5D focusing problems

[RightAngle]

Ok, heres the deal...

I had the boys and girls varsity senior nights this week, one tuesday one friday... I was using a 5D for this since I wanted some more resolution then my IIN. For the first night I put my 24-105 on and shot with that (800 f4 60th w/ flash in ETTL @ 45 w/ white card out). When I got home and looked at the pictures NOTHING was in focus... So I figured hey maybe the flash for some reason didn't stop movement at 60th? They weren't moving but thats the only thing I could come up with... Friday I decided that I should put my 50 1.8 on and let it take a swing and opened it up to about 3.2 and moved up to 125th with the flash bounced. Got home and still every single shot was WAY OOF.

Heres what I checked...
AF/MF on lens
AF set to both Servo and Single Shot on camera, no change
Shot at home with all the lenses and worked fine

What happened?

I shot all this with my 1D at the same time to have a backup and ALL of the shots were dead on.

Whats going on here because I was 2 weeks away from buying a 5D but now I want NOTHING to do with it... Please tell me I did something wrong and its not the camera... haha

[Pawpaw]

Could it be the servo tried to refocus?? I've made the mistake of leaving servo on, for static shots, focused on eyes, then tried to reframe in the viewfinder, and would loose focus on the faces. Just a thought.

[RightAngle]

well I tried it in both servo and one shot to see if it would change and it didn't make a difference both were equally bad. I used servo for tracking while they were walking to center court and then single shot once they were there.

Its almost like the focusing screen didn't correspond with the actual focus point. Maybe it could have shifted by a fraction or something?

[ramblinray]

Is the 5D a rented camera? If so, get another copy and give that a try. Otherwise, how is the AF Stop button set up and did you accidently hit it while shooting?

[RightAngle]

The guy I work for owns it, Its never given me ANY problems at all except for these two nights... and AF was focusing I could see it in the view finder but once I got to a bigger screen I could tell it was a little off. I haven't had other problems with it focusing though, its really werid.

[Lance]

lets see... 45 focus points on a camera built for sports vs 9 focus points on a camera built for portraits.

[RightAngle]

Originally Posted by Lance

lets see... 45 focus points on a camera built for sports vs 9 focus points on a camera built for portraits.

Just because its in a gym doesn't mean its sports? They were standing still at center court and slowly walking there... That to me shouldn't require a "sports" focusing system.

From what I have heard the 5D is better than the 1D for low light focusing.

The fact that there is 45 points is great for tracking, no argument there. But someone standing 10 feet away from me in one position shouldn't be a problem for a normal point.

[Lance]

my fault. i read girls and boys varsity and assumed it was sports related. either way i have 2 mark II n's and a 5d and trying to use ai servo with the 5d is rediculous. id just switch to the 1D's

[RightAngle]

I agree, Servo wasn't my first choice but I threw it over to see if it would remedy the situation.

[mike_sax]

I shoot with a 5D and a IIN for almost every Mavericks game. I don't have a problem with either camera being spot on, providing I don't hit the focus on the background, etc. I shoot @ ISO 1250, F 2.8 and 1/500 sec with both a 24-70 and a 70-200mm utilizing ambient light. Both cameras are set on AI Servo. If you have any other questions or need any other advice just PM me.

[RightAngle]

Well I know lots of people who use the 5D and swear by it so thats why I was so surprised when this happened... twice... and I mean yeah I'm open to the fact I did something wrong but I looked at every possible setting multiple times before the friday night game to check and double check and I'm fairly positive that its not something I was doing.

Thats why I'm wondering if the focusing screen could possibly be shifted somehow? I dunno that seems really far fetched but its just the only thing that I could think of. If i was having trouble with the IIN then yeah i would be like maybe I'm an idiot. But the fact that all of those shots were dead on makes me wonder.

I had my 580ex II on there which I love and trust, I was also using my 24-105 which again I love and trust. So I guess its just one of those fluke things?