Centre point only. I did an interesting test with the outer AF points the other week as I was skeptical that even when they confirm they weren't hitting focus, just using the missus sat next to a window, camera hooked upto my 24 via C1 5 with the focus tool active. Even when the outer focus points said it was in focus (and it had no problem confirming, lots of daylight) it would almost always be mis-focused. Center point never had a problem.
Honestly, I don't want the 1 series AF, heck I don't even want the 7D AF. But why every AF point isn't at least cross type is just a mystery.
But then I go and shoot some more 5x4 transparencies and thank the gods that I have fast AF at all, even if it is just in the centre.
Most of the time, shooting in reasonable light, I use all AF points and rarely have problems with accuracy or AF speed. It works great for landscapes, products, travel, snapshots, etc. When focus on a particular point is critical, I manually select an AF point. The only time I resort to center point only is in low light.
As for flash, when you lock AF the Speedlite emits a pre-flash for metering. If you recompose and your subject is at a different distance or tonality than your pre-flash, the flash exposure will be incorrect. You can get around this problem by using FEL on your subject. Of course you can use an off-center AF point and thus not need to use FEL or recompose. Works great for me.
With all the complaints I read on this forum, I'm amazed 5DII AF is so good. I keep thinking it must be total shit, but it is extremely rare for it to miss focus. Of course I grew up with "ghetto" EOS bodies like the EOS 10S, 5, Elan, Elan 7, 10D and 20D, so maybe I'm easily impressed. 5DII AF is very fast and extremely accurate compared to those bodies. Again, I find it difficult to miss focus with the 5DII...
Gochugogi wrote:
Most of the time, shooting in reasonable light, I use all AF points and rarely have problems with accuracy or AF speed. It works great for landscapes, products, travel, snapshots, etc.
I don't get it... how can you say that all AF points are accurate when you use auto AF mode
The cam chooses the focal point(s) and when you use smaller apertures there is no way you can verify if a certain point was accurate, because you didn't aim it consiously (the cam did it for you - and who knows which point it gave the most priority) and the DOF will mask up any mis-focus.
michael49 wrote:
Canon crippled this camera. Whether it was because of the Mark III AF fiasco or for marketing reasons I don't know, but they crippled it. Compared to the D700 the 5DII AF is neanderthal.
If you say so. But my 5D Mark IIs are among the best focusing cameras I have used, including the D700. The outer AF points have well known limitations, but center AF is excellent, both in One Shot in low light, and in AI Servo (with AF expansion).
garyvot wrote:
If you say so. But my 5D Mark IIs are among the best focusing cameras I have used, including the D700. The outer AF points have well known limitations, but center AF is excellent, both in One Shot in low light, and in AI Servo (with AF expansion).
Wasn't this thread about the differences between center and outer AF points?
Daan B wrote:
Wasn't this thread about the differences between center and outer AF points?
Indeed. It's just that the endless drive-by shooting of the 5DII AF system gets old after a while.
And while we're on that topic, as you can infer from my post I do rely on the center AF point. I find the outer AF points either work or they don't: if they grab on they are usually accurate, but they will often hunt in low light/low contrast situations. However, this is rarely an issue for me as I am a focus-and-recompose shooter.
The 30D examples above are illustrative of the pitfalls of allowing the camera to choose the focusing point automatically. I always select an AF point manually.
I have spent many years looking at the photos on this website and wondering what it takes to reproduce these fine images. Then I look at the 30D photos. Now I can say with all delight I CAN DO THIS and I DID!! The settings just have to be perfect like aperature preferred, large f/stop (like 4.0), evaluative metering and slow shutter speeds. You also will need a dimly lit banquet hall. Take all of these factors together and you too will get an overexposed image with poor depth of field. If you follow all of my instructions to the letter you might also get some blurring due to movement related to the slow shutter speed. Oh, I did use the EXII flash to help me obtain these images. I did a lot better by just setting the camera to auto, moving closer to my subject and then firing away. The camera set the metering to a more center weighted one. The shutter speed was faster and I improved the focus by moving closer. No, I couldn't see as much of the rest of the room as before but I had the people I wanted. OK, my point. Is this an example of camera error or operator error? I am not sophisticated enough to access the EXIF data but I wonder what it will tell.
