Getting very annoyed with my 1D Mark IV

Love everything about it but when it comes to tracking a Subject, Every other Shot is out of Focus, Doesn't matter if I'm under bad light or even good daytime light. It just hunts whether I'm in Single Point AF or auto Select. I am trying to be fair to the camera since I have never owned a 1D series body but also keeping in mind that I previously owned a 7D Mark II back In January for a Month to review. I never had any issues like this on my 7D, Yeah a few shots were slightly out of focus but the 7D ii tracked my kid running around or bird's in flight insanely well. I have tried all kinds of different settings in custom functions. Nothing seems to help. Tried AF Micro Adjust, Made it worst. Any Suggestions? I made a thread a while ago about 1DX vs 1D4 setup with a 300mm and now I am starting to lean a lot more towards the 1DX.

You got rid of a 7DII which had a cutting edge AF system and replaced it with an old camera that doesn't - it was new in its time but I don't think it compared with the system in the 1DX, 5DIII and 7DII. According to the review on DPReview "If automatically selected by the camera, only 19 of the points act as cross-type AF points (the same 19 that were selectable cross-type on the Mark III). With f/4 lenses, only the center point acts as a cross-type point," I think the 300 you are using is f/4 so that would reduce the AFs capabilities.

The review also states that the camera "also the first to offer 10fps shooting, albeit without AF between shots)." which I assume means no tracking if shooting at that speed - which sounds rather pointless to me.

The 1D4 tracks superbly at 10 FPS. You have to make sure your custom functions are set properly and you are using the best AF point selection for the situation.

Also from DPReview:
http://www.dpreview.co​m …57559#forum-post-34622207

Other than early problems with 1D3, all 1 series bodies have performed very well at tracking.

I don't see any clues in your post as to what may be a problem.
Why did you try MFA? If "every other shot" is out of focus, does that mean every second shot is in focus?

It's still early in the game for me but I recently switched from the 7D2 to a 1D IV and I couldn't be happier at this point. I'm getting far more keepers than with my 7D2 at the end. It worked quite well for 10 months or so.... and long story short: stopped working like it once did.

I can tell the difference between the AF systems. The 7D2 is faster even though the cameras are both rated at 10 FPS. It could be because I have chosen different settings for the 1D IV..... but I'm loving the keeper rate and the images I'm getting from the 1D IV. It's sort of like this for me at this point: I'm not taking quite as many photos in an outing..... but far more of them are staying in Lightroom.

I'll know better in a month or so but so far, I'm very pleased with my 1D IV.

DJHaze596 wrote in post #17834594
Love everything about it but when it comes to tracking a Subject, Every other Shot is out of Focus, Doesn't matter if I'm under bad light or even good daytime light. It just hunts whether I'm in Single Point AF or auto Select. I am trying to be fair to the camera since I have never owned a 1D series body but also keeping in mind that I previously owned a 7D Mark II back In January for a Month to review. I never had any issues like this on my 7D, Yeah a few shots were slightly out of focus but the 7D ii tracked my kid running around or bird's in flight insanely well. I have tried all kinds of different settings in custom functions. Nothing seems to help. Tried AF Micro Adjust, Made it worst. Any Suggestions? I made a thread a while ago about 1DX vs 1D4 setup with a 300mm and now I am starting to lean a lot more towards the 1DX.

Heya,

Have you turned down tracking sensitivity in AI Servo and set it to center point with expansion?

My 1Dc & 1D2 have no problems tracking a child running (heck I can manual focus my daughter running in the yard with an 85mm F1.4 even), let alone wildlife and birds where I use it the most. So I would think your 1D4 isn't suffering a problem, but more, it's how you're using it.

1D series doesn't have an "auto-work" button really, so you really have to configure it to do what you want.

If you're finding it's not focusing on target in subsequent shots, it's either over-predicting or under-predicting the movement (AI servo), so that's where you want to address it. Go to the tracking section in your menu and play with the sensitivity. Start low so it doesn't lose focus as easy. If your sensitivity is through the room it will drop off target often if anything else gets in the way. And stay away from auto-select AF points. I would use single point with expansion and just move that where you want it based on composition.

If you're having this problem with a 1D4 you will have the same problem, possibly worse if you don't select the right case, using a 1DX. So I wouldn't trade up until you figure out your issue with AF first.

Also, posting an example of in-focus followed by out-of-focus would help figure out what might be the issue as well.

Very best,

butterfly2937 wrote in post #17834647
The 1D4 tracks superbly at 10 FPS. You have to make sure your custom functions are set properly and you are using the best AF point selection for the situation.

Glad to hear that. Was very puzzled by the comment in that review.

Pages 96 to 99 of the manual is where the info lies and in particular page 99 which shows all the original lens permutations/f-stops/cross type and vertical/horizontal focus points abilities.

I've never lost focus tracking at 10fps but, you have to really nail the focus point because I felt they are more precision like than previous models i.e. smaller and I lost tracking occasionally until I became more proficient at keeping the focus point in the right place.

As I went from the mk2 1-d series to the mk 4 that caught me out a few times until I realised my errors.

