Wouldn't it be cool...

Shooting a 1D3 and a 7D at lots of indoor events, I find it a bit difficult to quickly switch form one focusing point to another and not miss a few shots...but live with what I have and can do. I swivel the camera in the lens mount (70-200L f2.8) a lot during my shoots from horizontal to vertical and back.

Wouldn't it be cool if Canon worked out a firmware update that would recognise, especially since the camera does this anyways, when it is turned from a horizontal axis to a vertical one...it would automatically switch say from several active horizontal focusing points to a single micro focusing point...and maybe even be able to switch from a selected wider metering pattern to spot metering...all set up in the custom functions we choose?

not sure I understand what you want (or Why for that matter) you want it to switch from 1 point to several if you change the orientation of the camera, is this correct?

And have more buttons to push, menus to check, or things to worry about and go wrong while you're shooting.

What's wrong with the swivel method. Works fine every time for me - simple and effective.

Zoooming

Keiferkeith said:

Shooting a 1D3 and a 7D at lots of indoor events, I find it a bit difficult to quickly switch form one focusing point to another and not miss a few shots...but live with what I have and can do. I swivel the camera in the lens mount (70-200L f2.8) a lot during my shoots from horizontal to vertical and back.

Wouldn't it be cool if Canon worked out a firmware update that would recognise, especially since the camera does this anyways, when it is turned from a horizontal axis to a vertical one...it would automatically switch say from several active horizontal focusing points to a single micro focusing point...and maybe even be able to switch from a selected wider metering pattern to spot metering...all set up in the custom functions we choose?

Click to expand...

You mean like "Orientation Linked AF Point" in your 7D..?

Yes but in the 7D, the function ties in to only the evaluative metering mode from what I have read and experienced. And the system seems to have some quirks...it doesn't tie into the other AF programs well...you have to be in single point AF to set it up. It won't tie in if you are in spot, expansion or zone AF.

It is also pretty darned sensitive to orientation...I can shoot it OK at events as I'm pretty anal about keeping things on a level orientation, but I let my wife or daughter assist at these events and they have a crooked trigger finger...and the 7D will notice this and switch quickly to the other set focusing point for them. The daughter notices the missed focus points and missed resulting focus...but the wife is clueless to it.

I do miss the function on the Mk III...don't know how well it works on the Mk IV. I would assume it is similar to the 7D though.

Keiferkeith said:

Wouldn't it be cool if Canon worked out a firmware update that would recognise, especially since the camera does this anyways, when it is turned from a horizontal axis to a vertical one...it would automatically switch say from several active horizontal focusing points to a single micro focusing point...and maybe even be able to switch from a selected wider metering pattern to spot metering...all set up in the custom functions we choose?

Click to expand...

It took a whole new model (1D Mark IV) for Canon to get around to switching focus points with orientation even though the Mark III had all of the electronics to do it and photographers had been suggesting it for years.

Tying more settings to orientation is likely to cause confusion and errors. Oh, you set your camera to switch to spot metering in portrait orientation and forgot? Well, that explains why the exposure in all those shots were ruined.

...Eye Controlled Focus. In the days of film you could not only choose to focus off that AF point, but meter as well. You would simply change the meteering as needed. You could then calibrate one user for yourself, one for your wife and one for your daughter.

Keiferkeith said:

Shooting a 1D3 and a 7D at lots of indoor events, I find it a bit difficult to quickly switch form one focusing point to another and not miss a few shots...but live with what I have and can do. I swivel the camera in the lens mount (70-200L f2.8) a lot during my shoots from horizontal to vertical and back.

Wouldn't it be cool if Canon worked out a firmware update that would recognise, especially since the camera does this anyways, when it is turned from a horizontal axis to a vertical one...it would automatically switch say from several active horizontal focusing points to a single micro focusing point...and maybe even be able to switch from a selected wider metering pattern to spot metering...all set up in the custom functions we choose?

Click to expand...

I remember those days...had 2 bodies with it. And the more you used it, the more IT would fine tune itself to your eye.

Maybe I don't really want something better...shot a 2 day long, 16 hour dance recital 2 weeks ago and between me and the girls assisting...we had 28,000 shots to weed through...no... I had to weed through. Because of the terrible low light, it was fairly quick to throw out all the shots OOF. If there were more shots in focus...I'd still be editing today.