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James,

Sadly you're not wrong -- the live view feature of the Mark III does, in fact, take autofocus out of the "picture" (sorry).

It's excellent in the studio and does allow for precise focusing on any element within view of the sensor but no autofocus -- not good for diving. Remote control of ALL camera operations makes for some nice tripod night work shooting in tethered mode though.

Tony

I picked up my 40D the other day (I think we get them first here in Australia). I haven't had a chance to have a serious shootout, but am rather happy so far.

Compared to my current camera (350D), the viewfinder is larger and brighter, the screen is brilliant and of course the ergonomics are greatly improved. I’m keen to get it underwater but will have to wait for a housing first ïŒ

I didn't buy it for the LiveView feature, but for those considering I don't think the LiveView has too much underwater application. During LiveView, the mirror locks up and the image is transfered to the screen. Focus is achieved either through manual control (which isn't too bad), or by using AF. As mentioned previously, the LiveView function seems designed for tripod or remote control work.

When you press the AF-On button, the screen goes blank and AF Lock is sort using one of the AF points (i.e. just like normal). Whilst the screen is blank, you can look through the viewfinder to manually get focus but that defeats the purpose of the screen in my opinion. Once the AF lock is achieved, the mirror locks up and the in-focus image is displayed on the screen once more. The manual suggests using auto AF point select, though I’ve only had some success using the centre point AF.

If wanted, I can post some test shots.