7D in AI Servo...OOF....what am I doing wrong?

I got my 7D about a week ago. Taken it out a few times with the 70-200 f4 IS. I have not yet been able to get any in focus action shots in AI servo mode. This lens worked well with my XSi (bought the 7D as I want more keepers....especially for action pictures of the dog and my kids sport). The one shot still pics seem to be pretty good.

The first shot below is 1/800, f4, ISO100, AF area: auto (panning while taking this pic). This was the best action shot I have in the past week

The second shot is 1/800, f4, ISO100, AF area: center point (dog coming toward me). Most of the shots have been like this.

Keeping the "AF-ON" button depressed for continuous focusing on the subject (this button is set to "Metering and AF Start"). Shutter button is set to "Metering Start".

I would expect that at 1/800 shutter speed that this would be fast enough to stop the action. The focus is just not there though.

I watched the B&H videos as well as the ones on the Canon site but still not sure why this is happening. Am I missing something here regarding the AF system on the 7D? Any recommendation will be greatly appreciated.

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Whats the sensitivity of you cf setting? I forgot which cf number but its the one with the slider from slow to fast.

try to use even higher shutter speed. 1/1000 or 1/2000. And turn up the iso. If still happening, check to see the focus of the lens/body, to see whether it has front/back focus.

Last, sometimes the focus may not be as fast as you think, so sometimes you have to act accordingly.

1/800 may still have some blur to be honest, although it should be too much. I would recommend posting your af custom setting so we know what your settings are.

First first one looks ok to me, I wouldn't ever use af area auto... but whatever

The second one ... center zone af it, could have chosen a point at the dogs legs, then this photo is perfectly in focus for the focus point. Use single point or single point expanded if you want precise focusing.

EDIT: Also post your custom functions for III so we know how you set up your camera

something like...
1 * (one left from center)
2 0
3 1
4 0
5 2
6 *
7 0
8 1
9 0
10 0
11 0
12 1
13 0

The second shot seems to have areas of grass that are quite sharp and in focus on a plane with the dogs front left foot.

musashi wrote in post #11567580
Whats the sensitivity of you cf setting? I forgot which cf number but its the one with the slider from slow to fast.

It's CFn III-1, but it pertains to how the AF system treats new subjects that enter the viewfinder. Slower settings means that the AF system will tend to ignore these new subjects, while faster settings will more easily allow the AF system to switch to them. Faster settings are good for multiple subjects (e.g., multiple players on a football field that run in and out of your viewfinder).

To the Op, please post your custom function settings, esp. CFn III, as well as the focusing points.

I pretty strictly use one point when shooting sports/action, to control the point of focus and not leave it up to the camera.

You have got a lot of motion blur in the first shot, even with 1/800 shutter. The dog is in focus.

You might need to apply some sharpening to the images from your 7D. Images from the camera need a lot more sharpening than lower resolution shots from earlier cameras. With deliberately blurred images, you might want to do selective sharpening... that's some additional work in Photoshop or whatever, of course!

I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of doing a little selective sharpening on your two images. I think it helped, even with just low resolution jpegs. I might have held back the sharpening more on the grass in both cases, but this was just a quick sharpening job to show you what I mean.

Below are the settings for CFnIII.

The grass on the second one is not really that much in focus...just better than the dog. With most of the pics that I took today, the majority were similar to the secnd pic above. I tried af area, af zone and ceter point...pretty much the same results all over.

I thought about microadjusting however when a take a pic in one shot (still image) the picture is pretty sharp.


CFn 3.1: 0 (middle setting)
3.2: 0: AF priority/Tracking priority
3.3: 1: Continuous AF Tracking priority
3.4: 0: focus search on
3.5: Microadjustment: 0: diable
3.6: All enabled
3.7: 0: stops at AF area edges
3.8: 0: Auto
3.9: 0: disable
3.10: 0: enable
3.11: 0: enable
3.12: 0: same for both vertical/horizontal
3.13: 0: disable

This could well be part of your problem too

Newby2Cam wrote in post #11567567
...AF area: auto (panning while taking this pic). This was the best action shot I have in the past week

Don't let the camera decide where to focus.
It's not quite as smart as you are.

I suspect user error if area af and single point give you the same results, are you able to consistently keep the af point over the exact sport you want the focus?

The second photo clearly shows the dog's front legs and the grass area in that plane as in focus.

I am not sure on your experience with operating the camera so please don't take offense, but buying a 7D isn't going to make you action master over night, it takes a lot of person training to correctly apply the camera which is just a tool.

No offence taken themadman....this is where I leave my ego at the door.

I got used to using my XSi. Just want to be sure that I am on the right path with the 7D (and be sure that the settings that I have were not the problem). The good thing is that use error can be fixed.

Looks like I will need to make sure that my shutter speed is higher for action shots with the 7D. The high ISO capabilites should help with this. Since I'm coming from an XSi (with minimal high ISO) I am still cautious to up the ISO.....but from what I've read....the 7D should have no problem at higher ISO.

Amfoto:
I am shooting RAW so DPP and Photoshop here. Not sure about microadjusting this lens as the still pictures that I have taken with this lens on the 7D have been pretty sharp. I may just try it anyway. I did manage to have a much better final version of the first pic with some sharpening through PS. I will try changing DOF for future pics and see how this helps.

Thank you all for the tips.....I'll keep practicing with the AF...take many shots and hopefully I can come back here in a couple of weeks and show some better shots.

Newby2Cam wrote in post #11569241
Looks like I will need to make sure that my shutter speed is higher for action shots with the 7D. The high ISO capabilites should help with this. Since I'm coming from an XSi (with minimal high ISO) I am still cautious to up the ISO.....but from what I've read....the 7D should have no problem at higher ISO.

With light like it is in the two images you provided, there should have been no problem using ISO200, or even ISO100.