5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

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Archive 2012 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Daan B
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p.2 #1 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Thanks for posting your findings here. It's good to get some feedback from the field.

DmitriM wrote:
CONS:

1. On the 2nd day my camera got locked up after a shot and a "card is writing" light was illuminated. None of the controls seemed to be working except the shutter button. I had to turn the camera off and on to get that fixed. Last 2 shots that I took while experiencing this issue were not on the cards.scary stuff....

Scary indeed. I had that too once with my 5D2 during the beginning of a wedding. Turned out to be the grip that was causing issues.

2. I did not look at RAWs,but jpegs do seem a bit soft...softer than my usual RAWs from 5DIIs.... Everything at every ISO speed seems a bit washed and has that plasticky look. My NR is set to "Standard",in case that matters. I've yet to find a WOW, this is soooo sharp image

5DII raws had many!! I'll have to look at RAWs later to compare.

The 5D3 RAW files I have seen (you can convert them into DNG with Adobe DNG converter 6.7 and open them up in LR) are very similar to 5D2 RAW files. When Canon refers to cleaner high ISO, it is always about JPEG's. In order to get better high ISO performance the JPEG NR turns details into mush. You can try to fiddle with the in-camera JPEG settings to get a sharper output.

4. AF sometimes takes a 1.5 second to nail a focus even during day light for the first shot. That's VERY long. Seems like it doesn't happen often,but it happens. Same issue is also present during evening scenarios with little light. The camera will focus properly once the focus is achieved,but it takes 1.5-2 seconds. For fast paced situation this is extremely long!!

I don't understand this... You press the button for AF and it just hangs still for 1.5 sec? One Shot or AI Servo?

5.AF has hard time focusing on bright white,low contrast subjects with little contrast. It needs some kind of contrast to nail the focus. So, while in wedding situation it may have no problem achieving focus on a wedding dress,since there are shadows and wrinkles that create contrast, camera does have a bit of an issue focusing on white wall the dress is hung on.

It will always need contrast in order to get a lock. No surprise here.

7. HUGE issue!!! HUGE. I am not sure if I have something set wrong,but I can't freakin see the AF point most of the time. I thought VF display illumination set on ON would fix that,but it doesn't. During the day I can't see the AF points and when the focus is nailed. It does show is as a circle at the bottom of the viewfinder screen ,but I WANT and NEED the AF point(center point for example) to be illuminated!!!!
It also isn't illuminated during the night unless the focus is achieved. So can't really see which focus point you are using unless the camera focuses. Did I screw up in the setting or Canon REALLY REALLY REALLY fu$ked this on up

Again, I find this issue really important for me. I am always shooting in really fast paced environments and I really need this feature. I hope there will be some kind of a firmware update in the future.

Do you mean that the AF isn't illuminated all the time but instead showing as a black square? And that only when you achieve focus it will light up red?

Mar 29, 2012 at 07:14 AM

Daan B
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p.2 #2 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

stanj wrote:
I completely agree with you. I was shooting with my 24L2 today in a sunny environment (gasp!) and for the life of me could not see the AF lighting up. It works great in the dungeon, though, with the small drawback that the grid and all the other AF points flash, too.

Let me get this straight... You have all the AF squares to black and when AF is achieved one AF square over the target lights up and all the others are flashing up as well (even though they are de-activated)?

Mar 29, 2012 at 07:21 AM

Hrow
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p.2 #3 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Pixel Perfect wrote:
I'm confused. I have 7D and have never had issue with AF point illumination. I have it set to brighter and it's perfectly visible. Is 5D III inferior, as it seems to be exactly the same tech?

I do and I am also set to Brighter. It happens irregularly but frequently to me during the day (black box - not red) in Servo. It focuses fine but unless I hit the Focus Point Select it doesn't show where the focus point is. Pretty annoying but the fix is easy.

Mar 29, 2012 at 11:46 AM

DmitriM
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p.2 #4 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Thanks for the cross type suggestion. At least I fixed that one and it won't bother me

Wish I had a manual with me...

Mar 29, 2012 at 11:52 AM

DmitriM
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p.2 #5 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Yohan Pamudji wrote:

- Can any camera focus on white objects with low contrast?

- You can change magnify behavior to where pressing the magnify button gets you to 100% magnification at the active AF point. That way you don't have to use the dial to zoom in/out. Pg. 252 in manual.

1. tried D4 last week and it was able to focus a bit better(I think) on a white wall in a somewhat similar scenario

2. Unfortunately, it's not not what I am talking about. I need the dial. First I need to look at the image to see if it's properly exposed and then zoom in to see if it's in focus. The other way around(zoomed in fist using "Actual Size") setting isn't working that well. If you have multiple in focus object it fill zoom in on one of them and not necessary the one I need and since you are at 100%, you don't know where you are and have to zoom out quite a bit. I tried it. What would be great is to change the main dial zoom in/out to the same buttons 5DII has. It was really comfortable and easy

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:04 PM

Hrow
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p.2 #6 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

stanj wrote:
Ziffl3 wrote:
And no they(AF points) are not harder to see than a 1D .... sorry stanj.

