•Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

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Archive 2007 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

JoeSesto
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p.32 #1 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

Garylv wrote:

For what it's worth, that's been my experience too.

The three day weather forecast in my location is hot & mostly sunny. I'm going to do more Servo testing in bright sunlight and warm temps.

Gary, after all my reading on the subject over the last couple of weeks...I'd suggest that you use the fastest and longest lenses you have in both One Shot and Servo modes to get more conclusive comparisons on both moving and stationary subjects.

I don't have a better handle on this than anyone else, but I'm starting to think this is a light intensity issue as much, if not more, than a heat issue. The longer faster lenses seem to be involved in the problem more often than shorter slower ones.

I refused the 1DIII my dealer was getting today, so I am very interested in your results, too. And I would have had it in time for NASCAR at Infineon....darnit.

Joe Sesto
Nipomo, CA

Pls. excuse if I messed up the quotes...

Jun 22, 2007 at 02:35 AM

cradley
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p.32 #2 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

JackCnd wrote:
I'm just hoping for those that own the III, that Canon does not decide to slow production and the best thing is to release a Mark IIIn in 6-9 months.

When I called Canon Canada, I heard:

- Canon has not noted any issues with the III
- AF concerns of a given owner may be within spec

I took a new 20D in to Canon Canada that was backfocusing 10 feet at 100 yards and was told that it was "within spec" even with prints to back up my claim. They would do nothing for me. Fortunately I was still within B & H return time limit and they replaced it with one that worked perfectly. Thank heavens for reputable dealers! Hopefully the word will eventually come down from on high and they will do something for you. Then again, Canon Canada repaired the IS on my 300 f4 L six months out of warranty free. Go figure. Good luck.

Claude

Jun 22, 2007 at 03:43 AM

vidoprof
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p.32 #3 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

Just for the record I got mine this week. I cannot upload here but I THINK i have focusing issues a little bit. I have a bunch of shots in great light and I checked in BreezeBrowser for focus (it shows all the focus points are spot on) and they are all OOF.

I will post them online at image shack.

Also I have firmware 1.0.8 and serial number of 516657

Ryan

I did forget to add I was using the 24-70L. Now I am not positive that this is a tack sharp lens because I never really tested it (don't know how really to do that), but I always got good shots with this and my 30D

Jun 22, 2007 at 04:45 AM

rscheffler
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p.32 #4 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

DavidP wrote:
Deborah Kolt wrote:
Oh, and thus far my III has no AF issues. (My 1D MIIN, however, has encountered focus issues on really hot and bright days, especially when heat is rising in waves from the field. This is a known issue, at least among some of those shooting sports. It can be very apparent on field turf, where the temperature is 10-15% higher on the field than in the surrounding area.)

I would imagine that ANY kind of SLR using a TTL phase-detection AF system would have problems in such a situation.

I'm assuming that RobG's tests weren't in conditions like THAT.

RG mentioned that he believed heat rising from the ground was not a significant factor in influencing his results.

I will add that that I just photographed a soccer game last weekend on a Field Turf field and it was impossible to achieve critical focus at any distance where the players were full length with a 400mm lens. This has always been an issue for any AF camera.

Jun 22, 2007 at 05:12 AM

Derek
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p.32 #5 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

Just taken delivery of my first one (ordered 3) personally from the Canon Pro Rep, she mentioned it has the latest firmware, but i have no idea what version they were shipping with, mine is 1.08? Serial number 215179XX.

She also mentioned the supply chain is going to get a lot slower now, not sure if that's good news re the focussing

Jun 22, 2007 at 07:05 AM

Alistair Watson
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p.32 #6 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

Garylv wrote:
For what it's worth, that's been my experience too.

The three day weather forecast in my location is hot & mostly sunny. I'm going to do more Servo testing in bright sunlight and warm temps.

