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DavidP
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p.2 #1 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

fabiolad wrote:
The old saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it, applies to the previous AF system.

But it WAS "broke", IMO.

The addition of so many more high-precision, cross-type AF sensors in usable locations is a GREAT thing that was added to the 1D-III.

I am assuming that Canon will be able to fix whatever problems they have unintentionally introduced with the changes they made in the Mk-III version.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 04:24 PM

rd4tile
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p.2 #2 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

Thanks for your reply. Would you normally expect a full sequence shot with the IIn using 45pt to all be in focus? (honest question!) or would there typically be a few frames Oof.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 04:24 PM

fabiolad
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p.2 #3 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

rd4tile wrote:
Thanks for your reply. Would you normally expect a full sequence shot with the IIn using 45pt to all be in focus? (honest question!) or would there typically be a few frames Oof.

I hardly shot the full sequence, but when I did, if it acquired focus, it stayed focused. Whether I liked the wing position or not, would determine the keepers.

I can only speak for my shooting style and my camera, though...

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 04:28 PM

DavidP
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p.2 #4 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

rd4tile wrote:
Thanks for your reply. Would you normally expect a full sequence shot with the IIn using 45pt to all be in focus? (honest question!) or would there typically be a few frames Oof.

With a clear blue background and a large bird (in relation to the viewfinder), I would expect all to be in very good focus.

But with a foilage background, and especially as the bird occupies a smaller part of the frame, I always find that the 45-pt mode (in the 1D and 1D-II) will give out-of-focus shots, caused by the camera picking up the background.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 04:30 PM

rd4tile
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p.2 #5 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

Thanks, and I enjoyed that thread on Naturescapes.net. Reading about the expectations of others has always been part of my learning process until I'm at a point where I feel I have a decent handle on it. (Haven't gotten there yet)

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 04:34 PM

jonbrach
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p.2 #6 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

When using my markII and shooting with a burst i would be very happy if out of 10 or 12 images i got several keepers,i didnt expect every shot to be in perfect focus...perhaps my expectations are not as great as others...It seems to me that canon introduced a far more sensitive and fast focusing system to the markIII....the new system seems to focus quite a bit faster but it seems that this new speed has created difficulties for people used to shooting with the older 1 series....My guess is not so much that it is broken but that perhaps it needs to be tweaked a bit to behave more closely in line with what people are used to....as i said,my lenses snap into focus a lot faster with the new camera and the IQ is stunning to my eyes....im guessing this is going to be dealt with by canon coming out with a better explanation of the new focusing system and possibly some kind of firmware update that gives users the ability to tweak the settings more to the older cameras abilities....

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 04:47 PM

DynoMoHum
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p.2 #7 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

FYI (at this point in time)

Yes, it absolutely has a focusing problem 33 (9%)

No, it seems to work fine (similar to previous 1-Series bodies) 18 (5%)

I'm not sure yet 20 (6%)

I just want to see the results...] 280 (80%)

Total Votes 351 100%

=-=-=-

If I were to assume the people who did not say 'I just want to see the results' are actual owners of the MkII... and gave their honest evaluation of their camera(s)... it would appear that roughly 46% of the people think they have focus problems... So, even if none of the undecided find any problems later, it would seem that a quite large percentage of MkIII users are having noticeable problems... Ouch... that's pretty high.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 05:24 PM

redman
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p.2 #8 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

jonbrach wrote:
When using my markII and shooting with a burst i would be very happy if out of 10 or 12 images i got several keepers,i didnt expect every shot to be in perfect focus...perhaps my expectations are not as great as others...It seems to me that canon introduced a far more sensitive and fast focusing system to the markIII....the new system seems to focus quite a bit faster but it seems that this new speed has created difficulties for people used to shooting with the older 1 series....My guess is not so much that it is broken but that perhaps it needs to be tweaked a bit to behave more closely in line with what people are used to....as i said,my lenses snap into focus a lot faster with the new camera and the IQ is stunning to my eyes....im guessing this is going to be dealt with by canon coming out with a better explanation of the new focusing system and possibly some kind of firmware update that gives users the ability to tweak the settings more to the older cameras abilities....

Yeah...What he said!!!

