Canon 5d Mark III questions...

[Mike Margolis]

I'm planning to rent a 5d MkIII to shoot the Miramar Air Show this year, and then take it with me on vacation to the northeast. My plan is to use my 100-400mm on the rental 5d and put my 24-70mm on my 6d. The purpose of renting the 5d is a sort of test drive and to get a better continuous FPS rate for the solo crossings. The buffer on the 6d fills quickly and even with all the tricks (fast card, no preview, RAW only, and all the other optional processes shut off), it bogs down quite badly. The low FPS is pretty much the only thing I don't like about the 6d (but it's awesome at night!). Anyway, I came across a couple articles that mentioned that the 5d MkIII will choke if you use ANY SD card even a fast one and even with a super fast CF card. Is that still the case? Was that "fixed" with a firmware update? What do you folks do with this camera to ensure it shoots as fast as possible for as long as possible? And, while we're at it, any other tips or tricks for shooting birds (both feathered and metal) with the 5d MkIII and the 100-400mm lens? Thanks in advance for your help!!

[Dave S.]

Mike,

I only write to the CF card in my Mk III.  My SD card is only used for overflow if I've failed to notice that my CF is full or if I've forgotten to put it back in.  It's not a fast SD card by any stretch, and it is painfully slow on emptying the buffer.  That's sort of how I know that I've either forgotten my CF card or the CF is full - painfully slow writing to the card.  At just over 6 FPS, the Mk III isn't the speediest, but with judicial use of the trigger finger, I've rarely lost images due to a full buffer.

By being forced to be judicial with my shots, it's also greatly speeded up my culling of the images once on the computer - far fewer images that have to be viewed/reviewed.  At this point, I'll take the excellent IQ of the Mk III over a higher frame rate any day.

I've also got a 1D Mk IV, which will capture at ~10 FPS.  Even so, I prefer to use the 5D Mk III at my daughter's swim meets (i.e. fast action stuff).  By knowing when & where the action will be, a good trigger finger can help offset the slower FPS.

I'm also a HUGE fan of using the back button focus 'AF-ON', but that's not an item that's unique to the Mk III.  I only mention it because I feel it contributes keeping the FPS at, or near, maximum, but this is also dependent upon the shooting situation/scenario

- Dave

[Mike Margolis]

Thanks Dave!! Good idea to use an SD as an overflow only. Some say that simply having any SD card in there slows the processing way down... Have you found that to be the case? I've not been able to find that answer anywhere.
And yes, like you, the 6d has forced me to be very deliberate vs "spray and pray" as they say.
For me an even higher frame rate rental would be much more expensive - Canon pro body, or Nikon - plus a lens.
Back button... Been meaning to take the plunge... I'm scared... My fingers are like old dogs... But I may just do it now... Why not? You only live once!

[Dave S.]

Mike,

I don't recall ever shooting w/o the SD card in.  If I have, I've not noticed an appreciable difference in the write speed (unless it was writing to the SD card).

Back button... Been meaning to take the plunge... I'm scared... My fingers are like old dogs... But I may just do it now... Why not? You only live once!

Just try it...you'll like it, and it will make you feel good...

[Jeff D. Welker]

Mike,

I don't recall ever shooting w/o the SD card in.  If I have, I've not noticed an appreciable difference in the write speed (unless it was writing to the SD card).

Back button... Been meaning to take the plunge... I'm scared... My fingers are like old dogs... But I may just do it now... Why not? You only live once!

Just try it...you'll like it, and it will make you feel good...

Dear Mike:

I concur with all the counsel given by Brother Dave. My primary camera is a 5D3 and I do the things Dave recommended. I'm am especially found of the back button focus method. It will make you fell good  

[Mike Margolis]

Thanks Dave and Jeff!! The rental 5D3 has been reserved for pretty much the entire month of October! That will be one heck of a test drive... But, I sort of gave away my back-up/wide angle lens body (50d and all it's gear) to my son who's been making great strides and is out growing his Lumix FZ200 super-zoom. Gonna back button the 6d tomorrow and go shoot some WTI activity to work the bugs out...

[Dave S.]

Mike,

It won't take too long for that back-button focus to become second nature.  Have fun and enjoy!

[Scott Youmans]

I have a friend at work who also swares by the autofocus button on the back of the body. I've always considered it an oddity when you can simply press the shutter release half-way. There's got to be good reasons for having it there and using it I but could use some guidance on the times when this would be useful.  Willing to give it a "shot".  Old dog, new tricks.....

[Jeff D. Welker]

I have a friend at work who also swares by the autofocus button on the back of the body. I've always considered it an oddity when you can simply press the shutter release half-way. There's got to be good reasons for having it there and using it I but could use some guidance on the times when this would be useful.  Willing to give it a "shot".  Old dog, new tricks.....

For what it is worth, Paul Bowen suggested I try the back button focus method at the San Diego ISAP symposium. He said it gave him better results with focus tracking and high speed FPS. While I've never researched the technical validity of Paul's comments, I've never had a bad experience. If nothing else, I suppose I'm trying to channel Messrs. Bowen at some level.

[Dave S.]

Scott,

For my $0.02: it boils down to flexibility in shooting.  Whether it's a static shot, or moving left to right across the frame, it's nice to be able to focus once and then fire the shutter.  It just provides you with more options when composing and shooting and not having the two (shutter & focus) intimately tied together.

- Dave

[Scott Youmans]

Yes, I can see the wisdom in this!  Kind of the best of both worlds.  The worlds being continuous AF and one shot AF.  You could leave it in continuous AF mode but simply release the AF button after focusing on what you want sharp and then recompose.  If you need continuous AF you're already in that mode.  Hmmm.

It would also be a useful set up when doing things like lightning photography where I'm focusing using autofocus at some very distant object but might want something close within the auto-focus area in the final composition.  With the shutter release method, I end up inadvertently refocusing on the closer object as soon as I hit the shutter button.  My way around that is to switch to manual focus after using auto-focus to focus on the distant object. Uncoupling the shutter release from the AF function and using the "button on the back" would get around that quite nicely.  I will explore this further.  Thanks for the feedback gentlemen!

[Dave S.]

Yes, I can see the wisdom in this!  Kind of the best of both worlds.  The worlds being continuous AF and one shot AF.  You could leave it in continuous AF mode but simply release the AF button after focusing on what you want sharp and then recompose.  If you need continuous AF you're already in that mode.  Hmmm.

It would also be a useful set up when doing things like lightning photography where I'm focusing using autofocus at some very distant object but might want something close within the auto-focus area in the final composition.  With the shutter release method, I end up inadvertently refocusing on the closer object as soon as I hit the shutter button.  My way around that is to switch to manual focus after using auto-focus to focus on the distant object. Uncoupling the shutter release from the AF function and using the "button on the back" would get around that quite nicely.  I will explore this further.  Thanks for the feedback gentlemen!

BINGO!!!

[Scott Youmans]

I wonder what all those other buttons do! 

[Jay Beckman]

99% back button AF here as well.

The 1% where I put AF on the shutter button is when I have to work over my right shoulder for A2A and can't consistently keep my thumb ON said back button.

FYI, you don't have to have an AF ON button to do back button.  It's been a custom menu function since the 20D.  I've become so used to where the button falls under my thumb since those days that I swap the AF ON and Exposure Lock buttons on my 1-series cameras so AF ON is the middle button.

[Scott Youmans]

I'll give it a whirl. Mark III is now set up to use the AF button only. Great for off center composition while maintaining continuous AF setting. Easier than switching to one shot AF for sure. Don't forget to focus will become my mantra until it becomes second nature!