1dx mark 3 laggy autofocus.

[Sagihurvitz]

Hey everyone, 

After using the 1dxii for the last 5 years, I bought myself the 1dxiii last week. 

Now, overall this camera is insane and I love it, but I found something that bothers me a bit. 

Outdoors, during daylight, the autofocus is crazy fast. (I'm using the full af zone with initial servo af point) now, during night time or even during day time if I'm in a room that doesn't have direct sun light it feels like the autofocus is laggy, suddenly it's not that fast, and it feels even slower than the 1dxii, and I checked both cameras in the same scenarios, 1dxii autofocus speed is consistent on both cases and 1dxiii is not, feels like there's a half a second latency from the second I press the af button until it's actually starts working, and the af point movement becomes laggy. 

I using all L prime lenses (checked them all) 

Brand new 1dxiii - a week old, already shot one wedding with it. 

Please help!

[jrhoffman75]

Sorry I can’t help but I am responding so I can follow. Maybe Rodger will see this. He shoots sports outdoors in poor lighting, so he may have some insight. 

[Sagihurvitz]

I'll just add that I already factory reset the camera to see if any of my setting changes caused this issue, but no, same thing. I'm writing it here as a reply so hopefully Rodger will see it.

[deebatman316]

Have you tried testing One Shot AF on a stationary subject to see if the camera behaves the same way. Also do you have back button AF set up with the AF-ON or * button.

[Sagihurvitz]

I've tried testing it on one shot, same thing. Af back button focus is the smart controller, not *, it's also the case if the af is set to the main shutter button and not only metering like I usually work. I checked all of my options. 

It's really weird, and I just cant find anything about it online.. If there's anyone here with a 1dxiii and want to test it to see if it's not only an issue that I'm experiencing it will be great. 

[deebatman316]

I have pinged a 1DX Mark III owner in the forum to see if they can better assist you.

[Sagihurvitz]

Thanks! 🙏

[deebatman316]

@jrhoffman75 I have pinged Rodger for some insight into this problem.

[wq9nsc]

Sagihurvitz,

What setup do you have for the AF in terms of number of points it can use?  I shoot sports under really lousy lighting sometimes but I don't use the zone AF modes but instead a single point with expansion.  Focus acquisition is lightning fast, no lag at all.

I just added a second 1DX III body last week and it behaves exactly like the one I bought when the III was introduced.  Once it gets darker tonight, I will shoot some stuff outside letting it use the entire AF array to see if that is where you are seeing some lag.  It has a lot more focus points available than the 1DX II body so maybe that causes a little lag when all are made available.  But at a typical sports event I will be shooting with three bodies, previously one III and two II, and AF acquisition/lock speed hasn't been noticeably different between the bodies.

Rodger

[Sagihurvitz]

I'm using All points, I thought about the fact it has more points to run through than the 1dxii has..and that it might be the problem.. So I checked all of the options, including all the way to 9 points, still the same. I used to work with single point af and the expansion af for years until I found out that working full af zone with initial servo af point is the most accurate and the fastest way my 1dxii camera can deliver. So Im working like that on my 1dxiii as well, in the day time it's amazing, blazing fast, super accurate and tack sharp even wide open with my 50 f1.2 (and we all know how soft the 50 f1.2 can be wide open) but once there's no direct sun, or night time, speed of af points is reduced and movement becomes a bit laggy. 

If it's possible you can try yourself according to the setup Im working on and see if you're experiencing it as well or not, it will give me some kind of an idea of its my camera or its just the way it is..