Help with focus on Canon 5d mark iii

the answer to my question is probably pitifully obvious so i acknowledge my limits
I'm having a terrible time focusing with my canon 5d mark iii. i primarily use a 35mm 1.4L and an 85mm 1.2L, and use back button focus with ai servo mode. i also usually manually select a single focus square.
its a bit bizarre, but there are days where i constantly nail focus, but then there are days when i miss on 85% of my shots, but i dont think anything is changing (settings) between the shots. the problem arises across a broad aperture range (meaning its not only if shooting at 1.2 or 1.4i don't understand what is happening, and hope someone can help.
the problem arises with both stationary and moving targets.
i would greatly appreciate if someone could help me understand how to improve. some questions include:
1. is it possible there's a flaw with the camera itself?
2. how do i best use back button focus? should i, for exe, hold down the focus button constantly, or only depress it long enough to focus, release, then snap? what about for moving subjects?
3. should i be using a different auto focus mode?
greatly appreciate the help.

You should use "one shot" focus when your subject distance is not changing. You should use "AI Servo" when your subject distance is changing.
Canon doesn't actually recommend just leaving the camera in "AI Servo" mode (it seems like it would be a good catch-all focus mode, but they claim it's not.) The issue with "AI Servo" is that the camera actually expects that the subject actually is changing distance and it's trying to evaluate that in order to use predictive focus. When it turns out the subject is not really moving, they claim it can throw the camera focus accuracy.
When using back-button focus you can press and release the button at will. That's actually the point of it... it was created for situations when you're tracking a subject, suddenly a distancting object enters the frame and you do not want the camera to switch focus to that other object... but then the object passes out of frame and you want to resume focus on your original subject. So you could press-and-hold... and when the distraction shows up in frame just let go... until it's passed and then you can press-and-hold again to resume AI servo focus.
The 5D III has an amazing focus system.
Canon does have a great guide explaining how it works and how to adjust settings and tune it in great detail. You can find it here: http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2012/1dx_guidebook.shtml
This same guide is titled for the 1D X but if you read the intro they explain that it's really for both the 1D X and the 5D III which have nearly identical focus systems.
There's a PDF in the lower-left area of that page that you'll want to download -- which is the 47 page guide on the focus system.
Tim Campbell
5D II, 5D III, 60Da

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Camera Raw plug-in | Supported cameras
Camera Raw-compatible Adobe applications
EOS 5D Mark II
CR2
5.2
2.2
EOS 5D Mark III
CR2
6.7, 7.1
4.1
Photoshop CS6
7.0
8.3
Photoshop CS5
6.0
6.7
Photoshop CS4
5.0
5.7
The 5D Mark II was first supported by Camera Raw 5.2 which is compatible with CS4+.
The 5D Mark III was first supported by Camera Raw 6.7 and 7.1 which is only compatible with CS5 and CS6.
So the CS4 will never be able to open Raw 5D Mark III files.
Why doesn’t my version of Photoshop or Lightroom support my camera?
Choices:
Purchase CS6 full version (CS4 is too old to qualify for an upgrade)
Join the Cloud
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Photoshop Help | Digital Negative (DNG)

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The phase detect focus sensors are on the floor of your camera. When the reflex mirror is down, some light is bounced down into those sensors to focus the image. The distance to the AF sensors vs. the distance to the real sensor is supposed to be calibrated to match... but it's actually possible for the AF sensors to think the image is focused when it's really slightly out of focus on the sensor. For this reason, your camera has auto-focus micro-adjustment capability -- in other words this is something you can test and tune yourself. The REASON you might do it yourself is because it turns out it can be different for every lens (even two EF 85mm f/1.2L lenses in a row might have slightly different focus). This adjustment is only available on the mid-range and pro bodies -- it's part of the reason you buy a premium body. The camera can actually remember the AF adjustment for each lens uniquely.
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Or this article: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/are_your_pictures_out_of_focus.shtml
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I use a DataColor Spyder "LensCal". The LensAlign products are also popular.
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5D II, 5D III, 60Da

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