•Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

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1D MkIII Poll #3: Does yours have AF issues?
<#505xxx: YES, it has AF issues	27	2%
#505xxx - 509xxx: YES, it has AF issues	9	1%
#510xxx - 514xxx: YES, it has AF issues	20	1%
#515xxx - 519xxx: YES, it has AF issues	15	1%
#520xxx - 524xxx: YES, it has AF issues	22	2%
#525xxx - 529xxx: YES, it has AF issues	16	1%
>#530xxx: YES, it has AF issues -------------------------	10	1%
<#505xxx: NO, it works as advertised	20	1%
#505xxx - 509xxx: NO, it works as advertised	18	1%
#510xxx - 514xxx: NO, it works as advertised	23	2%
#515xxx - 519xxx: NO, it works as advertised	25	2%
#520xxx - 524xxx: NO, it works as advertised	34	2%
#525xxx - 529xxx: NO, it works as advertised	20	1%
>#530xxx: NO, it works as advertised	23	2%
[I don't plan on owning a MkIII; show me the results.]	1104	80%
Total Votes	1386	100%

Archive 2007 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

kazman442
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p.23 #1 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

I would love to try out one of these working cameras, If anyone has one in the Kalamazoo MI area lets meet up. Maybe at the Kellogg bird sanctuary. I can bring the lenses if you bring the camera, I'm talking with my rep today on a final plan, either there going to give me my money back or get me a 1Dmark2n I have had enough of the testing and bad shots, it's been a few months now and I'm not going back to a M3 till I hear there fixed.

Oh PS if they don't give me my money I'll have a Mark3 with no focus issues on buy and sell

Sep 11, 2007 at 02:08 PM

Paul B
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p.23 #2 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

slau wrote:
DavidP wrote:
Maybe it's impossible to focus WELL in dim conditions and in bright sunlight at the same time?

Dave, you may have found something interesting. May be the Canon engineers emphasis too much on the low light perfromance/sensitivity and the Mk3 ends up with overly sensitive in birght light? Purely speculation of course, but life is always a compromise, and there is no free lunch.

I would think that if this were true Canon could either have the camera automatically detect whether it's shooting in dim or bright light or simply provide some sort of option on the menu with two "shooting modes." Of course, that might require some reengineering of the system but the camera can be reconfigured in so many other ways........

Sep 11, 2007 at 05:24 PM

Thierry S.
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p.23 #3 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Mark Powell wrote:
Perhaps there should be another poll in case Canon is watching.

The question would be "Are you waiting for the AF issues to be resolved before you purchase a 1Dmk3?"

I would definitely vote "yes". And I think Canon would see a lot of missed sales opportunities just from the FM'rs.

I'm also along the ones waiting for a fix before purchasing a MkIII.

I was actually on the waiting list a few days away from the expected delivery date, but after reading RG's comments and the troubles that many of you have been going through I canceled my order last June.

T.

Sep 11, 2007 at 06:51 PM

troutstreaming
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p.23 #4 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

First some rumors - a local camera shop stated that their in the know source was claiming that 1.1.1a was THE fix and that a big cause of many of the reports that were not resolved with prior releases were problems with the mk. III interacting with OLDER supertele's. I can only hope that they are right because...

I am getting close to the front of the line at another local camera shop and WILL purchase the 1D 3 when their next shipment comes in. Why now and not later? If I want to shoot in the middle of the day in hot, bright conditions and machine gun white t-shirts then I can always break out my 1D and fire away at ISO 200 2.8 1/16,000, but given that it is unlikely that anyone is going to be flying me to the southern hemisphere it is now almost fall in the Pacific Northwest and I am moving indoors or will be expecting to shoot in 52F and overcast skies or under stadium lights. In the long run I am counting on Canon sticking by their product and hoping that the attention that is being garnered will result in them making good to their customers and providing a fix to whatever issues there may be. I just can't see them stranding customers that spend tens of thousands of dollars on glass with a faulty product - I can see them refusing to publicly acknowledge any issues when there are quite a few customers that think that nothing is wrong. Hopefully this all shakes out sometime in the next 6 months before the sun returns.

And finally, as I do not remember stumbling across this sort of variable control in the threads that I have perused. Has anyone done the testing to try and better tease apart the brightness + temperature RG observation focusing errors? I would think that a neutral density filter or a c. pol. on the lens versus trying a focusing run shortly after removing the body from an air conditioned car or in an aquatech bag with some sort of refrigerator fresh ice packs might shed some light on if it is the CMOS chip running too hot (resulting in too little resistance/too much current/saturation of the circuit etc.), too much light intensity energy hitting the CMOS focusing chip or maybe the delta in the energy between shadows and light being out of parameter and forcing the chip to look for areas of less intense difference, or if the frequency of OOF's did not change with either temp or incident light intensity maybe you could more easily convince yourself it was something related more to the focusing algorithms.

Wish me luck! (And I will not be running controlled test when I get my body, but will be happy to report in on how it does at soccer, volleyball and equestrian events in the PNW.)

Andy

Sep 11, 2007 at 09:58 PM

Kier
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p.23 #5 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

I'm now on my third MkIII (one could say I own a MkIII Mark 3...), having returned the first two and I am still dogged by useless autofocus performance in terms of reliability.

Unfortunately, I've fallen in love with the rest of the MkIII. Live view is a god-send when working with a TS-E lens, 10fps is amazing when working with my 400mm f/2.8L IS, when I pick up my MkIIN it is very clear that the lighter weight of the MkIII is not insignificant, the high ISO performance is fabulous...

