1dMKIII Cfn Settings Sports Advice

I have some Auto Sport to shoot, confitions will be overcast, temp cool. All sport will be oncoming, planning on using 70-200mm F2.8 IS. Having not played with A1 Servo, and aside from the focus debate, I am looking for any feedback of what you have used with regards Cfn settings. Only advice I have seen from a Sports journalist was to switch to the inner 9 focus points.

As a second question if you select inner 9 as a Cfn function, what happens if you then select a focus point, does it disable the inner 9 and take priority or will it use the focus point you select and the rest of the 9 to assist.

Finally what is the downside to setting AF Servo to fast, just battery life?

Appreciate any tips or advice

Does anyone bother to read manuals anymore?


Setting it to fast doesnt change the speed that the lens focuses. All it does it change the amount of time youre allowed to be off target before the lens starts to try to acquire something else.

So in Auto Sport with bikes come front on I appreciate the abillity to snap focus to the next bike, so I am thinking high, but where do Iloose out battery life?

Jaguar wrote in post #4031458
So in Auto Sport with bikes come front on I appreciate the abillity to snap focus to the next bike, so I am thinking high, but where do Iloose out battery life?

Honestly, I think the change in battery life would be small enough that if youre seriously worried about running out, you should just go buy another one.

I dont know for sure though how much, if any, more power it takes having it on fast.

with a battery life of about 3500 shots, loosing 100-200 shots won't make a difference. be cautioned though, fast setting can lead to focus being lost if anything gets in the way, or if the bikers separate and you look at the gap. if you want to change focus subject, you just have to repress the af-on button and it will lock onto the new object (that+slow setting is very powerful for field sports)

the mark II has a similar setting. I find there are advantages & disadvantages to fast and slow. With the fast setting you can loose focus if you don't follow the subject perfectly, or if something comes in front (even a blowing piece of trash). On the other hand, the slow setting is a drag - if the subject moves faster than the camera can track, or if the subject moves erratically and does something the camera doesn't predict, then when the camera does loose focus it doesn't regain it very rapidly. I've lost shots both ways.

I have tried the slower setting although it was on BIF -What i found was at time's it can make the camera feel really slow in how its working and although it might be doing its job to me it makes it feel more like a 300d .
It just does not feel like a high speed camera .
but we are all diffrent so i can understand how others might prefer it , just not me.
Rob.

GyRob wrote in post #4031772
I have tried the slower setting although it was on BIF -What i found was at time's it can make the camera feel really slow in how its working and although it might be doing its job to me it makes it feel more like a 300d .
It just does not feel like a high speed camera .
but we are all diffrent so i can understand how others might prefer it , just not me.
Rob.

I dont think it should be a setting you should just leave and forget about it. I mean, youd want different tolerances for different things. If the subject is simply one lone object, I think you could just leave it on slow and prevent misfocus due to objects coming between you and your subject.

If youre going to want to change focus quickly between multiple different subjects, youd want it on fast at the expense that now if something unexpected does come between you and the subject, or if you get on target for a second, the camera is now searching for the backwall or that sideline cone.

It doesnt effect the speed at which the camera first tries to obtain focus...Only the duration that the "subject" can be "out of focus" before looking for a new one.

AdamLewis wrote in post #4031804
I dont think it should be a setting you should just leave and forget about it. I mean, youd want different tolerances for different things. If the subject is simply one lone object, I think you could just leave it on slow and prevent misfocus due to objects coming between you and your subject.

If youre going to want to change focus quickly between multiple different subjects, youd want it on fast at the expense that now if something unexpected does come between you and the subject, or if you get on target for a second, the camera is now searching for the backwall or that sideline cone.

It doesnt effect the speed at which the camera first tries to obtain focus...Only the duration that the "subject" can be "out of focus" before looking for a new one.

well if i knew the bird was going to be a Herron then slower would be fine as the target is big but when birding you never know what's going to turn up and dont have chance to change it .
If i was shooting trains or a bus that sort of thing then Yes changeing it is an option but then again im not likely to lose that sort of target and need to pick it up again Fast
Up to now i find Fast best for everything -i might lose the target quicker but then can pick it up again quicker.
Rob.

GyRob wrote in post #4031872
well if i knew the bird was going to be a Herron then slower would be fine as the target is big but when birding you never know what's going to turn up and dont have chance to change it .
If i was shooting trains or a bus that sort of thing then Yes changeing it is an option but then again im not likely to lose that sort of target and need to pick it up again Fast
Up to now i find Fast best for everything -i might lose the target quicker but then can pick it up again quicker.
Rob.

Im not advocating changing it all the time...Just saying that it would be best if you could. I personally just leave it in the middle. I might turn it up one notch but Ive been pretty happy with it the way it came.

AdamLewis wrote in post #4031880
Im not advocating changing it all the time...Just saying that it would be best if you could. I personally just leave it in the middle. I might turn it up one notch but Ive been pretty happy with it the way it came.

well as long as your happy with the way it works thats all that matters,
why Canon give us this handy option then hide it away in the menue is just a poor a design flaw imo.
an extra button to change it by a simple press would have been nice and i would have used it
Perhaps when they fix the focusing problem in the MK3n they will add it for us
Rob.

GyRob wrote in post #4031992
well as long as your happy with the way it works thats all that matters,
why Canon give us this handy option then hide it away in the menue is just a poor a design flaw imo.
an extra button to change it by a simple press would have been nice and i would have used it
Perhaps when they fix the focusing problem in the MK3n they will add it for us
Rob.

You know I thought the same thing about the button, but if they had a buttons for every feature people wish they had instant access too, youd be shooting a large ball of buttons with a lens on it. Theyve only got so much space to work with and hoenstly, Id rather have access to picture styles than that particular CFn.

As for the focusing myth with the MkIII, Im not touching that aside from saying mine works flawlessly and so do the other 80 or so this store has sold. Im sure the MkIIIn ( if they make one ) will be an equally splendid camera.

AdamLewis wrote in post #4032008
You know I thought the same thing about the button, but if they had a buttons for every feature people wish they had instant access too, youd be shooting a large ball of buttons with a lens on it. Theyve only got so much space to work with and hoenstly, Id rather have access to picture styles than that particular CFn.

As for the focusing myth with the MkIII, Im not touching that aside from saying mine works flawlessly and so do the other 80 or so this store has sold. Im sure the MkIIIn ( if they make one ) will be an equally splendid camera.

Now i wish i had bought one from your store and i bet the other's that KNOW Some mk3's have AF problems do too .

Any other advice for the Cfn settings I should consider for the dirt bike racing? I am pretty much certian that I will use the inner 9 AF Points.

GyRob wrote in post #4032053
Now i wish i had bought one from your store and i bet the other's that KNOW Some mk3's have AF problems do too .

Yeah. There were some problems with the earlier ones for sure. And there may still be a bad copy out there. I refer to it as a myth because people talk it up on the internet as though every single one was plagued by it...Or even 1 in every 5. Its really a low low number. Its just that when something goes right, people are like, "yeah...its working right but it should, I spent almost 5000 on it anyways". Then, when it works badly, "OMG This sucks I must go post about it on every forum and tell everyone how absolutely awful it is!"

Just seems the negatives about the MkIII AF issue are a little blown out of proportion IMO. However, thats neither here nor there I dont want to completely derail this thread