Shot wedding with 5DIII, dissapointed in AF

[Tim Larsen]

My other favorite features are pushing the "SET" button and the finger dial to adjust ISO directly in the viewfinder...

What? I can't seem to achieve this, explain. Are you truing the quick control dial, or the main dial?

Go to Custom Functions (the Camera with vertical lines underneath), go down to "Custom Control" and go to the "Set" button and change it to "ISO".

 

[Tim Larsen]

Another setting that I use is the AF is only tied to the "AF-ON" button and not the shutter button. This too is under the Custom Function settings.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

if we had to use single point AF for the camera to focus properly to achieve a sharp image, then what's the point of putting 61 pt. AF when it will be useless other than a maketing strategy. As far as I understood, those points when selected will be the basis of the camera to focus on regardless of other settings. What's the point of having zones or expansion points if focus cannot be achieved? Does this mean we will need to use the 61 points individually?

Well, more points could help you to avoid "focus and recompose". The problem with the 5DII focus points, is there weren't many and they were all clustered around the center of the VF. And more focus points could help with bright situations when using AI Servo with moving targets. It just depends on what you are shooting, and what AF mode you need to be in. For weddings, I normally use "one shot" drive mode, and might only switch to "AI-Servo" when bride is walking down aisle and that sort of thing.

How does using assists help you not to do focus and recompose? It's actually FORCING that to happen at times.
If you are shooting fast lenses, wide open, close in, I'd think it might make more trouble, since it has a larger area over which to decided to toss the focus on and it might say make the eyes end up OOF I'd think.
It seems like a weird choice to use expansion points for the type of shooting you were doing, although I could be wrong no having been there.

That said, it sounds pretty worrisome, since that is what you would do for shooting sports at night and 2-3 seconds would make it ridiculously bad for shooting sports under poor lighting. I hope that is not the case.

 

[Tracy Pinto]

I have found the AF on this camera to be a pleasure. It is fast and accurate.

I would not recommend practicing on paying customers.

 

[Bosman]

if we had to use single point AF for the camera to focus properly to achieve a sharp image, then what's the point of putting 61 pt. AF when it will be useless other than a maketing strategy. As far as I understood, those points when selected will be the basis of the camera to focus on regardless of other settings. What's the point of having zones or expansion points if focus cannot be achieved? Does this mean we will need to use the 61 points individually?

Well, more points could help you to avoid "focus and recompose". The problem with the 5DII focus points, is there weren't many and they were all clustered around the center of the VF. And more focus points could help with bright situations when using AI Servo with moving targets. It just depends on what you are shooting, and what AF mode you need to be in. For weddings, I normally use "one shot" drive mode, and might only switch to "AI-Servo" when bride is walking down aisle and that sort of thing.

How does using assists help you not to do focus and recompose? It's actually FORCING that to happen at times.
If you are shooting fast lenses, wide open, close in, I'd think it might make more trouble, since it has a larger area over which to decided to toss the focus on and it might say make the eyes end up OOF I'd think.
It seems like a weird choice to use expansion points for the type of shooting you were doing, although I could be wrong no having been there.

That said, it sounds pretty worrisome, since that is what you would do for shooting sports at night and 2-3 seconds would make it ridiculously bad for shooting sports under poor lighting. I hope that is not the case.

What you need to realize about this is the lenses used. We are talking about lenses people love and hate due to its refined focus in the barrel of the lens and the glass it needs to move, the 85 1.2 (I used to have), and the 50 1.2, (I now have) are tricky to work with and move slower than normal glass and the dof is rediculous, but the rewards are excellent. I dont think the 70-200 will be an issue in fact in my testing it is fast and dead on. All that said i havent used assist points yet im sure it will be excellent coming from a 1dx system. I will use assist when i shoot a race coming up and see how it fairs with the 70-200 II. I have always preferred single point however. I will never use spot af for sports, it won't be good! I will use spot Af for static subjects.

 

[shizam1]

I would not recommend practicing on paying customers.

Me either, that's why I had two 5DII bodies with me in addition, and was going between them.

 

[unfocused]

I'm a little amused at all the people on this thread trying to convince the original poster that it's all his fault and he just doesn't know what he is doing.

 

[shizam1]

I'm a little amused at all the people on this thread trying to convince the original poster that it's all his fault and he just doesn't know what he is doing.

I agree... but I am glad there are a couple of people, who actually own the camera and have shot in similar situations, that provided useful information to try and get better results out of the AF.

 

[Bosman]

I'm a little amused at all the people on this thread trying to convince the original poster that it's all his fault and he just doesn't know what he is doing.

Hey anything is possible man. The most specific problem a person runs into with big glass is focus and i continue preaching to never use servo mode with big glass. People who have it should test out what i am saying and they will see just how much impact that can have. I'd say its more like we want to help and figure out where we may need to adjust how we shoot. At least that is what is true for me.

