1D Mark III sports photography focus problems

Greetings
I seem to be experiencing some focus issues with my Mark III. I have included a few animations to illustrate the problems I am experiencing. I have followed the various threads on the Mark III focus issues. Both of my Mark III‘s have been recalled to fix the sub mirror problem. Since I work for many of the paintball magazines I occasionally miss a photo because of this problem. Perhaps it is my imagination but the problem seems to be getting worse

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated; I can post the individual pictures if needed

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www.paintballphotograp​hy.com

PaintballPhotography.c​om wrote in post #6513462
Greetings
I seem to be experiencing some focus issues with my Mark III. I have included a few animations to illustrate the problems I am experiencing. I have followed the various threads on the Mark III focus issues. Both of my Mark III‘s have been recalled to fix the sub mirror problem. Since I work for many of the paintball magazines I occasionally miss a photo because of this problem. Perhaps it is my imagination but the problem seems to be getting worse

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated; I can post the individual pictures if needed


Thanks
Gary
www.paintballphotograp​hy.com

Tis simple really - bin the MK3 and get a D3 they work !!!

Mark

On the second one, the camera lost the face mask as the focus point and went for the color on the backstop. For the rest, -puzzled-, You need to send the camera in with these sets of pictures.

When you call, make sure they understand that you have already had the "fix" and you need then to look at it again. If that person doesn't offer to send you a mailer to do so, call back and talk to another rep. My experience. Good Luck

Gary,

It looks like you'd benefit from some of the Cf settings that have been being discussed in the Mk III AF thread recently.

I don't have all the references and links on hand, but it looks like your AF isn't getting consistent line contrast on the uniform and so hunts, ending up in the background. You can set custom functions to tell the camera not to hunt and to regulate the speed at which it shifts from one object to another. Give these a try and let us know the outcome -- the Mk III AF issues are still a hot topic!

what kind of AF points are you selecting? Single point? ring of fire? auto?

The 2nd one i agree with, the 3rd one, i have no clue, could you post the 3rd one, when it's the most OOF?

Lazuka wrote in post #6513817
The 2nd one i agree with, the 3rd one, i have no clue, could you post the 3rd one, when it's the most OOF?

That one too has focused on the background; if you look at the lower left corner you can see some people standing about in clear focus.

I haven't been following the MkIII focus issue too closely, but I thought the problem was that the camera wouldn't focus on anything in intermittent frames during high speed shooting, which isn't quite what I say here (not to say this camera is functioning perfectly, but still..).

Try this some have had good results...

Load old Firmware 1.1.3 and then re install latest firmware 1.2.3...
Ensure to save your setting before doing so though...

Some have noticed strange things like no longer requiing micro adjustments and improved AF....

It is worth a try... otherwise it is off to service.... Or user error

folville wrote in post #6513865
That one too has focused on the background; if you look at the lower left corner you can see some people standing about in clear focus.

I haven't been following the MkIII focus issue too closely, but I thought the problem was that the camera wouldn't focus on anything in intermittent frames during high speed shooting, which isn't quite what I say here (not to say this camera is functioning perfectly, but still..).

just caught that, good eye

TRY tracking speed on slow and pump the shutter button if you need to works well for BIF SHOTS so shoud work fine on these larger subject's.
Rob.

I agree with above. This looks like its switch AF points. Gotta be ROF, or at least assists turned on. I've never had luck with the assist on, especially if my subject isn't much bigger than an AF point. You can never be sure what they see and they may jump to better contrasted subject. Pretty much the same thing with ROF, you loose too much control.

You need to check/confirm a few CF's.
- tracking priority or shutter priority? (make sure its set to tracking, on first and all shots)
- Assist points? (off, at lest try it off)
- tracking speed? (center or less)

Thanks for you help…

sprite wrote in post #6513642
Tis simple really - bin the MK3 and get a D3 they work !!!
Mark

Must be a lost Nikonian , how did he get here?

tonylong wrote in post #6513722
Gary,

It looks like you'd benefit from some of the Cf settings that have been being discussed in the Mk III AF thread recently.

I don't have all the references and links on hand, but it looks like your AF isn't getting consistent line contrast on the uniform and so hunts, ending up in the background. You can set custom functions to tell the camera not to hunt and to regulate the speed at which it shifts from one object to another. Give these a try and let us know the outcome -- the Mk III AF issues are still a hot topic!

The AF thread is over 200 posts and I am not really sure where to start, a lot of it is about the initial problems the Mark III had

picturecrazy wrote in post #6513724
what kind of AF points are you selecting? Single point? ring of fire? auto?

I use AI Servo ….not sure what “ring of fire” is ?

GyRob wrote in post #6514266
TRY tracking speed on slow and pump the shutter button if you need to works well for BIF SHOTS so shoud work fine on these larger subject's.
Rob.

I have tried both fast and slow tracking speed but it does not see to help, with BIF you are only following one subject. I frequently switch from one subject to another unlike the BIF photographers

Lazuka wrote in post #6513817
The 2nd one i agree with, the 3rd one, i have no clue, could you post the 3rd one, when it's the most OOF?

Here it is

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Looks like it center focused on the head in the background.

looks like you are on center point only with ai servo. Ever tried to see what happens with all points selected and ai servo? Aslo, if you moved up from a 1dmkii the first thing is to forget the 1dmkii, which may take longer than the life expectancy of the camera.

hey gary

I think picturecrazy is asking do you have your focus points set individually or had the camera use the "ring of fire" aka ring of focus points to focus your subject? Because if you did have the camera on "ring of fire" the camera might have AF'd to the mans head in the background seeing that he is in the middle.


Other then that...I just took my 1d to canon for a AF rebuild. So at worst it might come down to that :\ cost me $180 too!