Is Your Canon EOS R5 Mark II Autofocus Affected by the Latest Firmware?

I took 1700 shots today with 1.0.3 installed, with 25% battery life remaining. Admittedly it was at 20/30 fps. The AF was impeccable photoing with the RF 100-500mm a small Grey Wagtail belting around. Here is a typical crop from this afternoon. It was painful choosing the best dozen and discarding so many good shots.


View attachment 223668
Thanks, amazing photo! - Shot with help of a single point?
 
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No ending AF problems with my R5II. After I got my body fixed after an mainboard-breakdown, it started to have severe AF problems and fluctuation in sharpness. Tracking AF with maximum fps just delivers a few sharp pictures. Most of them are not a bit, but over all unsharp. Also AF hunts for sharpness again, but does not focus on the selected object. And the object is big (1/2 size of the viewfinder) with clearly big and visible eyes.
After sending it to Canon two times this month, I give up. It is so frustrating to get the body back without any solution. And they are not willed to reset it to version 2 firmware (After the MB-exchange the R5II is set to firmware version 3). So my R5 II is stored at home, using my older Canon gear. I have since cancelled the purchase of a second Canon R5 Mark II.
I hope the article from Canon Rumors today is right and Canon will react on the problems soon.
 
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I have the same problem with my R5m2, to the degree that I decided to shelf it until a new firmware is published, and use an old R5 instead.
I compared the two with the same RF600/4 and the results were a lot more favorable to the old R5, a lot more keepers.
Then I decided to give it one more try, with the following plan: factory reset it, then try it out with default and if it seems better, try and restore the settings. If they make it bad again, restart and try to pin the bad setting.
Fortunately, it behaved well, with a twist. I have seen some improvement after the reset, with the default settings. Then I reset it once more (don't know exactly why), and after this second reset, it started asked me about language, time and stuff like that. Weirdly, it didn't do that after the first reset! After that second reset it seems to be back to working very well. I shot ~1600 frames at H+, eye tracking sparrows, finches, blackbirds, crows, with my settings restored, and it behaves very well. It's back to what I expect it to be, with sharp eyes, a lot of keepers. And it beats the old R5 again.

So... it seems like for me the 2nd reset did the trick, I don't know for how long it will stay that way - it's only been 1 day.
 
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I would like to assume all those who currently own the R5MkII and are using the 1.0.3 firmware have completely disabled all the power saving settings except the viewfinder perhaps. I noticed when I did a reset and restored my settings but had eliminated the settings (in disable mode) for the power savings settings it works perfectly having NO tracking or reliability issues with focus. I tried the 1.0.2 version and find the 1.0.3 in several cases superior. Make sure this is one of your alterations to be sure.
 
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I would like to assume all those who currently own the R5MkII and are using the 1.0.3 firmware have completely disabled all the power saving settings except the viewfinder perhaps. I noticed when I did a reset and restored my settings but had eliminated the settings (in disable mode) for the power savings settings it works perfectly having NO tracking or reliability issues with focus. I tried the 1.0.2 version and find the 1.0.3 in several cases superior. Make sure this is one of your alterations to be sure.
I haven't disabled all power saving settings, and my R5ii doesn't have the focus issues.
 
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I received the R5 Mark II on May 20 and immediately updated the firmware to version 1.0.3 (a habit I picked up from using Windows—always updating to the latest version upon getting a new device). In the following days, I saw some posts discussing issues with firmware 1.0.3, which made me uneasy. Following the advice given, I turned off all power-saving settings except for the EVF.

In the days that followed, the camera performed well. However, since I never used version 1.0.2, it’s possible that issues existed, but I simply didn’t notice them.

It wasn’t until June 15, when I tried to photograph a paradise flycatcher, that a serious problem occurred. The camera detected the bird’s body and placed a blue box around it, but it refused to focus. No matter how many times I pressed the focus button, it kept locking onto the background. The bird wasn’t moving much—it was just preening on a perch—yet the camera couldn’t focus on it, which was very frustrating. I tried manually adjusting the focus ring to bring the focus closer (i.e., myself → focus plane → bird), and although the bird became clear for a moment, pressing the focus button caused the focus to immediately snap back to the background.I then removed the battery and restarted the camera, and also disabled the EVF’s power-saving setting. During the following hour or so of shooting, the issue did not reoccur.

That evening, I rolled back the firmware to version 1.0.2 and turned off all power-saving settings. On the second day, I spent the whole morning shooting with the 1.0.2 firmware (with all power-saving settings disabled). The camera performed well, but I didn’t really feel it was significantly better than 1.0.3—at least when 1.0.3 wasn’t freezing. I’m still monitoring it.

I noticed that some users mentioned resetting the camera after updating to firmware version 1.0.3 and then reloading the saved settings could help. I'm currently debating whether I should go back to version 1.0.3 and try this reset-and-restore procedure.

However, what matters most is that I hope Canon can respond to this issue as soon as possible—ideally by releasing a new firmware update to fix it, or at the very least by acknowledging the problem.

—Translate by ChatGPT

 
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I got paranoid about having a new R5MkII with the 1.0.3 on it and reverted to 1.0.2 just to see what all the bellyaching was about. I ran into the opposite. Indoors in lower light I noted with my 24-105 f4L lens it locked up on several subjects in my dimly lit livingroom I test out cameras and lenses on all the time with. I reloaded 1.0.3, did a reset and reloaded my file that reloads all my settings. I did of course have the power settings all disabled except the EVF at 30sec shutoff. Tested again on the same subjects in the same lighting and it locked focus no issues and didn't lock up. I did some birding and it worked beautifully not missing a bird taking off or static and even through branches no hesitations. I'm sticking with 1.0.3 I don't have any issues now.
 
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There are some good videos on Youtube how to do it. It's a bit tricky but it does work well. It involves having 2 memory cards one with the new and one with the old firmware loaded. Some manipulation of the card door during the start of the process.
 
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