Canon EOS 5D Mark III Manual Book page 15

AF area selection mode [Spot AF]
Focusing on a small or narrow area
It is possible to focus on pinpoints such as the eye when a helmet is being worn
When set to [Single-point spot AF], a small rectangle is
displayed inside the manually selected AF point.
[Single-point spot AF] mode can be used to
focus on a small area of the subject. This option
makes it possible to focus on the exact area
even when there is an obstacle near the area
you want to focus on. A common example
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Snapshot of a BMX
r i d e r w e a r i n g a
helmet. Focus was
pinp ointed on the
e ye us in g [S in g l e -
point spot AF].
[Singl e - p o int sp ot
AF] is effective when
there is something
like the edge of the
helmet, or visor near
the eye you want to
f o c u s o n . W i t h
standard AF systems
this can result in the
AF system focusing
o n t h e s e e d g e s
rather than eye of
the subject.
when shooting sports is when you want to
focus on the eyes of a rider wearing a helmet
(see photos above). With normal settings, the
AF point can easily get caught on the edge of
the helmet near the eye, resulting in the camera
focus this edge. In situations like this, [Single-
point Spot AF] makes it possible to focus more
accurately on the rider's eye. As [Single-point
Spot AF] only focuses on one very small area, it
is not really suited to capturing fast moving
All focus points are superimposed on image because of explanation purpose only.
subjects when set to AI Servo AF and may take
longer to focus than other AF area selection
modes.
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