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 05:27 PM

Tim Larson
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p.2 #9 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

I've been shooting paintball with a 20D for a while now. Last week, I shot a tournament with the MKIII and the percentages were awful. Now I usually get 90%+ good publishable stuff with the 20D, so I know I don't suck. I'm shooting a pro event this weekend with a lot of fast movement both sideways and right at me and will mess with the settings again.
I use a 70-200L 2.8 IS for most of my stuff. Now, last week, I experimented with the 300L 2.8 IS on some still stuff and it was beautiful, so perhaps I need to get the lens checked out. In utilizing the lens calibration in the MKIII, it looked sharp, but the 100% crops were not as sharp as they should have been. Perhaps I should haul the 300 on the road. then I can pinpoint the problem.
I plan on lowering the quickness of the AI one click toward slow, using center point AF with the nine point assist. Any other suggestions?

Tim

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 05:57 PM

Hrow
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p.2 #10 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

jonbrach wrote:
When using my markII and shooting with a burst i would be very happy if out of 10 or 12 images i got several keepers,i didnt expect every shot to be in perfect focus...perhaps my expectations are not as great as others...It seems to me that canon introduced a far more sensitive and fast focusing system to the markIII....the new system seems to focus quite a bit faster but it seems that this new speed has created difficulties for people used to shooting with the older 1 series....My guess is not so much that it is broken but that perhaps it needs to be tweaked a bit to behave more closely in line with what people are used to....as i said,my lenses snap into focus a lot faster with the new camera and the IQ is stunning to my eyes....im guessing this is going to be dealt with by canon coming out with a better explanation of the new focusing system and possibly some kind of firmware update that gives users the ability to tweak the settings more to the older cameras abilities....

Jon, as much as I would like this to be true, you have some pretty serious shooters having problems. These folks know what they are doing and how to deal change or they wouldn't have gotten to the skill levels that they have achieved. Canon knew they had a problem back in the pre-release days and if it was merely that they needed to teach old dogs new tricks I am quite sure they would have elobrated on it in the manual.

Even if they didn't, they have been getting slammed for some time now, don't you think they would have posted something on the web along the lines of "to all of the stupid people out there who haven't figured it out, set CF 1,376.b.1 to 0, spin around 3 times and howl at the moon." They might be nicer about it but that would be the gist.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 06:09 PM

khurram1
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p.2 #11 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

I'm still evaluating mine.
I'm kind of concerned about the AF accuracy in one shot mode.

Originally i had done most of my shooting with the 24-105L hand held, as i don't have an L bracket yet.

During a recent trip to Big Sur i shot a lot using my 70-200L IS lens (i've got a RRS plate for that lens) and found that even shooting in one shot mode, some of my shots seemed soft. It's hard to determine if the shots are soft due to the fact they were long exposures, which in some cases were in windy conditions and some were with a 2x extender.

However, some shots of rocky creek bridge that i shot (returning after the intitial ones seemed soft), i shot at a higher ISO tripod mounted, between F11 and F18 and these still seemed soft. I even selected different points to focus on, just to make sure it wasn't just a matter of not having enough depth of field. I still need to process those files (just got back and haven't got around to it).

I did process the following shot that also appears soft. Note that this is a long exposure that was tripod mounted, but there really wasn't any wind.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 06:26 PM

fabiolad
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p.2 #12 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

FWIW, issues seem to be concentrated on long telephoto lenses....

I had my bad experiences with the 600/4L

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 06:34 PM

Tim Larson
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p.2 #13 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

You got THAT right. When I see an OOF shot, I can uaually look at the metadata and see that the light changed a little while shooting in AV and that took the shutter speed down or something along those lines. Still makes me feel stupid but, come on, I'm not so full of myself to think that I'm awesome but this stuff is just off.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 06:39 PM

Tom_W
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p.2 #14 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

I stand proudly in the "just show me the results" group with many others. I'm not quite in that market at this time, but I believe that many are awaiting more data on this subject. Particularly after Rob Galbraith wrote of his problems. He's pretty well-respected.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 07:14 PM

Jeff
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p.2 #15 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

Yakim Peled wrote:
To Jeff and Fred,

Is it possible to update the polls so that the "I just want to view the results" option will not be counted in the poll statistics?

