofocus. At heart, I’m a bird photographer. How would this new camera function on fast moving birds? My DSLR is a Canon 1Dx. I hoped the new mirrorless had autofocus equal to or better than that camera.
I saw this small whitish bird flying over the water so I simply aimed and shot. To my eye, the bird was too far away to identify. I’m just shooting. 
The bird is a Black-bellied plover when I enlarged the photo to 100% 
This is the black-bellied plover when I enlarge the photo to 200%. Simple “grab shot” but the Canon R5’s autofocus found the small bird and locked-on it.
White phase Reddish egret “dancing” as it fishes for food. The autofocus is set for “animal eye” so it stays on the eye of the bird. My job is to keep the camera on the bird.
Can the autofocus on the Canon R5 separate one bird flying from a flock of birds? I took 14 frames of this black skimmer flying into a group of birds roosting on the beach. Below you can see the first seven frames plus bloopers.
Shot #1 — Black skimmer approaching a flock of roosting birds on East Beach in Galveston, Texas. 
Shot #2 — Black skimmer approaching a flock of roosting birds on East Beach in Galveston, Texas. 
Shot #3 — Black skimmer crosses in front of the royal tern. Danger! 
Shot #4 — Autofocus shifts away from the black skimmer to the royal tern. 
Shot #5 — Autofocus shifts back to the black skimmer as I keep the camera on the bird I want to photograph. 
Shot #6 — Black skimmer is slightly out of focus as the R5’s autofocus tries to lock-on the subject. I’ve made this harder for the camera by not keeping the subject in the center of the frame. 
Shot #7 — Autofocus back on the black skimmer but photographer not doing her job.
The R5 fires 14 frames a second so the above is only 1/2-second of shooting. What happens next?
Shot #1 but really #8 in the series — I get the camera back on the black skimmer. The R5’s autofocus shifts away from the royal tern roosting on the ground and back to the flying skimmer. 
Shot #2 — R5s autofocus is back on the skimmer now that I have my act together. 
Shot #3 — Black skimmer is in focus and I’m doing my job. 
Shot #4 — I get ahead of the bird but the R5 is still in focus because I have the wide focus area set. 
Shot #5 — Black skimmer lands and the autofocus is still right on the target. 
Shot #6 — Black skimmer wraps-up the approach and bird is still in focus.
Settings on the above: Aperture Priority, ISO 640, Shutter speed 2000, f/10, spot meter, Servo, Large Zone AF Horizontal, AF-2, 100-500mm lens at 500mm with 1.4x teleconverter.
Conclusion — the Canon R5’s autofocus system is equal to – if not better – than the Canon D1x’s system.
What’s been your experience with the R5? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Next up — Canon R5’s focus stacking.
Kathy Adams Clark 
Amazing!!!
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Hi, nice seeing you on the trail yesterday at Skillern Tract. I have the R6, same focus system as R5. Been using Face+tracking for wildlife and spot for other things. I don’t understand how the wide area mode interacts with the bird tracking. You say you are using the wide area mode, is that at the same time as eye tracing? I’m not even sure what question to ask, can you explain? I had great success yesterday with the eye detect autofocus at Shovelers Pond, I never had so many keepers with previous cameras. Love the R6.
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I like birds. I’ve always wanted to find birds and photograph them. But it is challenging to capture birds because they fly very fast. Canon R5 Mirrorless’s features are fascinating. I will consider buying one.
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