WINN wrote:
I have spent many years looking at the photos on this website and wondering what it takes to reproduce these fine images. Then I look at the 30D photos. Now I can say with all delight I CAN DO THIS and I DID!! The settings just have to be perfect like aperature preferred, large f/stop (like 4.0), evaluative metering and slow shutter speeds. You also will need a dimly lit banquet hall. Take all of these factors together and you too will get an overexposed image with poor depth of field. If you follow all of my instructions to the letter you might also get some blurring due to movement related to the slow shutter speed. Oh, I did use the EXII flash to help me obtain these images. I did a lot better by just setting the camera to auto, moving closer to my subject and then firing away. The camera set the metering to a more center weighted one. The shutter speed was faster and I improved the focus by moving closer. No, I couldn't see as much of the rest of the room as before but I had the people I wanted. OK, my point. Is this an example of camera error or operator error? I am not sophisticated enough to access the EXIF data but I wonder what it will tell....Show more →
Daan B wrote:
I don't get it... how can you say that all AF points are accurate when you use auto AF mode
The reason you didn't get it is because you actually didn't get it. I wrote I used all the AF sensors but I didn't specify how I do it. And I certainly didn't even mention auto AF selection. Not even once (hate that mode).
Most of the posts claim to use center point only. I use all 9 but I rarely use auto AF selection. Not because I'm a snob, but because the algorithm often locks onto something other than what I intended. You of all people should understand this basic thing. Normally I use the joystick to select one among the total of 9 AF points. And, yes, I do use all of them, but choose a different point according to my whim and subject. I probably use the outer points more than the center but, as, I wrote, the center gets used more in low light.
In order to avoid problems with "focus and recompose", I try the closest focusing point first and only use the center if the closest can't engage.
People say that the Nikon D700 has way better AF. I don't know, I can't say if it is more accurate, because D700 has lower resolution. And I can't say if it is more reliable because people I know who use D700 use all focusing points at once and I never used my camera in that mode.
WINN wrote:
OK, my point. Is this an example of camera error or operator error? I am not sophisticated enough to access the EXIF data but I wonder what it will tell.
Im my book it was Operator Error. The camera did exactly what it was told. The operator didn't. It was a brand new camera to him as was 'digital'
I don't think some of the people that post on here have a fast lens, they can't...
If you centre focus on a subject and reposition them to the side with a fast lens they will then become out of focus again, so comments like 'I only use the centre focus point' does worry me a little. I have to say I go to several forums such as FM and no where else does the AF on the 5DII get such a hard time. If anything the 7D has had a hard time due to some focusing problems that people have had to send the camera back to get sorted, no mention of that here surprisingly.
As Donald says in the post above those shots didn't work because of user error, it seems that there is a lot of that going on, but I'd hope it doesn't happen with a 5DII owner but maybe it does.
If you are going to use the ettl to set the exposure, you have to first use the flash exposure * to lock the exposure in before recomposing the shot.The flash will expose for the recomposed shot if you don't lock the exposure first.
I always compose my shot first....then focus about 2/3rds back in the scene and use an f stop around 8-16 for my shots....I have got excellent DOF Results doing this for many years on all cameras....
Digital D wrote:
I always compose my shot first....then focus about 2/3rds back in the scene and use an f stop around 8-16 for my shots....I have got excellent DOF Results doing this for many years on all cameras....
That is an excellent strategy for photographing mountains and oceans. But some of our subjects aren't that patient!
And that's why my 5D2 will be put out to pasture soon for a 7D, except for those rare wonderful moments I get to get away and photograph some mountains or oceans!
It's just that the endless drive-by shooting of the 5DII AF system gets old after a while.
