:)

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I recognized the buildings in the post, then saw PeteL and location Finland :) I think I qualify for web detective now :)

these birds get pretty funny at times. Some are just permanently goofy, like that cormorant, if you remember...

The guys at the swamp told me that the other day that cormorant was flying over the lake looking down and back, bumped into a tree on the shore and fell in the water LOL

Nope, not yet resolved. It really is a mystery. Can't say if it's the lens, AF system or a combination of the two. Anyway, it's not the same issue that plagued the 1DM3 last year. I couldn't be happier with the camera, but with the 35L the outer AF points really suck. The center AF point is always dead-accurate. It might be a lens design thing. Several people have the same problem.

I was told by a Canon service managing director that several old Canon lenses can't cope with Mark III AF speed. The 35L might be one of them. It's more than 10 years old and possibly needs a re-vamp.

my understanding is that AF points can (and really should) be calibrated individually, so let's hope your camera gets a good tech working on it.

Can't say that statement from Canon's director makes a lot of sense to me - I can see lenses like old 85L with its front-focus design not having fast enough drive to track fast action, but the rear-focusing 35L is pretty fast. And your problem shot is static. Looks more like miscalibrated outer points, exaggerated by narrow DOF at f/1.4

All my AF points have been calibrated and two weeks later re-checked by Canon service. The tech working on my camera said that all points are perfectly calibrated and there's nothing more he can do with their equipment. They are now re-checking the 35L for optical errors, but I don't think they will find anything because I'm not the only one with this problem.

I don't know which lenses the service manager was referring to, but it was not the 35L which is indeed quite fast - and the center AF point always focuses perfectly in almost total darkness. The guy sounded very competent and experienced, so I believe he knew what he was saying. I have to talk to him again if the problems continue.

This does look like miscalibrated AF point issue but obviously Canon service can't properly calibrate them or it's something else. I know at least five people with the exact same problem. We'll see what happens.

I've heard stories of them choking to death while trying to swallow a fish that's just too large. At least the one in my pond was smart enough to let a huge fish go after a few attempts...

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what rights?

Bravo.