The new AF point selector doohickey on the 1DX Mark III

[Kit Lens Jockey]

I got a chance to try a 1DX Mark III yesterday. I was most curious about the new AF point selector that's integrated into the AF ON button. I'm pleased by how it functions. It was smooth and felt intuitive. There is a speed adjustment that you can adjust to change how it works. I think there are 5 different levels you can set it to, from very slow, to fast. Interestingly, when I set it to slow and wiped my thumb the whole way across it, it seemed to move the selected AF point about the same total distance across the frame as when I had it set to fast. Having it set to fast just made it feel... Well... Faster. I think the speed adjustment is really just making it more responsive or something. I'm not sure it's a direct "speed" adjustment.

Overall I like it much better than the touch and drag selection on the EOS R, which has always felt like it takes way too much movement of your thumb across the screen to get the point to move where you want it to. (I know there are different settings for the touch and drag, but I can't find a combination of settings that makes the point move quickly enough but also precisely when I want it.)

I'm very much hoping we see this new selector on future RF cameras. It also worked in live view on the 1DX, so this is probably about the experience I would expect if they do put this selector on an RF camera.

 

[KarstenReis]

Were you able to try it with gloves at all? I haven't been able to find an answer as to whether that optical sensor will work with gloves on.

 

[Viggo]

Were you able to try it with gloves at all? I haven't been able to find an answer as to whether that optical sensor will work with gloves on.

I might be wrong, but perhaps it was a DPReview, one of the videos where they at least said it was the sort of sensor that was not limited to a finger, but would have no issues with gloves. Which in fact would be the only way to do it, making it non-responsive with gloves on a 1-series would be a fail of epic proportion. A lot of us don’t exactly live in California

 

[Kit Lens Jockey]

No I didn't think to try it with gloves, sorry. But if it is truly an optical sensor, I'm almost sure it would work with gloves, because the sensor would not care if it's a finger or a glove that it's tracking, optically.

 

[KarstenReis]

I might be wrong, but perhaps it was a DPReview, one of the videos where they at least said it was the sort of sensor that was not limited to a finger, but would have no issues with gloves. Which in fact would be the only way to do it, making it non-responsive with gloves on a 1-series would be a fail of epic proportion. A lot of us don’t exactly live in California

No I didn't think to try it with gloves, sorry. But if it is truly an optical sensor, I'm almost sure it would work with gloves, because the sensor would not care if it's a finger or a glove that it's tracking, optically.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't have tested it without someone using gloves but never heard anything from Canon directly or in any of the previews showing someone wearing gloves. I shoot 99.9% outdoors and a larger portion of when I shoot is in colder weather and wear gloves. Fingers crossed.