Canon 1D Mark III Review – AF Part 4, Low Light Focusing

I’ve already mentioned Part 1 of this AF analysis that the performance of Single Focus mode under low light is excellent. Let me now qualify that statement to describe a couple of major shoots I’ve been on in under low light conditions.

1. Muay Thai, Thailand. This was in early December when I was photographing several hours of a Muay Thai tournament in Bangkok for the World Muay Thai Council. The event was held in honour of the King’s Birthday and for the duration of the evening events I was perched on the corner of the ring behind one of the ring posts. For this shoot, I shot mostly with the 24 f/1.4L (as I was very close the action) and in Single Focus mode, as I do for almost all of my fight images. The lighting for this event was extremely challenging with little to no spotlighting of the fighters – rather just overhead lights which gave broad (but still quite dull) coverage of the overall ring.
2. Maria Sharapova Live, Singapore. This was an exhibition match by Sharapova held on the 30th December for which I had a press pass. I shot from courtside with a 300mm F/2.8L coupled occasionally with a 1.4x teleconverter. The lighting was what you would expect from professional tennis matches featuring the world’s best players – that is, very good but still much darker than during daytime play. For the 95% of the match, I shot in AI Servo mode with auto selection of the AF point.

For the Muay Thai event, I shot almost wide open at f/1.8, between ISO 1,000 and 1,600 for a shutter speed of around 1/400s. For the tennis, I shot wide open at f/2.8 and was required to take the ISO up to 2,500 for a shutter speed of around 1/1000s.

The Muay Thai event was actually before the submirror fix (but only Single Focus mode), whereas the tennis was post fix.

In both events, the AF system of the Canon 1D Mark III performed exceptionally well. Focus lock in low light, on sometimes low contrast subjects was rapid and instant. I had little margin for error when shooting the fighters up close at f/1.8 (which is very shallow, even on a 24mm) and similarly errors show up easily when a camera misfocuses on a 300mm lens. Despite that, my number of keepers was extremely high. As a result of my role as Official Photographer in The Contender Asia, I have shot dozens of Muay Thai matches but this was my first time using the 1D. Despite the fact that the lighting was much more challenging in this environment than on the set of a multi million dollar TV production of The Contender Asia, this was still probably the easiest time I’ve had locking focus on fighters. As an aside, the actual quality of the Contender Asia images were better, but that was due to the quality of the set and the intensity of the drama rather than anything relating to Auto Focus or Image Quality. I’d use the 1D in a heartbeat for this kind of action again.

Similarly, I had actually shot another major tennis event just a month before (Federer vs Sampras) with a Canon 40D and 200mm f/2.8 (I hadn’t received the 1D by that point). That evening the players were moving across the court so fast that for the most part, I had to switch to Single Focus mode and often anticipate the focal length to get sharp images. I was able to get shots which I was very pleased with and in my opinion were up there with the other best shots from that match – but it was hard work getting them. On the other hand, with the 1D, I was able to sit in AI Servo mode the entire match, let the camera do the hard work of figuring out the AF point and instead I was able to concentrate on timing and composition. As a result, the number of keeper images and "ball in frame" shots I was left with was at least 2 or 3 times greater than it had been a month before. If there is something better than the 1D Mark III and Canon’s telephoto primes for this type of photography then I’ll be both very surprised and very impressed, because for me, this is as good as it gets.

As for actual images, I decided to keep include them in the Image Quality section which is in fact the next topic of discussion.