Autofocus in 1D Mark III versus 1Ds Mark III

[Johnf]

Does anyone know if the AF in the 1D Mark III is the same as that in the 1Ds Mark III? 

From what I can see, some of the postings that discuss the AF fix for the 1D III also mention the 1Ds III but others do not.  This may be just because the AF problem applied mainly to the style of shooting done by 1d III users (that of tracking and fast focusing) or that the AF system is the same in both cameras. 

I am really getting at the answer to a question that is impossible to answer.  Will the AF in the 1Ds mark IV be the same as that in the 1D mark IV?  (The cruuent rumors put the 1 Ds IV out later this month (Feb 2010))  I have read some reviews on early production cameras that the low light AF performance of the 1D IV is not that great when the camera has to choose the AF point.  Is it better if the center point is chosen manually?  The review I read did not go into this.  I have never used a 1 series camera and I would expect that it should be good at autofocusing in low light.  I have been waiting for the 1D IV to arrive and now I have concerns.  Are the reviewers being overly critical?  Are they just on the Nikon end of the political spectrum?

Any thoughts?

Thanks

JF

[Bob Atkins]

I'm guessing reviewers are over critical. In some cases you see complaints when AF is perfect only 99% of the time! Nothing is ever going to be 100%. A reviewers job is to look for faults, but to then put them in perspective. Some reviewers fail in doing the latter.

As for the 1Ds MkIV, if and when it arrives, I'd presume the AF will be similar to that of the 1D MkIV, but not necessarily identical since the two cameras are aimed at different markets.

I think it's always a good idea to select and use the center AF zone when you can. The less tasks you give the camera the better it can do at the ones it has to do, especially if they are complex. Of course if you can't keep the center focus zone over your moving subject then that's not going to help, so you may have to use auto AF zone selection in that case. However my guess is that it's still better to use a focus mode which needs to look at as few AF zones as possible to get the tracking you need.