Well then I guess I wasn't using my five or six 1D-class bodies correctly over the last decade.

Fact: The 1D can illuminate a single AF point. Or two. And keep it illuminated constantly for me to more easily see. Can not be done on the 5D3. On the 5D3, everything lights up. The friggin' grid flashes red at me. On the 1D....1D4, not so much.

On the 5D3 (and D4 and I can only assume the 1DX) the outline of the AF point is way fatter (relative to the size of the viewfinder image) than on the 1D...1D4. When on the 5D3 I turn on the display of all 61 points, it's more black than transparent. If you turn it off (or use any of the other options), it's much harder and slower to switch from say the upper left to the lower right AF point with the dinky joystick than it was with the back dial on the 1D....1D4, at least via the "ring of fire" mode which was present on the 1N/A2E .... D30 ... 1D4, including the 5-series. On the 5D3, I either need to do it "blind", relying on me remembering exactly how far I can go with the joystick in each direction (because I don't see the available points), or I do have the AF points constantly superimposed and then I am back on square one with a hopelessly overloaded viewfinder with a ton of black crap in it. On the 1Ds3 it took me exactly 4 clicks with the back dial. I didn't even have to look. A fraction of a second, done while I was turning the camera from landscape to portrait.

But maybe I just remember all of this wrong, and the half dozen 1-series cameras with hundreds of thousands of clicks don't matter.

Totally agree. Much faster and more accurate to move among focus points on the 1dsMkIIIs than the 7D, and it seems the 5D3. Also hate having the VF Grid flash red with the focus point(s). It can be jarring. Must admit though that I love the ability to set controls from the rear screen with the Quick Menu and find this to be a Godsend in dark environments when trying to see the top buttons on the camera is difficult at best.

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:17 PM

Wahoowa
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p.2 #7 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Why am I the only one who is interested in the BH discount that you got?

What sort of discount was that?

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:32 PM

RichardLavigne
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p.2 #8 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

my advice... read your manual.

Many of the issues you seem to have are results of you not understanding how the camera works, particularly 6 and 7... I'd venture to guess that some of the AF issue might be a result of the AF values you have set as well.

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:53 PM

arbitrage
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p.2 #9 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

I'm surprised about the trouble seeing the AF point light up. I can see it clearly on my 7D and 5D3 and I was out in bright sunlight on a frozen lake covered in white snow so pretty bright conditions (probably as bright as possible on earth) and had no issues.

Zoom takes getting used to but I think it is a great feature. If you don't want it going to 100% then set it a default and then just scroll to zoom in. To me using the wheel is way better than the two buttons from the past.

If you are using DPP to view RAWs then there is a known bug that is softening the images. Canon has been informed and hopefully working on it. You can turn on fast processing in DPP and avoid it to see the true sharp image but then you can't do NR or use the Lens optimizer feature. If you are just using jpegs then you have to change the picture style settings to get a sharper image.

If you are writing Raws to one card and jpegs to the other then you have to select which card is displaying on the LCD and that is what card you are deleting from. You have to switch to the other card in the menu to delete from it. This is for using the trash button while in playback. If you go into the playback menu then delete from there you can select the card at that time and then check off the images to delete in one batch or erase the whole card.

Edited on Mar 29, 2012 at 12:58 PM · View previous versions

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:54 PM

PetKal
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p.2 #10 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

When the active AF point doesn't illuminate (properly), now, that is a problem.

In addition, the OP also shows why it is important that one should do critical photography sessions, whether they are paid or not, using equipment which has been previously tested, verified as fully operational and set up appropriately.

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:54 PM

RichardLavigne
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p.2 #11 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:56 PM

arbitrage
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p.2 #12 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

PetKal wrote:
When the active AF point doesn't illuminate (properly), now, that is a problem.

In addition, the OP also shows why it is important that one should do critical photography sessions, whether they are paid or not, using equipment which has been previously tested, verified as fully operational and set up appropriately.

Sounds like the OP really needed to RTFM before going on a paid job with the camera. Sure some issues he reports are real potential issues. But half of the stuff is just unfamiliarity with the new camera. If one had owned a 7D in the past there would be no issues with most of this stuff.

And come on, focusing on a white wall?? Its called contrast detect AF for a reason!! I guess you didn't actually say white wall but still it needs contrast to some degree.