From my long post yesterday to the 'AF problems thread' I found that in AI Servo and High Speed drive mode, the first frame was always in focus, in a burst of 7 shots, shots 2 to 6 were a mixture of either out of focus or poor focus placement (the latter being my fault) but the difference is easy to see. Some shots were simply unfocussed enough to make the shot useless. Shooting in AI Servo mode and Single Shot drive I found that nearly all my shots were deadly sharp so this has lead me to the conclusion that this problem only occurs in AI servo mode and high speed drive (10fps). I would recommend making some tests in single shot drive, low speed drive (3 to 5 fps) and also high speed drive but change the fps to 8 instead of 10. These last 2 I didn't realise until getting home from the F1 testing yesterday and I have decided to return my Mark 3 anyway.

Jun 22, 2007 at 08:36 AM

Charles Clark
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p.32 #7 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

How are you going to send the camera back as my understanding is after a couple of weeks and a few hundred shots you own it but it is fixable, I was notified by service in Irving USA to wait until they get the official fix and ok from Japan. I am going to keep mine but I have faith in canon as I wrote them explaining the main reason I bought the camera as it was sold as the worlds fastest and best AF to date. On to your question I had the similar results that you did yesterday but was pleasantly pleased in the keepers. My single AF was much better keep ratio but than again the bird wasn't flying circles around me either. My other cameras are slow but take awesome pics but not for birds and defiantly not in low light.

Jun 22, 2007 at 02:48 PM

Todd_Brown
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p.32 #8 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

More from Rob Galbraith -

http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/content_page.asp?cid=7-8740-9006#june21

"We'd heard less than 20 complaints about the camera's autofocus before this article was published; since the story went up, that number has climbed past 200. And the email is still rolling in...

Canon, like any big company making popular products, needs help in determining what's a major problem - as we think the EOS-1D Mark III's autofocus is - from things that are more minor or even user error...

"But, the kind and quantity of shooting we've done, combined with a little experience with this stuff and a little common sense too, adds up to the belief here that the problem is in the design of the autofocus system vs there being a few bad EOS-1D Mark III apples around...

If we didn't think that was by far the most likely explanation, we wouldn't have published this story. And the number of photographers we've heard from now that are having the same sorts of troubles in the same types of shooting situations suggests that we're onto something..."

Jun 22, 2007 at 02:50 PM

rd4tile
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p.32 #9 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

Charles Clark wrote:
I was notified by service in Irving USA to wait until they get the official fix and ok from Japan. I am going to keep mine but I have faith in canon as I wrote them explaining the main reason I bought the camera as it was sold as the worlds fastest and best AF to date.

I thought I'd go ahead and notify Canon via email as well. I got the "send it to Irvine" reply as well. I'm going to wait until there's something official or I see a bunch of folks post that they sent theirs in and it came back fixed. what I don't want is the old "adjusted to factory specs/nothing wrong" type of deal.

Jun 22, 2007 at 03:02 PM

vidoprof
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p.32 #10 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

I haven't gotten anything yet from them. I will let everyone know when I get a response.

Thanks for this thread.

Ryan

Jun 22, 2007 at 04:31 PM

BobnJake
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p.32 #11 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

I just wanted to let everyone know, that I sent an e-mail to Canon as requested in
Rob Galbraith's latest post . I sent it last night about 6:00PM, explaining the AF problem, not knowing if I would hear back from them, but they got right back to me this morning. They wanted some more details on what was happening, so I went into more detail, about it happening in AI servo & high speed mode, AF points used, etc. So, they are listening

Take the time to send an e-mail to Canon, it has to help

Thanks

Jun 22, 2007 at 04:53 PM

Charles Clark
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p.32 #12 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

We'll this is exactly what their reply was I didn't include all the whole e-mail as most was just form letter:
At this time, Canon does not have an official response to this focusing
issue. We can however offer the following points in response to your
inquiry. We are aware of the comments and reports that are circulating
on the Internet and has read the Rob Galbraith report. Canon is taking
this report seriously and is actively investigating any and all
concerns. There is no way to tell what the findings of the
investigation will be at this time, and we apologize for any
inconvenience this may cause you.

