D3 and Mark III Owners

You know who you are. The fancy bunch with both cameras listed in your sigs.
Does the D3 really focus better?

Say you had the 85mm 1.2 and the counterpart 85mm 1.4 for their respective cameras. Which one would you trust to AF more acurately, more often in say, mid length potrait shot in which you focus on the subjects eye?

Well since no one has replied I will give my observations.

I own the D3 and also the 85 1.2/had the 85 1.8/ not sure there is an 85 1.4 canon lens/

So far as portrait photography I typically only use manual focus. I want to designate what is in focus not let the camera decide. I've used both but prefer the 1.2. Can I notice the difference in the viewfinder's brightness between the 1.2 & 1.8. Yes, if I have one on each camera side by side but in real world use - not enough to cry.

But in action photography the 1.2 is slower to focus than the 1.8 - but - I use the 1.2 for the extra f stop and the bokeh. I am willing to sacrifice a few hits to get 'the' shot.

Hope this helps!

Mr. Clean wrote in post #5260410
You know who you are. The fancy bunch with both cameras listed in your sigs.

You might have better luck just PM'ing the two people on the forum that rock both cameras!

Uhh, would I be one of those people?

Here's my short answer. I owned the 85L I and II. The 85L I was very slow to focus, making it unusable for me as I like to roam the streets and take shots, not shoot in a studio where it would be fine. The 85L II was markedly faster to focus, though still no speed demon. It was quite usable and probably the best portrait lens I've ever used. At f1.2 though it could be a bit soft, which is the case with a lot of lenses at their max aperture.

As for the Nikon 85 f1.4, it is not a USM lens, not one of their newer designs. That said, as it is a smaller chunk of glass it focuses noticably quicker than the 85L II, but not as fast as the 85 1.8.

Specifically as to your focusing on the eyes question, if I wanted to be absolutely sure my focus was dead-on the eye(s), sounds like you are speaking of a static subject. In that case, I'd use a tripod, click on live view, magnify the picture 10x and manually focus not trusting either to do it for me.

mark

MDJAK wrote in post #5284278
Uhh, would I be one of those people?

Yes!

One down... one to go!

timnosenzo wrote in post #5286595
Yes!

One down... one to go!

Only Bubble left.

the problem is i DON"T have nikon 84 f/1.4 so i can't really answer your question.

HOWEVER, i compared D3 + 300 f/2.8G VR vs Mark III + 300 f/2.8IS and they are pretty much the same.

D3 + 300 f/2.8G VR = Fast
Mark III + 300 f/2.8 IS = Fast

D3 + 300 f/2.8G VR + 1.7x TC= hunting a lot / missing lots of shot
Mark III + 300 f/2.8 IS + 2xTC= FAST.

I use Mark III with 24-70L vs D3 with 24-70 and AF comes out pretty much the same. I don't see the different.