Happy shooting,
Yakim.

Not possible. Just ignore the last category, and approximate the math yourself. It's not too hard...

Speaking of which, currently:

Yes, it absolutely has a focusing problem = 35 / 9% (46%)
No, it seems to work fine = 19 / 5% (25%)
I'm not sure yet = 22 / 6% (29%)
[I just want to see the results...] = 316 / 81%
Total Votes 392 100%

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 07:26 PM

Jeff
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p.2 #16 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

rd4tile wrote:
Thanks for your reply. Would you normally expect a full sequence shot with the IIn using 45pt to all be in focus? (honest question!) or would there typically be a few frames Oof.

One interesting thing I noted in reviewing all my shots two nights ago is that for the sequences that had problems, ImageBrowser confirmed that the OOF shots usually had no AF point highlighted. Interestingly, this most often happened when the first shot in the sequence was soft, and this usually only happened when it (also) showed no focusing point used. It makes me wonder if maybe I was being sloppy at the beginning of a sequence, and not getting it locked before I started firing. I was shooting my kids playing in the surf, so I very easily could have been a bit hasty when I saw something that I wanted to capture.

Now, in all my sequences, I found two isolated instances of grossly OOF shots, either preceded or followed by in focus shots. In these cases, I think ImageBrowser did show a focus point was chosen, oddly. This would appear to be an error, I would think. I wish I had been a bit more critical and specific when shooting, but I didn't (at the time) think I was 'testing' the camera.

The bottom line is that I need to get very detailed about trying several of the Custom Functions related to focusing, in particular C.Fn III-3, as it would appear that either the default "0" (AF priority/tracking priority) option isn't behaving properly, or it is and requires some other tweak of a different C.Fn to allow it to work as advertised.

That being said, the results are still at least as good as from the 1Ds, if not better. Considering it was my first few days with a new camera with mostly 'stock' settings out of the box, I still point the finger more at me and my lack of experience with the camera, more than at the camera itself.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 07:40 PM

Alistair Watson
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p.2 #17 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

I have gone about as far as I am prepared to go with my Mark 3. I have confirmed with the dealer that I will return it for a full refund as soon as I can get to the store.

My Mark 3 arrived on the 1st June, today - the 21st June, is the last time this Mark 3 will be used by me. Apparently there is no stock of Mark 3's in the UK so exchange is out of the question unless I am prepared to wait quite some time. Return really does seem the best option at this point.

90% of my photography is based on shooting moving objects; wildlife, military airshows and motorsport. I have racked up about 3000 shots during the time I have had the Mark 3. At the beginning I just had a feeling, that the camera wasn't able to maintain a focus lock while tracking a moving object (bird/aircraft/racecar) but I initially put this down to user error, lack of familiarity with a new body. After multiple outings with the body I am now convinced that it is the body and not user error. I have experimented with all the custom settings, believe it or not, I found the defaults to work the best, slowing the focus tracking down made the focus sluggish, speeding it up, made the focus even more hyper.

Today I was at Silverstone shooting the final day of Formula 1 testing. I took my Mark 3 and trusty 300/2.8 IS lens. F1 is always a good test of how well a camera focusses since the cars accelerate to high speeds in no time at all making panning shots a real challenge and change direction quickly without warning. I took over a 1000 shots today, panning shots with the car entering from the frame from right to left and many many head on shots. My standard settings for this are centre point AF and servo mode.

Imagine this scenario - over and over again. You hear the car down shifting coming to the end of the straight, you are already in position, the car emerges into view and you lock onto it, tracking the car smoothly (giving the IS time to settle down and AI servo time to lock on) through 2 low speed bends before it arrives fully in front of you. As it begins to turn, your focus point is pretty much static on the drivers head and you shoot a burst of frames, 5 to 7 normally. On to the next car, and the next. The only trend I saw today is that the very first frame is ALWAYS in focus, deadly sharp in fact. Frames 2 to 6 are either sharp or unfocussed with no pattern, and yes, sometimes there is a focus placement problem on my part where the car jinks or something and the focus point ends up over the engine cowling, though this is easy to see. What is not at all clear is why so many frames are unfocussed, ever so slightly but enough to make the images useless. They are not front focussed or back focussed, no point in the image is focussed. It almost feelings like there is some multi-tasking problem within the camera ie as soon as you shoot a burst of frames and the buffer begins to fill and then write to the card (I always use Extreme 4 4gb CFs btw) that the camera suddenly is not able to focus properly. This is my feeling and I have nothing technical to back this up other than if I repeat the exercise in single shot drive mode but still using AI Servo focussing, nearly all the images are deadly sharp so in my opinion, and I am no professional, the problem seems only to occur in AI servo mode AND when shooting bursts of frames.

