Back Button Focus Guide

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Back Button Focus Guide 1The Benefits of Back Button Focus 3Setting Up Back Button Focus 4CANON CAMERAS 4

Rebel Series 4X0D Series (not including the 70D) 470D, 7D series, and 5D series* 5

NIKON CAMERAS 6D3100, D3200, D5100 6D7xxx, D6xx, D8xx series* 6

OLYMPUS CAMERAS 7OMD EM5, EM10 & EM10 mk ii 7OMD EM5 mk ii, EM1 7

PENTAX CAMERAS 8All Pentax Cameras 8

SONY CAMERAS 9A6000 9A7 Series 9

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The Benefits of Back Button Focus

Back button focus is a camera configuration that assigns the focusing action to a different button, separating it from the shutter button.

With back button focus, instead of having to focus the camera for every single shot, you’ve separated the focus action from the shutter button, so once you’ve locked focus you can shoot as many shots as you need with the shutter button without having to re-focus every single shot.

Back button focus can help improve your photography in three main ways:

1. It helps you avoid unnecessarily refocusing on the same subject over and over again.

Example: You’re shooting a still life photo or a sunset with your camera on a tripod.

With back button focus you can lock the focus on your subject or the landscape scene, and once you’re ready to shoot, you can take as many shots as you want with your shutter button without having to re-focus every single shot.

2. It allows you to maintain focus on your subject in a dynamic scene with other moving objects.

When shooting a scene where your subject is still but other subjects are moving through the scene, back button focus will allow you to keep the focus on your subject regardless of what might be moving in front of the camera.

3. Back button focus helps you maintain focus on your subject in sports and wildlife photography.

In this case you’d change your focus method from single shot to servo/continuous focus.

Then you can hold down your focus button, and track the subject as it moves while using the shutter button to shoot.

When the subject stops moving, you can release your focus button and keep on shooting with your shutter button, and when the subject starts moving again, hold down your focus button and you’re back to focus tracking just like that.

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Setting Up Back Button Focus

This varies from camera to camera, what I’ve done in this guide is cover the major manufacturers. Each camera will be a little different, but as an example, the menu settings for all Canon cameras are very similar, so you should still be able to easily figure it out.

CANON CAMERAS

Rebel Series

1. Enter the Menu.2. Navigate to the wrench menus and locate the “Custom Functions (C.Fn)”

option and hit “OK”3. Navigate to the “C.Fn IV: Operations/Others” option and hit “OK”4. Navigate to the “Shutter/AE lock button” option (It should be option 9, but it

may be different depending on your model)5. In the "Shutter/AE lock button" menu, set the option to "1: AE lock/AF” and hit

“OK”6. Now to focus the camera, press the AE lock button on the back of the camera,

and to take a photo, press the shutter button.

X0D Series (not including the 70D)

1. Enter the Menu.2. Navigate to the “Custom Functions (C.Fn)” menu and select the “C.Fn IV:

Operation/Others” option and hit “OK”3. By default you should be on option 1 “AF and Metering buttons” (or something

similarly named). If not, navigate to option 1.4. Hit “OK” to activate this menu’s option selection and choose option “1” if you have a

60D, and option 2 if you have a 50D.5. Now to focus the camera, press the AF-ON button on the back of the camera, and to

take a photo, press the shutter button.

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70D, 7D series, and 5D series*

1. Navigate to “C.Fn IV: Operations/Others” and hit OK.2. Choose Option 1: “Custom Controls”3. Use the Joystick to navigate to the shutter button icon (top left option) and hit OK to

customize the shutter button.4. In the customization menu, set the shutter button option to “Metering Start” and hit

“OK” 5. Navigate to the “AF-ON” button (immediately under the shutter button, second

option in the left column) and hit OK6. In the customization menu, set the AF-ON button option to “Metering and AF Start”

and hit OK7. Now to focus the camera, press the AF-ON button on the back of the camera, and to

take a photo, press the shutter button.

*There may be some slight variations on this depending on the camera, but the main thing is to customize the Shutter button and the AF-ON button as described in the steps above.

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NIKON CAMERAS

D3100, D3200, D5100

1. Enter the Menu.2. Press the D-pad to highlight the menu options on the left side of the menu screen.3. Navigate down to the Wrench.4. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu5. Navigate to the “Buttons” option6. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the buttons menu7. Navigate to the “AE-L/AF-L” option.8. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the customization menu9. Navigate down to the last option “AF-ON” and hit “OK”10. Now to focus the camera, press the AE-L/AF-L button on the back of the camera,

and to take a photo, press the shutter button.

D7xxx, D6xx, D8xx series*

1. Enter the Menu.2. Press the D-pad to highlight the menu options on the left side of the menu screen.3. Navigate down to the Pencil.4. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu5. Navigate to the “Controls” option6. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the buttons menu7. Navigate to the “Assign AE-L/AF-L button” option.8. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the customization menu9. Navigate down to the last option “AF-ON” and hit “OK”10. Now to focus the camera, press the A-EL/AF-L button on the back of the camera,

and to take a photo, press the shutter button.

