Safe to stay in AI servo on a 5D2?

Is the servo engine on the 5D2 reliable enough not to get confused on shots with no movement, or should I really switch back to one-shot?

Seems to depend on your particular body. I think I get better results on one-shot

Just curious...why AI Servo for a non-moving subject? The convenience of not having to switch over from moving subjects or is there some other advantage?

LowriderS10 wrote in post #13746974
Just curious...why AI Servo for a non-moving subject? The convenience of not having to switch over from moving subjects or is there some other advantage?

Pretty much. Sometime your target moves a bit erratically; I was at a wedding recently and you'd be lining up a still shot but then he subject starts walking. I didn't know how to handle that, stayed in one-shot and missed a lot of pictures (wasn't the official photographer so it's only my loss). I thought that servo would be the solution, but if it screws up still shots...

Theoretically AI Focus is specifically for such situations. Page 80 in the manual

Ai Focus is crap - although you are right, in theory it should work for that situation. It is just very unresponsive and slow. If you never use focus/recompose, then I guess there is nothing wrong with staying in AI Servo all the time. It would not work for me, but.......

John_T wrote in post #13747117
Theoretically AI Focus is specifically for such situations. Page 80 in the manual

Just what I was about to suggest..

5Dmaniac wrote in post #13747126
Ai Focus is crap - although you are right, in theory it should work for that situation. It is just very unresponsive and slow. If you never use focus/recompose, then I guess there is nothing wrong with staying in AI Servo all the time. It would not work for me, but.......

If you back button focus you could let go of the button once focus was achieved and retain the ability to recompose.

I've not had the 5d, but with the two bodies I have had I did some testing of using servo vs one shot, I thought I saw bit of difference favoring the one shot often enough that I do switch to one shot most of the time.

In the situation you describe I would probably use servo because the focus difference between the two modes would not have bothered me too much with a "people event" unlike other subjects where I prefer a really sharp object or a really shallow DOF.

I really only ever use one shot. Just gotta learn to be quick, focus and click...
Practice makes perfect

Eric wrote in post #13747235
I really only ever use one shot. Just gotta learn to be quick, focus and click...
Practice makes perfect

This. I almost never use AI Servo.

I am almost always in AI Servo, with back button AF. I get the Servo and One Shot all in one setting.

Shooting performers on stage, One Shot would be impossible unless you're shooting at f16, which is, never.

I only use One-Shot if the target won't move and the camera is on tripod. If you think about it like this, AI Servo makes more sense. AI Servo has you covered if the target or the camera moves. One-Shot assumes both camera and target will NOT move.

At least that's the way my left-handed brain sees things!

dave

snyderman wrote in post #13748288
I only use One-Shot if the target won't move and the camera is on tripod. If you think about it like this, AI Servo makes more sense. AI Servo has you covered if the target or the camera moves. One-Shot assumes both camera and target will NOT move.

If your body and glass perform as they should, this is logical.

There seems to be two schools of thought about this.

Logically, it makes sense just to stay in AI Servo mode for anything other than compeltely static subjects (particularly with BBF), and dab once for a quick one-shot focus, or hold it for continuous focus. And there are quite a few people that do this. Of course you don't get a focus confirm beep, but otherwise things should be cool.

But there are another group of people that think that a quick focus in AI Servo mode is somehow less accurate that one-shot mode, and therefore do not do this.

I don't know if anybody has done some objective testing* on this. I can't see how a single AI Servo focus would be less accurate than a one-shot, and it's more likely imo that people just think it's less accurate because they never get a focus confirmation from the camera, but it would be nice to know - and if it's no less accurate, I would probably switch to AI Servo for the bulk of my shooting, apart from completely static stuff.

The focus confirmation *is* kinda reassuring though...

* I did some quick testing on my 7D, and when pixel peeping I didn't notice any difference in focus accuracy between one shot and AI Servo, but it wasn't exhaustive testing by any stretch...

I'm exclusively always using AI Servo on both 5D2 and 1DIV. To me, there is absolutely no difference in focus accuracy. I just have the advantage of being able to shoot moving objects as well as static objects.