Gear Talk > EOS Bodies - For Stills
5DMKIII Autofocus help required
bjd:
Hi,
I finally got my new 5D, moved up from a 400D, and I am "ashamed" to say I have been doing a lot
of reading in the camera manual :o
I've been playing with the autofocus settings while trying to take shots of some of the birds in our garden.
Attached an example that is causing me problems. The display will show me the "fields" being used for AF,
and they will all be lined up on the bird feeder. I havent been able to find a way to persuade the camera
to focus on the bird in such a situation. This is in automatic mode. If I go to spot with the 4 adjacent fields
then it seems to work better. But I want the automatic mode so I can use a tripod and set the camera up
as close as possible to the birds. Using AI Focus mode usually.
I am using the 70-200 F4 IS lens, at 200mm and pretty close to the subjects. Do I maybe want to move
further back so that I have more DOF therefore making the exact focus less important.
Generally I haven't been so happy with the results yet, but thats probably more me than the equiment.
Cheers BRian
neuroanatomist:
Automatic AF point selection? :o That will always pick the closest subject. Some options would be to stop down for deeper DoF, or switch out the round feeder for a directional one (only only perch) and manually focus on that spot.
bjd:
Hi,
thanks for the reply.
Obviously I can do a lot with the situation in our garden, and will get to that but I was more concentrating
on getting it right with the camera first. I guessI was thinking more along the lines that AF was concentrating
more on the horizontal and vertical lines and not the fact that the front edge of that feeder will in a lot of
cases be closer to me than the subject.
Cheers Brian
bdunbar79:
I use AF on my 5D Mark III. In the manual you'll see that you can choose ONE of any of the 61-AF points if you like. I still use only one point, but I move it around the viewfinder. Sometimes I'll use 4 point expansion (top, left, right, bottom) but mainly I move the AF point around where I know or want my subject to be in the frame. I actually haven't had a photo yet where I missed focus. Like the poster above said too, watch your DOF. If you need to use higher ISO with a narrower aperture, do it! The camera will handle it nicely.
bjd:
--- Quote from: bdunbar79 on June 16, 2012, 09:14:01 AM ---I use AF on my 5D Mark III. In the manual you'll see that you can choose ONE of any of the 61-AF points if you like. I still use only one point, but I move it around the viewfinder. Sometimes I'll use 4 point expansion (top, left, right, bottom) but mainly I move the AF point around where I know or want my subject to be in the frame. I actually haven't had a photo yet where I missed focus. Like the poster above said too, watch your DOF. If you need to use higher ISO with a narrower aperture, do it! The camera will handle it nicely.
--- End quote ---
Thanks. OK I saw that and had tried it, allows me to frame the subject where I want it.
Here's another example. Taken F14 1/160th 200mm 1.2meters from the subject. The face of the bird is pretty
sharp now I guess. Is that about the correct quality that I should get from this combination?
Bad hair day?
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