I hope people find this useful, or perhaps can use this information to go off and test their Mark 3's.

Photography is not my primary income and thus I can no longer justify a £3000 investment in a body which offers no better focus accuracy than my 1D2N, in the ways I have mentioned I feel it is worse. Other than this, the Mark 3 is perfect, at least for the type of shooting I do. High ISO capability is wonderful, as is how easy it is to control and customise functions you regularly use. For now, until these issues are fixed one way or the other, I will part company with the Mark 3 and go back to my well used 1D2N, and be happy that the camera won't miss so many shots, but a little sad that the 1D3 in it's current state is not the camera I had so hoped for.

Alistair

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 08:18 PM

DavidP
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p.2 #18 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

Interstingly enough, supply here in the US seems to have dried up in the last few weeks. How do I know? I received ONE of my two that were on order from Pitman Photo Supply about 3 weeks ago. I haven't received my second one yet. I've confirmed that I still have the order in with them, and that I'm first (or was it second?) on the list for getting my next copy.

I wonder if that means that Canon *does* think there's a problem, and isn't shipping out any more until it's resolved?

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 08:34 PM

kazman442
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p.2 #19 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

DavidP, My brother just got a replacment camera in from Normans Camera today, It was shipped to them at 11am. I don't know how many cameras they had come in but atleast one I know of. He had his replaced because he noticed a dead pixel in the LCD when we bought them. Maybe the stock of new supplies is going to the people for replacments

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 08:50 PM

Tim Larson
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p.2 #20 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

Alistair101 wrote:
......They are not front focussed or back focussed, no point in the image is focussed. It almost feelings like there is some multi-tasking problem within the camera ie as soon as you shoot a burst of frames and the buffer begins to fill and then write to the card (I always use Extreme 4 4gb CFs btw) that the camera suddenly is not able to focus properly. This is my feeling and I have nothing technical to back this up other than if I repeat the exercise in single shot drive mode but still using AI Servo focussing, nearly all the images are deadly sharp so in my opinion, and I am no professional, the problem seems only to occur in AI servo mode AND when shooting bursts of frames.

EXACTLY!
The same thing happened to me while doing the paintball stuff. Not front or back focussed. The entire frame was out of focus. Strange as heck. Strange enough to make me wonder about my lens.
Frustrating.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 09:15 PM

fabiolad
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p.2 #21 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

DavidP wrote:
Interstingly enough, supply here in the US seems to have dried up in the last few weeks. How do I know? I received ONE of my two that were on order from Pitman Photo Supply about 3 weeks ago. I haven't received my second one yet. I've confirmed that I still have the order in with them, and that I'm first (or was it second?) on the list for getting my next copy.

I wonder if that means that Canon *does* think there's a problem, and isn't shipping out any more until it's resolved?

DavidP, are you in Miami?

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 09:15 PM

jmraso
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p.2 #22 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

So it seems that we, Canon users, are either clients and Canon Workers since we buy the gear and do the tests they should have done and report the mistakes for the to fix.

Jaime
www.jmraso.com

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 09:17 PM

Garylv
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p.2 #23 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

Update by Rob on his story today.

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

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 09:21 PM

DavidP
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p.2 #24 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

fabiolad wrote:
DavidP, are you in Miami?

Nope, Houston.

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 09:21 PM

fabiolad
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p.2 #25 · Does your MkIII have AF issues?

DavidP wrote:
fabiolad wrote:
DavidP, are you in Miami?

Nope, Houston.

OK, we have a Pitman in Kendall, it counfused me

Thanks!

Edited on Jul 01, 2007 at 10:08 AM

Jun 21, 2007 at 09:27 PM


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