Hi everyone.

I use a 5d with various lenses.... 50 1.4, 24-70, 70-200. Love the camera, but wish I could trust the outer AF points more, specifically the rightmost one which is commonly used in vertical portraits... focusing off an eye. If I use that point, 5D will still confirm and lock focus, but the resulting image will then turn out a bit soft where I focused now and then. DOF will be off... sometimes a touch, other times, much more. Other times, the 5D nails it. I've done tripod tests to rule out motion blur. I sent it to Canon, but they sent it back with a note along the lines of "there does seem to be a problem, not sure what's causing it, but adjustments were carried out". Even I can't nail down a specific pattern of failure.

I know the outer AF points are less accurate than the center. Right now, I try to shoot one image with the outer point, and then do another using the center point and focus/recompose -- but that isn't ideal.

What's your experience with outer focus points, specifically with the 5D? I hear the 40D has improved upon things, and hoping for such improvements to be implemented on release of next 5D model.

I only use the center focus point.

i have a 30d and 20d, so they may be less responsive than the 5d, but if there's good light then the outer points are useful. i can't confirm it, but i feel like focusing with the center point and recomposing throws the focus off, but that's a point of contention among pixel peepers lol

I only use the Center AF. But I did this for both Nikon and Canon.

I shoot with a 5D and the 50 1.4 and 85 1.8. I generally use all of the focus points except the center one and change them often (I never focus and recompose-also shoot one shot). I tend to find the same success rate with all of the peripheral ones. I think the fact that I'm shooting at close distances with shallow DOF (less than f4) and moving targets is what affects my success rate. I did not see an improvement with success rate in moving from the 30D to the 5D. I find my success rate is about 50-60% for indoor shots at around ISO 400-600 and about 60-80% outside for ISO 100-200.

Jess

use the center focus point, and the joystick to select other focus points.