 

[dericcainphoto]

My other favorite features are pushing the "SET" button and the finger dial to adjust ISO directly in the viewfinder ...

This is one of the coolest time-saving features! I have limited my AF to cross type only. In your opinion, do you think just using the 15 points is better than using cross type only? Thanks for the input!

 

[briansquibb]

The best way is to practice with a new camera in all the situations so if there is a problem then it can be sorted before you get to a critical shoot

 

[Tim Larsen]

My other favorite features are pushing the "SET" button and the finger dial to adjust ISO directly in the viewfinder ...

This is one of the coolest time-saving features! I have limited my AF to cross type only. In your opinion, do you think just using the 15 points is better than using cross type only? Thanks for the input!

I limit the selectable to the 15 so I can move across the viewfinder quickly. I also have the selection loop around the screen instead of stopping at the edges.

All 15 are cross type. When I'm tracking in a lot of light I'll switch to the point surrounded by all of the points around it.

I do this because a lot of what I shoot on a wedding day is photojournalism so I need to be able to get across the screen with AF points very quickly.

 

[SandyP]

Well, I mean, if other people suggest whatever, but if people out there are having great success with it as a wedding camera in all sorts of dark situations, then obviously the user/OP is doing something "wrong", or there is something wrong with his specific camera, and not the camera in general.

Ryan Brenziner and Jonas Peterson have been raving about how much of a game changer this is for Canon, especially for weddings (they're two huge names in the business), and hey, Ryan is basically a Nikon shooter saying that. They've been pumping out some great opinions on it lately.

So that isn't saying the OP is stupid, of course not, but obviously something is going on...

 

[publiux]

I had newborn shoot on Sunday. Focusing was spot on and fast. I did to a the AF microadjustments last week (+7 steps).

 

[Mr Simpleton]

So I had to try for my self... using Mk2 with center focus point, and the Mk3 tested with either spot or just center point, and/or expanded. Used same 70-200/2,8Mk2 lens swapped between the two cameras.

While the Mk2 gave focus confirmation almost instant, the Mk3 took it's time each and every time. I am sure the new Mk3 do have more precision, but still we are talking seconds here!

Even tried to alter from focus to shutter priority but of course had no impact on time till confirmation.
And yes this was in marginal light...

 

[shizam1]

Well, I mean, if other people suggest whatever, but if people out there are having great success with it as a wedding camera in all sorts of dark situations, then obviously the user/OP is doing something "wrong", or there is something wrong with his specific camera, and not the camera in general.

Ryan Brenziner and Jonas Peterson have been raving about how much of a game changer this is for Canon, especially for weddings (they're two huge names in the business), and hey, Ryan is basically a Nikon shooter saying that. They've been pumping out some great opinions on it lately.

So that isn't saying the OP is stupid, of course not, but obviously something is going on...

Thanks for saying I might not be stupid

I THINK the problem is I was using expanded area on the point I selected. Some other replys said they had the same problem as me, and changed to single point instead and that made the AF much faster. This is for "single shot" drive btw.

You would think something like that would be mentioned in all those reviews, or in the documentation, but I haven't seen anything like that.

Anyway... I'll be testing tonight and seeing if I can reproduce the slower AF that I was experiencing, and see if changing the mode makes the speed increase I'm hoping for and was expecting!

 

[shizam1]

So I had to try for my self... using Mk2 with center focus point, and the Mk3 tested with either spot or just center point, and/or expanded. Used same 70-200/2,8Mk2 lens swapped between the two cameras.

While the Mk2 gave focus confirmation almost instant, the Mk3 took it's time each and every time. I am sure the new Mk3 do have more precision, but still we are talking seconds here!

Even tried to alter from focus to shutter priority but of course had no impact on time till confirmation.
And yes this was in marginal light...

So turning off the expanded didn't increase the speed for you in the 5DIII?

 

[Tracy Pinto]

shizam1 you are not alone...Simpleton is right in there with you.

 

[Mr Simpleton]

So turning off the expanded didn't increase the speed for you in the 5DIII?

Sorry to say, I could not see any major difference Seems that the accuracy has its price.
Still I new to this Mk3 and hopefully I just having my settings all wrong. But not many settings to alter in single shot though.

Looking forward to heard about your findings.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

So I had to try for my self... using Mk2 with center focus point, and the Mk3 tested with either spot or just center point, and/or expanded. Used same 70-200/2,8Mk2 lens swapped between the two cameras.

While the Mk2 gave focus confirmation almost instant, the Mk3 took it's time each and every time. I am sure the new Mk3 do have more precision, but still we are talking seconds here!

Even tried to alter from focus to shutter priority but of course had no impact on time till confirmation.
And yes this was in marginal light...

Interesting. it would be interesting to try to see how the results from the Mk3 compared when forced to fire after the same time as the 5D2 had. One would hope it would do at least as well in terms of hit rate.