AF Tracking - 7D vs 1DMKIII

[tadrscin]

I finally got a chance to compare the AF tracking of the 7D to the 1DMKIII. I used my newly aquired 300 f2.8 and after doing a somewhat rough AF microadjustment on each camera. Unfortunately I wasn't quite as close on the MKIII as I was on the 7D. I left the MKIII at 0 and set the 7D at -5. After seeing the results from today I speent the afternoon using my Lens Align tool and discovered the MKIII was front focusing and should've been set to +5. The 7D should've been set to -4 so I was very close there. While this wasn't a competely accurate comparison due to the MKIII being off on the focus, it does appear that the 7D may do a slightly better job of tracking. I had them both setup the same for the AF settings. Sensitivity was set at 0 and the AI Servo 1st/2nd image priority was set to AF priority/tracking priority. Those are the only 2 settings that they have in common. The samples are straight from the camera except for cropping and resizing. 100% crops of the entire series for the7D can be seen here:
http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/b...cus%20Test/7D/
and for the MKIII here:
http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/b...0Test/1DMKIII/

Here are 5 from the 7D






Here are 5 from the MKIII






Despite the focus being off on the MKIII, I still did a better job of keeping the focus point of the rider's face with the 7D. Even though this wasn't a perfect comparison between the 7D and the MKIII, I'm very pleased with the results of the 7D.

[Photo-John]

Very interesting. I have to say that I am surprised that the 7D is better. That goes against what I remember of the 1D Mk III. But this is a subtle comparison and I'd say it's unlikely that I would be able to remember that well.

Thanks for sharing your testing. Anything you can add or more tests would be great.

[tadrscin]

Yeah I'm a bit surprised that the 7D seemed to do a better job of tracking than the MKIII. Depsite the front focusing issue of the MKIII, if you look at the 100% crops you can see that some are more OOF than most. I can only assume that was due to not always tracking well. Most are a little soft, but they are at least consistant leading me to think that they would've been sharp if I had set the AF microdjustment correctly. I spent most of the day shooting with the 7D and as long as I kept the focus point on the rider's face, the photos were sharp. From what I can tell, the 7D is supposed to have the new AF Servo II that the MKIV will have. Maybe that's the big difference between the 7D and the MKIII? I need to do this test again now that I have the lens properly adjusted on the MKIII, but I have a feeling that the results are going to be the same.

[spotbark]

wow.. that is what I was looking for on info for the AF tracking. Very good.
trying to figure out what is the best camera for this with wildlife subjects.