Originally posted by Eruditass AF will work with a linear polarizer? I'd only use one in bright light anyway - this is great news!
It should work most of the time. The science behind what is happening is that light coming in the lens goes through a beam splitter. This is a partially silvered section of the main mirror, Most of the light is reflected up into the prism and then on to the viewfinder. The metering cell is located in the prism, is not affected by the beam splitter.
The AF sensor is located below the mirror box just behind the lens mount. The beam splitter allows some light to pass, and also polarizes it. This is just the nature of the beast. Once past the beam splitter, the light is reflected by a mirror mounted under the main mirror and is directed to the AF sensor.
Since the light going to the AF sensor is polarized, a linear polarizer can play havoc via cross polarization.
A linear polarizer that is 90º off the beam splitter can do a pretty effective job of blinding the AF, but it is unlikely to happen often in practice.
I've found that when I am using a polarizer I am tending to be somewhat more methodical about my shooting, and as such am not using AF anyway.
If you find the AF to be hunting when you have a linear polarizer on, you have probably run into the rare situation where you have cross polarized the light and have blinded the AF sensor to the point of making it ineffective.