Tim Dolan (Longwatcher)
Member
With the usual disclaimer that I think it was something I did or am doing and not the camera.
So there I was for the first time this year and first time ever with my 1DsMkIII (21.1MP just to be clear ) shooting a model outdoors on a nice hot sunny day. Previous attempts being rainy or overcast. Not first time with camera, just outdoors in mostly sunny (as opposed to overcast) weather.
For most of the shoot the focus was dead on - far better then my 1DsMkII ever did. Also I had just finished micro-adjusting all of my lenses within a week before and they were dead on. Until suddenly for one setting the Auto-Focus basically failed me. Then when we changed location the AF was spot on again.
In that one set I think I got one in-focus shot out of about 20. The majority seemed to pick the closest object in the scene, one or two back-focused and only two got close enough, although only one was actually in the zone. The closest object in the scene was on the edge of the frame and no where near my model.
AF was turned on, I checked.
28-70/2.8L lens
one-shot mode
AV mode (because of the occasional scattered cloud)
I am fairly confident the AF point was on target, but since it seemed to focus on things outside of the AF points, it wouldn't have matter anyway. I usually by habit tend to wait for the red square to light up indicating focus lock before shooting which is why I am certain it was on target, but I am usually concentrating on getting the shot, not the camera.
BTW: Is there a way to see after the fact where the AF point actually was? I don't remember DPP having that capability and I don't know of any way in PS. Do I need to use the other Canon software?
If any one has suggestions without me posting the raw data, that would be appreciated. If you need the raw data, I will put up a couple tomorrow.
Conditions:
A path through some woods around 4PM, bright Sun (when it got through the trees), in the 90's. The difference between that scene and others was the model was just forward of a bend in the trail with a lot of small trees behind her in a very complex scene, although she was forward enough of the trees, it should have been easy on the AF. The model was wearing a white dress with medium sized black flowers on it. The model is of Asian descent.
Reason this is important to me (other then just curiosity) is we are tentatively planing on going back there to shoot something specific with a different outfit under similar conditions.
Trivia: We didn't like very many shots from that set, mainly because the outfit was wrong and then the bad focus didn't help. And I did not notice the bad focus at the time, because I am usually looking only for good exposure as far as the LCD is concerned. Also my eyes, my glasses and the diopter adjustment don't always get along and I put on and take of my glasses depending on distance. And it doesn't help my eyes will compensate somewhat for mildly out of focus optics.
first time I have had an AF problem with this camera so figure it is me doing something, but I usually shoot in the studio and having a model that shows up and the weather is nice on a outdoor shoot was a nice change from usual. But I thought it was strange that the AF messed up for that one set and otherwise worked great before and after.
Any suggestions for things to look at appreciated.
So there I was for the first time this year and first time ever with my 1DsMkIII (21.1MP just to be clear ) shooting a model outdoors on a nice hot sunny day. Previous attempts being rainy or overcast. Not first time with camera, just outdoors in mostly sunny (as opposed to overcast) weather.
For most of the shoot the focus was dead on - far better then my 1DsMkII ever did. Also I had just finished micro-adjusting all of my lenses within a week before and they were dead on. Until suddenly for one setting the Auto-Focus basically failed me. Then when we changed location the AF was spot on again.
In that one set I think I got one in-focus shot out of about 20. The majority seemed to pick the closest object in the scene, one or two back-focused and only two got close enough, although only one was actually in the zone. The closest object in the scene was on the edge of the frame and no where near my model.
AF was turned on, I checked.
28-70/2.8L lens
one-shot mode
AV mode (because of the occasional scattered cloud)
I am fairly confident the AF point was on target, but since it seemed to focus on things outside of the AF points, it wouldn't have matter anyway. I usually by habit tend to wait for the red square to light up indicating focus lock before shooting which is why I am certain it was on target, but I am usually concentrating on getting the shot, not the camera.
BTW: Is there a way to see after the fact where the AF point actually was? I don't remember DPP having that capability and I don't know of any way in PS. Do I need to use the other Canon software?
If any one has suggestions without me posting the raw data, that would be appreciated. If you need the raw data, I will put up a couple tomorrow.
Conditions:
A path through some woods around 4PM, bright Sun (when it got through the trees), in the 90's. The difference between that scene and others was the model was just forward of a bend in the trail with a lot of small trees behind her in a very complex scene, although she was forward enough of the trees, it should have been easy on the AF. The model was wearing a white dress with medium sized black flowers on it. The model is of Asian descent.
Reason this is important to me (other then just curiosity) is we are tentatively planing on going back there to shoot something specific with a different outfit under similar conditions.
Trivia: We didn't like very many shots from that set, mainly because the outfit was wrong and then the bad focus didn't help. And I did not notice the bad focus at the time, because I am usually looking only for good exposure as far as the LCD is concerned. Also my eyes, my glasses and the diopter adjustment don't always get along and I put on and take of my glasses depending on distance. And it doesn't help my eyes will compensate somewhat for mildly out of focus optics.
first time I have had an AF problem with this camera so figure it is me doing something, but I usually shoot in the studio and having a model that shows up and the weather is nice on a outdoor shoot was a nice change from usual. But I thought it was strange that the AF messed up for that one set and otherwise worked great before and after.
Any suggestions for things to look at appreciated.
