5D 1DX joystick problem with sports

[rlarsen]

 5D MK lll autofocus impresses me, and I can get by with a 6 FPS motor drive for action.
What drives me crazy, and is a serious problem when shooting sports, is the function of the joystick and autofocus selection.

On my old 1D MK ll bodies programming a home setting for AF was easy and reliable. Whenever I hit the home button AF would return to the center sensor every time.  The 5D MK lll, and 1 DX I presume, can't do that. Pressing the joystick in switches AF to the home setting ( the center for me ) only every other time. It alternates between "home" and previous AF positions.

When I press the joystick in or bump it by mistake I never know what AF sensor will be selected and it tends to move all over the place and is a disaster for shooting sports. While struggling with the camera while shooting football for my newspaper I couldn't help wondering how photographers successfully covered the Olympics with the 1Dx ( or 5D )

How is everyone dealing with the unreliable joystick performance for critical action photography ?

[neuroanatomist]

How is everyone dealing with the unreliable joystick performance for critical action photography ?

The behavior may be different than you're used to, but I would not call it 'unreliable'.  Personally, I like the ability to rapidly toggle between the currently selected point and the center point.

There was a past thread on this, where someone posted a response from Canon on the issue. Actually, I dug it up, only to find that the someone was you  .

[AmbientLight]

+1

I use the joystick AF point selection with both 1D-X and 5D Mark III very frequently and never experienced anything being amiss. Then again I have no experience with the 1D Mark II.

Of course having to press the joystick down in its center is not as reliable as having an extra button assigned for this, so it is not going to feel like an improvement in ergonomics. If you are in a hurry you may not press down correctly, but somewhat sideways and you promptly miss a shot. This may be annoying for a time, but I am optimistic you will see this through. It is only something to get used to.

[dshipley]

As someone who owns Nikon and Canon gear I was very happy when Canon added the joystick selection for AF points (like Nikon does) as I found Canon's old selection method slow and confusing, but it did have some issues. First, on 1D bodies or gripped bodies the joystick wasn't accessible when shooting in the vertical postion up until the 5DIII and the 1DX. Now that we have two joysticks for each shooting position my only real issues with the joysticks are...

1. Size and Sensitivity - On both my 5DII and now on the 5DIII I find that the button sometimes centers vs moves in the intended direction I'm trying to select (especially when trying to move in a diagonal direction). I'd imagine making the button slightly larger might help with this.

2. Single AF Point Movement Per Button Press - Currently if I want to move up three AF points I have to hit up on the joystick three times. This introduces more opportunities for issue #1 to happen (press the wrong direction or worse accidentally return the AF point to the "home" position). Instead it would be nice if you could press and hold the joystick in a direction and your selection would continue to move until you released the joystick in addition to the current one button press method.

[rlarsen]

Yes, I did write about this issue before and Canon did offer some suggestions and none helpful. Still the problem remains, if you press the joystick down with the need to quickly go to the center sensor, as the manual states, it often does not.
For me it creates a big problem shooting sports.
Since the Olympics just ended I can't help but wonder how Canon photographers used the joystick, and I'm looking for comments before I consider taping over the button. I just covered a soccer game and missed many shots, good thing it wasn't the Olympics. When I am able to control AF position it is fast and responsive.
Rex