Center point with fast primes: Crop or recompose?

Tom W wrote in post #11759982
Man I wish I could manually focus with anything close to the speed and accuracy that the camera has in autofocus. Yes, I can do it with live view at 10X, if I take my time, but people aren't going to hold still for 3 minutes to allow me to focus.

Just don't have the eyes for it, I guess.

Try a focusing screen.

Dr.Pete wrote in post #11758363
One of the very first things I was told when I picked up one of my first ultra-fast primes was to never, ever, EVER recompose a shot. Terribly unforgiving, back-button focus, and all that. OK, got it.

Then, of course, I get home and realize that I want to compose a shot differently, and rely on the not-so-hot outer AF points on my 5D2. This has resulted in a really low keeper rate, even lower than my fast-prime keeper rate with using the center point (I've got a LOT of refining to do when it comes to technique, and I recognize this is magnified when shooting at f/1.2-1.4).

So for all the fast prime shooters, how do you do it? Shoot center point and re-compose the image by cropping, or do you re-compose the shot, accepting that the old adage about never recomposing when shooting a fast prime wide open is a load of crap?

Framing first and then focusing will give you consistently better results particularly with large apertures. I think this was the cause of many posts complaining about the 50L's focusing ability. See the attached advice from Canon.
http://www.usa.canon.c​om …_Autofocus_Quic​kGuide.pdf

cristphoto wrote in post #11768153
Framing first and then focusing will give you consistently better results particularly with large apertures. I think this was the cause of many posts complaining about the 50L's focusing ability. See the attached advice from Canon.
http://www.usa.canon.c​om …_Autofocus_Quic​kGuide.pdf

Right. I know what that says and that's the "rule" I've always heard, but the 5D2 doesn't focus particularly well at those outside points---at least not consistently. And surprisingly, Canon hasn't released a brochure on "How to focus when the AF points on our cameras suck."

And for a slightly lighter, funnier, NSFW take on the subject:

http://****/icITnw

Personally I feel that the impact of focus recompose on AF accuracy with fast primes is overstated

Generally, if the shot is OOF, blame it on subject movement or camera/lens AF inaccuracy

Dr.Pete wrote in post #11758363
One of the very first things I was told when I picked up one of my first ultra-fast primes was to never, ever, EVER recompose a shot. Terribly unforgiving, back-button focus, and all that. OK, got it.

I wish someone would've told me this (or at least i had the brains to figure it out). Took me quite a while I shoot non-center AF points all the time with my 7D, but i realize this doens't help your case too much. It seems to me that cropping isn't a bad solution?

JayZ235 wrote in post #11769832
I wish someone would've told me this (or at least i had the brains to figure it out). Took me quite a while I shoot non-center AF points all the time with my 7D, but i realize this doens't help your case too much. It seems to me that cropping isn't a bad solution?

It depends what you mean by "bad solution"!

I crop plenty for some types of shooting -- for example, when I'm out chasing critters with the 100-400 lens with a 1.4x TC mounted on my 1D3 I can get AF (with the f/8-capable combo) but I'm limited to center point AF. So do I crop for the best composition? Sure! And, as often as not I also have to crop to get a better "close up" view as well!

But, for much of the rest of my shooting I'm looking to fully frame a shot. If my distance is sufficient and my aperture isn't to wide I can focus and recompse using the center point AF but I'm quite happy to use the outer points whenever I can. That way I may recompose a bit to get the most pleasing composition, and yeah I do that, but just a bit and it doesn't throw off the focus/depth of field thing.

A lot of this is called "get out and shoot and learn from experience".