*There may be some slight variations on this depending on the camera, but the main thing is to set the AE-L/AF-L button to AF-ON as described in the steps above.

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OLYMPUS CAMERAS

OMD EM5, EM10 & EM10 mk ii

1. Remove Focus from the Shutter Button1.1. Enter the Menu1.2. Press the D-pad to highlight the menu options on the left side of the menu

screen.1.3. Navigate down to the gears.1.4. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the gears menu1.5. Navigate to the “AEL/AFL” option1.6. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the buttons menu1.7. Navigate to the “S-AF” option.1.8. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the customization menu1.9. Set the option to “mode3”1.10. Press the “Menu” button to go back one menu level1.11. Select the “C-AF” option1.12. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the customization menu1.13. Set the option to “mode3”

2. Assign Focus to the Fn1 button2.1. Press the “Menu” button twice to go back to the main menu screen2.2. Navigate to the “Button/Dial” option2.3. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu2.4. The “Button Function” option should be selected. If not navigate to select it.2.5. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu2.6. The “Fn1 Function” option should be highlighted. If not, navigate to select it.2.7. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu2.8. Set the option to “AEL/AFL” and press “OK”

3. Now to focus the camera, press the Fn1 button on the back of the camera, and to take a photo, press the shutter button.

OMD EM5 mk ii, EM1

1. Set the rear lever to turn AF on/off1.1. Enter the Menu1.2. Press the D-pad to highlight the menu options on the left side of the menu

screen.1.3. Navigate down to the gears.1.4. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu1.5. Navigate to the “Button/Dial/Lever” option1.6. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu1.7. Navigate to the “Lever Function” option1.8. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu

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1.9. Set the lever option to “mode5” and hit “OK”2. Set the Fn1 button to focus*

2.1. You should still be in the “Button/Dial/Lever” menu. If not, navigate back to that menu.

2.2. Navigate to the “Button Function” option2.3. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu2.4. The “Fn1 Function” option should be highlighted. If not, navigate to select it.2.5. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu2.6. Set the option to “AEL/AFL” and press “OK”

3. Now to focus the camera, press the Fn1 button on the back of the camera, and to take a photo, press the shutter button.

*If you don’t want to use the Fn1 button, you can choose just about any button you want to assign as your focus button on the EM5 mk iiPentax Cameras

PENTAX CAMERAS

All Pentax Cameras

1. Enter the menu2. Navigate to page four* of the camera menu3. Navigate to the “Button Customization” option4. Press the D-pad to the right to enter the menu5. Set the option to “Enable AF2”4. Now to focus the camera, press the AF button on the back of the camera, and to

take a photo, press the shutter button.

*The page where “Button Customization” is located may vary from camera to camera.

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SONY CAMERAS

A6000

1. Turn off Pre-AF and AF with Shutter1.1. Enter the Menu1.2. Press the D-pad to highlight the menu options on the top of the menu screen.1.3. Navigate to the gears menu.1.4. In the gear menu, navigate to the third menu page.1.5. Select the top option “Pre-AF"1.6. Set “Pre-AF" to “Off"1.7. Navigate down to the "AF w/ shutter" option1.8. Set the "AF w/ shutter” option to off.

2. Assign Focus to the AEL button2.1. Navigate to the fifth gears menu page2.2. Navigate to the "Custom Key Settings” option and hit OK to enter the menu2.3. The AEL button (top) option should be highlighted. If not, navigate to "AEL

Button" and hit “OK" to enter the menu2.4. Select the "AF On" option and hit OK2.5. Now to focus the camera, press the AEL button on the back of the camera,

and to take a photo, press the shutter button.

A7 Series

1. Turn off Pre-AF and AF with Shutter1.1. Enter the Menu1.2. Press the D-pad to highlight the menu options on the top of the menu screen.1.3. Navigate to the gears menu.1.4. In the gear menu, navigate to the second menu page.1.5. Select the bottom option “Pre-AF"1.6. Set “Pre-AF" to “Off"1.7. Navigate to the fourth gear menu1.8. In the gear menu navigate to the “AF w/ shutter” option.1.9. Set the "AF w/ shutter” option to off.

2. Assign Focus to the AEL button2.1. Navigate to the sixth gear menu page2.2. Navigate to the "Custom Key Settings” option and hit OK to enter the menu2.3. Navigate to the "AEL Button" and option and hit “OK" to enter the menu2.4. Select the "AF On" option and hit OK.

3. On the back of the camera, flip the “AEL, AF/MF” lever to “AEL”3.1. Now to focus the camera, press the AEL button on the back of the camera,

and to take a photo, press the shutter button. If you want to switch back to regular focus with the shutter button, flip the lever back to “AF/MF”.

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