Edited on Mar 29, 2012 at 01:04 PM · View previous versions

Mar 29, 2012 at 12:59 PM

deepbluejh
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p.2 #13 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Sounds like to me there is one legit issue here and a whole bunch of "issues" caused by unfamiliarity with the camera and not reading the manual.

Mar 29, 2012 at 01:02 PM

newseum
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p.2 #14 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

I'd like to know what card is being used. Is it old, is it fast enough, has it been formatted, etc...
I realize these are mundane questions, just curious about the issues you are having with writing to card.

And another, were you using a grip? Any after market stuff?

Mar 29, 2012 at 01:04 PM

arbitrage
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p.2 #15 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Oh one more thing. The slow AF times I have seen but only in really dark conditions. Last evening I tried a dark room challenge to my 5D3. Sometimes I would just hold down the AF-On button (I use back button focus) and it would take 2 seconds and then lock with the beep and lighting up the AF point (the red flash that some on here seem really scared of for some reason). I never seen any delays in even marginal light. This was such low light that I had to shoot at ISO 12800, 1/10 f/2.8 with my 100L. The 100L doesn't use the 5 super awesome points either for some reason so it could be even better or faster with a prime lens that does use those special points.

ANd back to the lighting of AF points, if you just push the AF selection button (top right) then they all light up and flash the non x type if you have it set to that and it is then easy to see. I wonder if some peoples eyes don't see the red as good as others. Or if the high percentage of male colour blind people who actually don't realize it are having some issues. I'm just trying to figure this out as to me it has always been easy to see in all types of light since having my 7D and the same on the 5D3.

Mar 29, 2012 at 01:15 PM

retrofocus
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p.2 #16 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Wow. Thanks for this review. Seems like more and more issues show up....

Mar 29, 2012 at 01:29 PM

PetKal
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p.2 #17 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

arbitrage wrote:
Oh one more thing. The slow AF times I have seen but only in really dark conditions. Last evening I tried a dark room challenge to my 5D3. Sometimes I would just hold down the AF-On button (I use back button focus) and it would take 2 seconds and then lock with the beep and lighting up the AF point (the red flash that some on here seem really scared of for some reason). I never seen any delays in even marginal light. This was such low light that I had to shoot at ISO 12800, 1/10 f/2.8 with my 100L.

That fits what I would expect from the AF system which is designed to operate down to -2 EV. The older camera models which go to -1 EV probably couldn't focus in such conditions at all.

In very low light the camera AF just needs extra time to accumulate sufficient phase detect signal sample required for the control of lens AF. Now, if you mounted 50 f/1.2 or 85 f/1.2 on the camera instead of 100 f/2.8, the camera AF response would have probably been much better.

Mar 29, 2012 at 01:29 PM

Yakim Peled
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p.2 #18 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

DmitriM wrote:
4. AF sometimes takes a 1.5 second to nail a focus even during day light for the first shot. That's VERY long. Seems like it doesn't happen often,but it happens. Same issue is also present during evening scenarios with little light. The camera will focus properly once the focus is achieved,but it takes 1.5-2 seconds. For fast paced situation this is extremely long!!

I suspect something is very wrong with your camera. I'd reset all CFs to default and if the problem persists I'd get a replacement ASAP.

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Mar 29, 2012 at 01:53 PM

pookipichu
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p.2 #19 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

Instead of speculating someone should test this. Press material is one thing, (e.g. this sensor is 2 stops better), but actual production model testing is another.

On DPreview there are no 1DSIII samples to compare the 5D3 to and it would be helpful if someone could post some comparisons, comparing AF as well. At first glance, the layout of the 1D series AF seems to be more spread out and the 1DSIII can lock focus in candle-light/low light situations.

PetKal wrote:
arbitrage wrote:
Oh one more thing. The slow AF times I have seen but only in really dark conditions. Last evening I tried a dark room challenge to my 5D3. Sometimes I would just hold down the AF-On button (I use back button focus) and it would take 2 seconds and then lock with the beep and lighting up the AF point (the red flash that some on here seem really scared of for some reason). I never seen any delays in even marginal light. This was such low light that I had to shoot at ISO 12800, 1/10 f/2.8 with my 100L.

That fits what I would expect from the AF system which is designed to operate down to -2 EV. The older camera models which go to -1 EV probably couldn't focus in such conditions at all.

In very low light the camera AF just needs extra time to accumulate sufficient phase detect signal sample required for the control of lens AF. Now, if you mounted 50 f/1.2 or 85 f/1.2 on the camera instead of 100 f/2.8, the camera AF response would have probably been much better.

Mar 29, 2012 at 01:56 PM

CarlG
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p.2 #20 · 5D III Review: Wedding: Lots of issues!!!

...

Edited on Mar 29, 2012 at 02:07 PM · View previous versions

Mar 29, 2012 at 01:58 PM

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