Focus and recompose VS using the outer focus points

So I have bee a long time "centerpoint focus and recomposer", but at times I see that the images are not as sharp as they should be, especialy when I am shooting at f/1.4. I have finally figured out that this is due to the recomposing itself.

How do you deal with this? Do you use one of the outer focus points? I tried to rely on the outer focus points, untill I realized how bad they are on the 5D2. The outer points gives me very mixed / unacceptable results.. That leaves me with manual focus, which is very hard in most cases and definitely impossible in low light conditions.

I know that shooting at low apertures is kinda tricky, but I would like to hear how you deal with it.

If you have the time and your subject is still, manually focus. I'm not super familiar with the 5DII, but the 60D has Live View on the LCD screen; using that, you can zoom in 5x and 10x, moved the zoomed area to the place you want to focus in the frame, and get pretty precise manual focusing.

Otherwise, the outer points are maybe better than focus-and-recompose using the center point.

OR, adapt your recomposing technique so that your originally focused point stays in focus: Instead of holding the camera in one spot and turning it to recompose, "slide" the camera along a plane that's parallel to the focal plane. This is tough to do accurately, so I generally just use the outer point...

First be aware that the outer points--notice, they are rectangle-shaped--are sensitive only to linear contrasts running perpendicular to the rectangle. This frequently bollixes portraits because if you turn the camera vertical and then use one of the outer-end rectangles to focus on an eye, that turns the rectangle parallel to the major linear contrasts of the eye (lids and brow)...precisely the wrong thing to do.

If you rotate the camera on the lens axis even 45 degrees, that allows it to "catch" those linear contrasts with the outer rectangle, then you can rotate it back without shifting the focus plane.

Personally, I have no problem using the outer rectangles to focus on any distinct linear contrast that I'm able to see in the viewfinder, as long as I turn the camera so that the rectangle is perpendicular to the linear contrast.

I was never a big fan of focus and recompose but was forced to do it when one of my AF points hunted in any and all situations. As you know though, I sent it in to Canon under warranty and they sent it back completely fixed. Locks focus much faster than it did before. With that said, I still prefer to use the center point and still find myself doing so and cropping the shot in post which is only a temporary fix which I hope the mk3 resolves completely if and when that comes out.

Thanks for all the info guys. Very helpful.

cheers!

Ricku wrote in post #12475124
So I have bee a long time "centerpoint focus and recomposer", but at times I see that the images are not as sharp as they should be, especialy when I am shooting at f/1.4. I have finally figured out that this is due to the recomposing itself.

How do you deal with this? Do you use one of the outer focus points? I tried to rely on the outer focus points, untill I realized how bad they are on the 5D2. The outer points gives me very mixed / unacceptable results.. That leaves me with manual focus, which is very hard in most cases and definitely impossible in low light conditions.

I know that shooting at low apertures is kinda tricky, but I would like to hear how you deal with it.

I got the precision matte focus screen for my 5DII to assist with manual focus, and it definitely helps with 50L. When I shoot people at really close range I normally stop down to f/2.8 - 4 to get enough depth of field, they need to be facing dead on to the camera. From further away I find it gets harder to focus manually because you can't see the fine details ie, the persons eyelashes come in and out focus. If i am further away and i have my tripod handy I normally resort to live view and still focus manually. Hope this helps.

I usually always use my outer focus points with great results on my 5D even with apertures of 1.4. The only trouble I get sometimes is my lens hunts, but when it locks, my shots are usually sharp.