If you wish to send your EOS-1D Mark III to the FSC for this specific AI
Servo AF concern covered in the Galbraith article, please wait as there
is little that can be done until clarification from Japan has been
received. If you would like to send your Mark III in now, then we can
certainly take a look at this for you.

I though this was very thoughful on Canons behalf, hope I don't get anybody in trouble , but I left out the numbers ect. CC

Jun 22, 2007 at 05:36 PM

Alistair Watson
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p.32 #13 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

BobnJake wrote:
I just wanted to let everyone know, that I sent an e-mail to Canon as requested in
Rob Galbraith's latest post . I sent it last night about 6:00PM, explaining the AF problem, not knowing if I would hear back from them, but they got right back to me this morning. They wanted some more details on what was happening, so I went into more detail, about it happening in AI servo & high speed mode, AF points used, etc. So, they are listening

Take the time to send an e-mail to Canon, it has to help

Thanks

Funny but I have been speaking to the CPS team in the UK all week and they have always been very attentive in listening and noting my problems. I tried to get one of the tech guys on the phone this afternoon and found the entire team was in a meeting, no one was available. When I did get a call back it was suddenly all official, ie saying something but in reality nothing. I asked if Canon UK had an official response to the points raised RG and was told Canon UK has not heard from any unhappy Mark 3 owners. Oh well I must be the first, but it was interesting to hear that the CPS team in the UK haven't yet had training on the Mark 3, plus this sudden change to an official response which really equated to nothing makes me even more curious! Anyway, I have given them, CPS UK and the dealer Calumet, all the information I possibly can, then returned the camera for a full refund. Will go back to being content with my Mark 2 N for the moment.

Jun 22, 2007 at 06:56 PM

khurram1
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p.32 #14 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

not sure if anyone has asked this, but does lightroom support 1DIII raw files

Jun 22, 2007 at 11:12 PM

JimGoshorn
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p.32 #15 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

Lightroom won't directly support the camera until 1.1 however until then you can run the files through DNG Converter 4.1 and then Lightroom will be able to work with them.

Jun 22, 2007 at 11:43 PM

DavidP
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p.32 #16 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

rscheffler wrote:
I will add that that I just photographed a soccer game last weekend on a Field Turf field and it was impossible to achieve critical focus at any distance where the players were full length with a 400mm lens. This has always been an issue for any AF camera.

If it's always been an issue with any AF camera, then what's the fuss all about?

Jun 23, 2007 at 12:08 AM

Nill Toulme
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p.32 #17 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

He just means the heat waves off the artificial turf, not the general AF problems.

Nill
~~
www.toulme.net

Jun 23, 2007 at 12:41 AM

mogur2
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p.32 #18 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

FWIW, Art Morris has published a booklet for setting the MarkIII. He has a number of suggestions for the new CF so camera can be optimized for sports focusing.

I hope to have an opportunity to test it this weekend.

http://www.birdsasart.com/MARK%20III%20USER%20GUIDE.htm

Jun 23, 2007 at 09:14 AM

72chevelle454
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p.32 #19 · •Hands-On• Eos 1D Mk III body

Since this is a "Hands On" thread, below you will find a series of photos (27 to be exact)
I feel the M3 did a fantastic job on keeping focus with this Swan, it was about 80 degrees and sun was back-lighting the bird. Swan started out across the frame then turned toward me at full speed on water.

Ron and I were pretty happy with our keeper rate yesterday with birds in flight, we will be testing People or dogs again sometime this weekend.

I would like to add that the picture color and quality coming from this camera is amazing, I have included one shot I took in my backyard at 600mm (300mm f4 with 2x) at ISO 3200 with 125 shutter.

Cfn III Settings:

2 - I notch to the slower setting (left)
8 - 2 enable (sourounding Assist p)
10 - 1 I have this set up as a personal favorite

All the rest are default settings

First the ISO 3200 shot, with no noise reduction applied in CS3, just level adjustments

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Now the focus series, pretty much all shot at 1/2000 to 1/2500 shutter with 300mm and 1.4x (420mm) at ISO 500:

This image is copyrighted by the owner