LincsRP wrote in post #17834808
Pages 96 to 99 of the manual is where the info lies and in particular page 99 which shows all the original lens permutations/f-stops/cross type and vertical/horizontal focus points abilities.

I've never lost focus tracking at 10fps but, you have to really nail the focus point because I felt they are more precision like than previous models i.e. smaller and I lost tracking occasionally until I became more proficient at keeping the focus point in the right place.

As I went from the mk2 1-d series to the mk 4 that caught me out a few times until I realised my errors.

I read in one of the guides about the two focus points above center and below center. Do you use them at all? I'm not quite sure how to describe it other than to say... if you select the point right above or right below the dead center point... you get double auto focus points. I already have the expanded auto focus points selected in the menu.

Any thoughts, Steve.... or anyone else?

MalVeauX wrote in post #17834769
Heya,

Have you turned down tracking sensitivity in AI Servo and set it to center point with expansion?

My 1Dc & 1D2 have no problems tracking a child running (heck I can manual focus my daughter running in the yard with an 85mm F1.4 even), let alone wildlife and birds where I use it the most. So I would think your 1D4 isn't suffering a problem, but more, it's how you're using it.

1D series doesn't have an "auto-work" button really, so you really have to configure it to do what you want.

If you're finding it's not focusing on target in subsequent shots, it's either over-predicting or under-predicting the movement (AI servo), so that's where you want to address it. Go to the tracking section in your menu and play with the sensitivity. Start low so it doesn't lose focus as easy. If your sensitivity is through the room it will drop off target often if anything else gets in the way. And stay away from auto-select AF points. I would use single point with expansion and just move that where you want it based on composition.

If you're having this problem with a 1D4 you will have the same problem, possibly worse if you don't select the right case, using a 1DX. So I wouldn't trade up until you figure out your issue with AF first.

Also, posting an example of in-focus followed by out-of-focus would help figure out what might be the issue as well.

Very best,

I have tried turning down and up the tracking sensitivity, Doesn't seem to do much. Here is an example however and the tracking sensitivity was either on the lowest or second to lowest in Al Servo with single point selected and surround AF enabled. Before you even look at the photos, Yes my shutter speed was off, But that is not my issue, My issue is the camera not locking on the subject.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/BDuS​qf

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/CyGS​WW

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/C9Tf​Y9

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/C9Tg​Lm

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/CyGS​6s

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/BDCc​Jv

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/CtHt​Fa

Heya,

Looks like it was tracking fine until it got into those cross beams and got all confused. Then reacquired out of the cross beams.

Are you having this issue with your daughter running outside as you said?

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #17834911
Heya,

Looks like it was tracking fine until it got into those cross beams and got all confused. Then reacquired out of the cross beams.

Are you having this issue with your daughter running outside as you said?

Very best,

I tried everything last night with my son running around using a flash at 1/250th / f4. The camera or lens (50mm STM) just couldn't keep up, Tried all kinds of different settings, nothing seem to work, even if he was barely moving, Focus would be off. I have pictures with the 7D ii using the 50mm IS II back in January and it nailed focus every time and believe me I know the 7D II has a more advance AF but still, There is no way it's that much better. So there's got to be something i am doing wrong or a setting that needs to be changed.

DJHaze596 wrote in post #17834919
I tried everything last night with my son running around using a flash at 1/250th / f4. The camera or lens (50mm STM) just couldn't keep up, Tried all kinds of different settings, nothing seem to work, even if he was barely moving, Focus would be off. I have pictures with the 7D ii using the 50mm IS II back in January and it nailed focus every time and believe me I know the 7D II has a more advance AF but still, There is no way it's that much better. So there's got to be something i am doing wrong or a setting that needs to be changed.

Yea something is not set correctly, there's no way it's that poor at tracking, I mean, my old 5D classic can track a kid running in the evening with a slower lens with it's center point and servo.

Maybe try resetting everything on the 1DIV to defaults and start from scratch on the AF settings. Make one change at a time. Test it out. Make a change. Test it out. Etc.

Again I have a 1Dc & 1D2. So my menus are different from the 1DIV. But on my 1D2, the only thing I have doing on is basic AI Servo, back button focus, center point with expansion, sensitivity on AI servo set to a low setting, and I tend to use a 200 F2.8 prime or even a slow 600 F6.3 zoom, and it tracks fine. I rarely do full 8 FPS bursts, more like 2~3 shots at 8 FPS speed at most. And I make sure my shutter is a fast as necessary to freeze movement, as I'm typically shooting AV at whatever aperture I choose, and I simply push ISO high and use +1 EC, metering to ensure my slowest metered point is still fast enough to stop motion.

Very best,

Have you tried using the focus points to the left and right of the selected AF point. It would help to see samples and know what custom functions you have set. It is really hard to comment without seeing the photos in the sequence. Reset all the custom functions to default and try setting up the custom functions again.

You can use AV or TV if you wish but set the upper and lower limits to keep the proper shutter speed or aperture in the custom functions and use auto ISO.