Sports photoghraphy with a 5D mk II

Anorakus

Anorakus

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To listen to some people on here, you'd think that the AF on a 5D mk II was barely functional. All I can say is, try shooting some moving targets with it.. you may be surprised :)

The sequence below was shot on AF Servo with the centre point activated. The buffer held I think 7 or 8 shots before maxing out. The frame rate isn't the fastest in the world, but is quite capable of capturing action.

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A.
 
Can you show me somewhere where people have said it isn't capale of the above? Sorry just never seen any of the things your saying happens all the time?

My olympus c2100uz digital camera from 10 yrs ago could do the above BTW.. and i have the pics to prove it :)
 
Well exactly... to hear people moaning about AF of some DSLRs, you'd think that sports photography wasn't possible until about 2008. The 5D II's AF is streets ahead of any film camera I've owned.

My first exhibit to the court is the number of threads and posts along the lines of "I really want a 5D mk II but I hear the AF is rubbish" :D

A.
 
KIPAX said:
Can you show me somewhere where people have said it isn't capale of the above? Sorry just never seen any of the things your saying happens all the time?

My olympus c2100uz digital camera from 10 yrs ago could do the above BTW.. and i have the pics to prove it :)
Click to expand...

I think you'll find that lots of people do say that the 5D Mkii's AF is rubbish - I must admit that its certainly not as good as the 1Ds's AF but it seems to work fine for me!
 
I thought the 20D & 5D(mk1 & 2) all had pretty much the same AF system anyway...
 
My beef with the 5D2 isn't with the AF speed - that's not an issue, Canon do fast AF very well and always have in EOS bodies - but the actual arrangement of AF points is crap on the 5D2. It's as if (maybe they have) taken the AF system from a crop camera (i.e. the area it covers) and just plonked it on a FF sensor so there's a swathe of viewfinder area (ergo sensor area) that isn't covered by an AF point. It's great on centre AF but if there's something top corner then it struggles..... great camera otherwise and I suspect the mk3 will be all singing, all dancing and will set the standard for DSLR/video crossover:)
 
I've owned umpteen eos bodies now and the AF performance IS lacking, unless you're using centre point, sharp focus in anything other than good light is a very hit and miss affair. I bought into the 5 series because the majority of the work I do, is in dimmly lit cabaret clubs and the 5's low noise at higher iso's is a real plus.

As mentioned earlier too, the spread of the nine points is too tight within the frame leaving large areas of the frame uncovered. So much so that focusing and recomposing often gives a soft image.

So...... in the right context, for a relatively high end camera, the AF system IS lacking

I was ready to step up to the 1 series for the better AF spread alone, but the cost of the coming 1dx is too much, so I'm now hoping the 5d3 at least gets something between the 1 and the 7 series with regards to number of points and even the ability for the points to work in groups for servo shooting instead of trying to keep the centre point (with it's 6 invisible helpers) over an often quickly moving subject.
 
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