Shooting Soccer on an A7R V - Settings for AF and Tracking?

[FuriaPinecrest]

I'm shooting photos at my son's soccer game. He is the goalie. I have his face registered in the camera, I'm using AF-C, Spot Tracking, moved focusing away from shutter, etc, and yet, every time a player stands in front of my son the focus lock on him goes away and the camera focuses on the new subject in front of him. This has made me lose tons of good photo opportunities. Any advice on what other settings I should consider?

[Cameratose]

Cameras are only so smart, and no AF system is perfect. If the person in front of your son is obscuring the camera's view then the focus moving to a different subject would be normal and expected. The only thing face registration does is tell the camera who your preferred subject is, it doesn't mean that's the only acceptable subject.

Do you have the Sensitivity set to the lowest (lock-on) setting? That will help it to keep from moving to a different target.

If all else fails, I'd depend on myself rather than the camera. Shut off all the tracking, go with a single focus point, maybe small, in the center of the screen, then move the camera to keep it on him. 

[FuriaPinecrest]

Thank you so much for the suggestion. I’ve moved sensitivity to lock-on and will try shooting next weekend’s game with that setting. 

While I keep tracking on, would you suggest that I use small, or midsize tracking?

[Cameratose]

It may, but if you want it to be more discreet, I'd try to keep out everything that wasn't the subject. The smaller the better to my mind, but here's the thing: Try EVERYTHING until you find what works for you. There are few cookie-cutter setups when shooting sports, regardless of what the influencers will tell you. I've never tried a preset from one of the gurus yet that didn't need considerable tweaking.