Focus point:

[stringer]

Hi all,
I am a freelance (press) in Manchester UK.
The camera i use is Canon 1D MK11
I have alway's used the single centre focus point when shooting but for some reason i cant seem to get it back, its now on 3, 4, or whatever points which dies not suit my needs, lost my manual.
Can anyone tell me how to get back to a single focus point (centre) i have tried but just cant get it, its also throwing the ETTL flash exposures way of track.
Many thanks in advance,
Bill.

[MatsP]

Pressing the left-most thumb-button on the top-right of the camera should set it to "middle" focus point, unless you've messed around with the function of this button...

--
Mats

[Anders Östberg]

Push the right-most of the three small buttons (marked with a magnifying glass with a + sign in it). That puts the camera in focus point select mode, top display and viewfinder should read SEL. Look in the viewfinder and select focus point by rotating rear main dial and thumb wheel at shutter button. Half-press shutter button to exit select mode. Hope that helps.

[FredG]

I don't have my manual right now, but I think he may be talking about the ability to tell the camera to expand the area around the AF point. I think there's a CF for that.

[FredG]

It was easier than I thought. I just went here (http://alpha03u.c-wss.com/inc/ApplServlet?SV=WWUCA900) and downloaded the manual. CF 17 will expand the AF area. CF-17-1 sets it to 7 points. CF-17-2 sets it to an automatically varying number of points depending on focal length and AF mode. Presumably, CF-17-0 returns to the single point.

[stringer]

Thanks for all you help.
Anders and matsp you are both correct but the problem is when i use the rear main wheel to select an individual point it goes right round each point then starts again, i just cannot get it to go into the centre.
UPDATE:
By using CF function 13 and setting to centre i can now choose the centre focus point!!
Thanks again,
Bill

[Anders Östberg]

Thanks for all you help.
Anders and matsp you are both correct but the problem is when i use the rear main wheel to select an individual point it goes right round each point then starts again, i just cannot get it to go into the centre.
UPDATE:
By using CF function 13 and setting to centre i can now choose the centre focus point!!
Thanks again,
Bill
Glad you got it solved! On the first part; you need to use both the rear main wheel and the wheel next to the shutter button.

[FredG]

typical for me ... gave the right answer to the wrong problem :)

[stringer]

Hello again,
Back i'm afraid!!!
Although, with help from you all, the focus point problem is fixed the flash problem remains!
I have had the camera from new and have not encountered this before, used to get something similar on the D60 but nowhere near as bad.
The flash has become so overexposed as to be useless.
Using ETTL Canon 550EX, in av, or manual, get almost complete whiteout.
I am having to resort to using manual, flash and camera, bringing the flash exposure down to aroun1/16th and setting the aperture to something silly like f16 and using high shutter speed, when what i want is more like f2.8, to f5.0
This is a MAJOR problem as i have to take a lot of indoor for my work.
If anyone can suggest ANYTHING i would be in your debt.
Many thanks, again!!!
Bill.

[Rune]

Are you sure E-TTL is even engaged? If you switch to a fast shutter speed, does the flash then engage hi-speed sync? Make sure the communication is working... (if you can't engage hi-speed sync then something is up with the connection)

[MatsP]

Hello again,
Back i'm afraid!!!
Although, with help from you all, the focus point problem is fixed the flash problem remains!
I have had the camera from new and have not encountered this before, used to get something similar on the D60 but nowhere near as bad.
The flash has become so overexposed as to be useless.
Using ETTL Canon 550EX, in av, or manual, get almost complete whiteout.
I am having to resort to using manual, flash and camera, bringing the flash exposure down to aroun1/16th and setting the aperture to something silly like f16 and using high shutter speed, when what i want is more like f2.8, to f5.0
This is a MAJOR problem as i have to take a lot of indoor for my work.
If anyone can suggest ANYTHING i would be in your debt.
Many thanks, again!!!
Bill.

Silly question, but sometimes it's the silly/simple things that trip us up.
Are you sure you haven't dialed in Flash exp-comp on either the flash or the camera (or even both)? If you set the flash-exp comp to a high value (like +3) it would most likely cause all white... :-(

If that's not the case, and the camera is working OK in all other aspects, I'd go borrow someone elses flash to make sure that it's not the flash that is broken. Testing your flash on someone elses camera would also be a useful thing to do [if you don't know anyone with a camera that you can borrow, I'm sure a shop would be able to assist at least with a simple camera body, and by the sounds of it, you should be able to see the error even on the display on the camera].

--
Mats