1DX Mark III

[DavidEccleston]

I'm sure my "old" Mark II would have lost tracking against those trees -- it can never seem to lock on in those situations.

I thought that was what the IR in the RGB+IR metering sensor was about. It will track warm bodies, so if it is temporarily obscured, or against a cluttered background, it will still stand out and be trackable.

Then again, I could just be making things up, as I don't think Canon has ever said how they use the IR data. I seem to recall someone shooting baseball, and being impressed with the tracking still working when the players moved behind some netting, which just reenforced my idea on how the IR is being used.

Assuming my IR idea is right, your owl might be too well insulated and not show up strong enough for older bodies. (I'm definitely into the realm of just making stuff up now!)


edit: http://infrared-birding.blogspot.com...d-birding.html

[Jonathan Huyer]

I thought that was what the IR in the RGB+IR metering sensor was about. It will track warm bodies, so if it is temporarily obscured, or against a cluttered background, it will still stand out and be trackable.

Does the metering sensor work in conjunction with the AF sensor? I mean, in terms of helping it obtain focus? I'm rather vague on how the whole process works so I'm keen to learn more.

By the way, here is an uncropped version of the owl in flight, so you can see how small an object the focus was tracking:

[DavidEccleston]

Does the metering sensor work in conjunction with the AF sensor? I mean, in terms of helping it obtain focus?

No idea. You'd think they would find a way to leverage any data available, but they don't really discuss how their AF tracking systems work. Even if IR data is not be dense enough to help with focus directly, but it could be used as a guide to help determine which focus points/zones to track with.

Like I said, I'm in "making stuff up" territory. It seems plausible, but I have no idea.

[Jonathan Huyer]

I've been reading the White Paper and found this tidbit, which explains how the metering sensor helps out with auto focus:

The metering sensor teams up with the new, square pixel AF sensor during viewfinder
shooting, assisting the AF system with its subject detection capabilities. The metering
sensor, with its color recognition capabilities and 400,000 pixel resolution, can recognize an
initial subject, and then update the AF system as to its location during Zone AF, Large Zone
AF, and Auto AF Point Selection shooting through the viewfinder.