# Gripped 5D Mark III + 85mm f1.2L, any improvement in AF speed?



## Hjalmarg1 (Aug 24, 2014)

I have rented the 85mm f1.2L and its AF turns to be slooowwww, even on my 5D3. I have heard that its AF is a little faster on 1Dx due to higher voltage of the battery. 
Have any of you experience any improvement in the EF 85 f1.2L AF speed when adding battery grip?

Thanks


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## dgatwood (Aug 24, 2014)

Hjalmarg1 said:


> I have rented the 85mm f1.2L and its AF turns to be slooowwww, even on my 5D3. I have heard that its AF is a little faster on 1Dx due to higher voltage of the battery.
> Have any of you experience any improvement in the EF 85 f1.2L AF speed when adding battery grip?
> 
> Thanks



Somebody is still renting the original f/1.2L?

Anyway, to answer your question, as I understand it, it's not the battery current, but rather, the battery voltage that makes a difference in the speed of the focusing motors. Adding a second battery in parallel doesn't affect the voltage (or the current, to be brutally honest, because the camera alternates between them rather than actually using them in parallel), so adding a grip should make no difference whatsoever.


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## sagittariansrock (Aug 24, 2014)

I guess this is where subjective opinions differ. I tried the 85/1.2 L II on my 5D classic, and the AF speed seemed to be perfectly acceptable (no, not close to the 135L or the 70-200 II, but expecting that isn't very realistic).

I did try the original 85L on my 5DIII, and it was a lot slower (to the point it didn't seem worth the 1K it seems to command on the used market).


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## BL (Aug 24, 2014)

I just tried AF speed comparison between my 1Dx and 5Dc. 

Maybe there's a difference? I dunno, I can't tell, they're both pretty slow going from MFD to infinity.

But for portraits, the AF on mkII is plenty fast enough for me. Even if they released a mkIII that doubled the AF speed, that still wouldn't be reason enough to upgrade.

MFD and LOCA are the shortcomings in my opinion


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## Dylan777 (Aug 24, 2014)

Hjalmarg1 said:


> I have rented the 85mm f1.2L and its AF turns to be slooowwww, even on my 5D3. I have heard that its AF is a little faster on 1Dx due to higher voltage of the battery.
> Have any of you experience any improvement in the EF 85 f1.2L AF speed when adding battery grip?
> 
> Thanks


About the same between x vs 5diii in term of speed. Slightly faster maybe but not day night diff. However, I got more keeper with the x at wide open aperture.


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## Hjalmarg1 (Aug 26, 2014)

dgatwood said:


> Hjalmarg1 said:
> 
> 
> > I have rented the 85mm f1.2L and its AF turns to be slooowwww, even on my 5D3. I have heard that its AF is a little faster on 1Dx due to higher voltage of the battery.
> ...



Many thanks! Looks that there isn't any option to improve its AF speed.


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## Hjalmarg1 (Aug 26, 2014)

Dylan777 said:


> Hjalmarg1 said:
> 
> 
> > I have rented the 85mm f1.2L and its AF turns to be slooowwww, even on my 5D3. I have heard that its AF is a little faster on 1Dx due to higher voltage of the battery.
> ...



Hi Dylan,

Thanks for your answer. I was optimistic but the lens elements seems to be too heavy to get faster AF, even with the 1Dx.


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## mackguyver (Aug 26, 2014)

The answer is no. Two 7.4V still output 7.4V as they are wired in parallel not combined to be 14.8V. The 1D X battery is 11.1V in comparison giving 1/3 higher voltage. The grip gives you a lot better balance with the heavy 85L and is great for shooting twice as long and in the portrait orientation, of course.


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## Hjalmarg1 (Aug 28, 2014)

mackguyver said:


> The answer is no. Two 7.4V still output 7.4V as they are wired in parallel not combined to be 14.8V. The 1D X battery is 11.1V in comparison giving 1/3 higher voltage. The grip gives you a lot better balance with the heavy 85L and is great for shooting twice as long and in the portrait orientation, of course.



Thanks Macguyver


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