hello,

can someone help me, im looking for advice on what setup you have found works best for autofocus for the following situations and how to save these settings to one of the 3 custom settings. can i use a single button to access each custom settings?

1, taking a static object single shot.

2, taking a dog or person on the move in multiple shots.

1 one shot
2 ai servo

very easy to change from one to the other on the mk3

Erm....reach up with left hand hold middle button and move wheel one click. Do this for a while and you will get used to doing it without looking.

1. For static I use One Shot but also Ai-Servo
2. AI-Servo

I rarely ever use one shot drive, usually continuous drive, 5 fps for low and very easy to switch between. Also, with the bigger primes you can configure the button the lens to alternate between the 2 focus modes.

sorry, i think youve misunderstood me. i did mean in the custom functions. assist af points, other cf settings like ai tracking ect ect. i remember alistaire saying you can save 3 different settings, cant remember how though

If you mean setup your favorite menu.. use EOS utility is very easy
it allows you to access the CF you choose without searching through

ok will try that.
i did specifically mean the CF's for each type. ie for single shot what cf settings would i use for focussing and what would i enable/disable.

You need to register your CF settings for your 3 most common shooting styles. Go to the bottom option on the CF menu - Regiser/Apply. Apply setting one and exit that menu. Now go through your CF options for static shooting. There's no cf that you need to change obviously to go from AI Servo or Burst mode that's done with the dial on top of the camera.

For static subjects I have the cf III settings as follows: III-2 in the middle, III-3 at 0, III-4 at 0 (but this depends on what you do in III-8) and no expansion points in III-8. I also have various settings in the other CFs like spot metering, and shortened shutter release. Now go back to the CF settings menu and register these under Setting one, save it and then select Setting 2. Go through the settings you want for tracking moving subjects and register them. I've got Setting 2 set up for bright light sports so I've slowed down III-2. Setting 3 I have for poor light so I've sped up III-2 and set expansion points. You may find that you don't want certain settings in certain unique situations so you change them for that shoot. A good example would be sports on an overcast day. I don't want expansion points but I want the III-2 in the middle or higher so I either go back to Setting 1 or change the cf setting for III-2 and don't save it if I want other settings in Setting 2 that aren't in Setting 1. One thing I believe to be true from my experience with III-2 is it not only dictates how long the camera pauses when the main focus point loses the subject after you've aquired focus before it starts to refocus in AI Servo but it also seems to delay the speed with which it starts to refocus. So if you have it set to slow be sure to aniticipate the action in sports and refocus in the general area where you think the action will go. It's not that big a deal but sometimes a split second makes a big difference. Here's a link with a good discussion of the settings and how they interact from Canon and another link where I highly recommend buying the MKIII Users Guide document from the second link. Hope this helps.

http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/technical/mark_iii_af.do#container

http://www.birdsasart.com/

thanks Allen,
just the info i required.
Is there a quick way to swap between settings once set?
will try it all tonight, many thanks again
Jason

Yep, registering your CFNs into 3 groups helps, I have one for motorsport, one for rugby and one for aviation depending on the different CFs I need.

Storing the CFs into groups does not include One Shot or AI Servo AF mode change though.....

jaypod wrote:
Is there a quick way to swap between settings once set?
will try it all tonight, many thanks again
Jason

The only way I know of is to go into the register/apply menu.

most of the crucial custom AF settings, other than the af point expansion setting, does not apply to one-shot.

I found this.

Thanks Gary it really helps, printing it out now!!