There is no point in sending the camera in for service or repair - I tried that with the previous two MkIIIs and they came back unchanged. I feel that I should send back this third MkIII, to show Canon that customers won't stand for sub-par performance, then buy again when Canon admit to and fix the problem.

But then there's the minor problem that I won't have a MkIII. Dilemma.

Sep 11, 2007 at 09:58 PM

Kier
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p.23 #6 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

troutstreaming wrote:
a big cause of many of the reports that were not resolved with prior releases were problems with the mk. III interacting with OLDER supertele's
I'm 99% certain this is not the case.

My 400mm f/2.8L IS is less than a year old and works flawlessly in all conditions with my MkIIN, but it's a lottery with all three of the MkIII's I've owned.

Additionally, some of my worst problems have actually been in One-Shot mode with fast medium tele lenses such as the 85 f/1.8 and 24-70 f/2.8, both of which are again, faultless and totally accurate in all conditions with my MkIIN.

Sep 11, 2007 at 10:02 PM

Iberian
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p.23 #7 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Kier wrote:
troutstreaming wrote:
a big cause of many of the reports that were not resolved with prior releases were problems with the mk. III interacting with OLDER supertele's

Additionally, some of my worst problems have actually been in One-Shot mode with fast medium tele lenses such as the 85 f/1.8 and 24-70 f/2.8, both of which are again, faultless and totally accurate in all conditions with my MkIIN.

Kier you do have a problem with your camera/lens or something. In oneshot mode with any of the shorter primes like the 85 1.8 or the shorter sooms like the 24-70 2.8 the focus is super fast and accurate, especially if you use center point only. From all the reading I have done I don't think many have the same issue you do.

Sep 11, 2007 at 10:30 PM

Bruce Sawle
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p.23 #8 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Iberian wrote:
Kier wrote:
troutstreaming wrote:
a big cause of many of the reports that were not resolved with prior releases were problems with the mk. III interacting with OLDER supertele's

Additionally, some of my worst problems have actually been in One-Shot mode with fast medium tele lenses such as the 85 f/1.8 and 24-70 f/2.8, both of which are again, faultless and totally accurate in all conditions with my MkIIN.

Kier you do have a problem with your camera/lens or something. In oneshot mode with any of the shorter primes like the 85 1.8 or the shorter sooms like the 24-70 2.8 the focus is super fast and accurate, especially if you use center point only. From all the reading I have done I don't think many have the same issue you do.

Yep i would agree I have a wonderful results with all my short lens in 1 shot mode.

Sep 11, 2007 at 10:32 PM

troutstreaming
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p.23 #9 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Remember- The first paragraph was merely passing on hearsay. I can not vouch for the veracity of the content, only repeat what I was told.

Kier I am a bit disheartened to hear that you had problems with multiple bodies and with shorter glass as that appeared to be a relatively safe haven or at least addressed by the current suite of firmware issues (according to what I had read, here's that durn hearsay again), but I think that I am still going to roll the dice - hopefully I do not get one of your repackaged bodies...

Best wishes,

Andy

Sep 11, 2007 at 11:30 PM

Kier
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p.23 #10 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Bruce, Iberian - all I can tell you is that I've had three MkIII bodies and each of them has exhibited exactly the same AF inconsistency with both my long and short fast glass - lenses that behave impeccably on all my other Canon bodies, including my 1D2N and 20D.

I am more and more of the opinion that there are no such thing as 'good' MkIII samples - I believe that the people who say that they have a MkIII that focuses properly just haven't encountered the conditions that bring on the inconsistencies. I'm absolutely not debating that the MkIII can capture stunning images - I've caught some real gems, BUT I can't rely on the camera to focus accurately every time when I point it at something that will make one of those gem shots. Rob Galbraith has said that he believes that the problems relate to bright sunlight and hot conditions, but I'm not sure that is the sole contributor, as I've had woeful results in a far wider array of conditions. In each case, switching to the MkIIN with the same lenses has produced results with the AF quality I have come to expect from EOS-1 bodies.

Sep 12, 2007 at 12:02 AM

72chevelle454
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p.23 #11 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

I agree with Kier's comments above, I too have had three MkIII bodies, all acted about the same, I have seen no improvements in the AF with the new firmware upgrades and honestly, I have about had it with the OOF shots that Ive been getting all along!

I have a lot of shots like below, with my keeper rate dropping to about 40%
Calls have been made to my canon rep to see what can be done to get out of this body unless a fix is coming soon.
I will miss the features that the MkIII has to offer but will not miss the OOF shots that it delivers.

I used to shoot MkII (over a year) and I will probably go back to a MkIIn

We have tested this camera for over 3 months, I feel the testing needs to be left to canon, not us.

500mm + MkIII, EXIF is attached 1/1250 shutter

This image is copyrighted by the owner

100 percent crop

This image is copyrighted by the owner

Sep 12, 2007 at 10:40 AM

UA935
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p.23 #12 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

I haven't yet voted in the poll because I am still unsure.

I saved long and hard for my entry into the 1 series and at present still have grave concerns over the issues. I hope I have not purchased the most expensive door stop ever made.

525 serial.

I am moving further and further away from the good camera/bad camera idea and more towards the idea that all MK III's have the same issue but it only rears its head in specific conditions which have not yet/will not be experienced by all users. If this is the case Canon still need to recitify ALL cameras.

As a side not have any of the MK III owners out there noticed that the grip material on the card door is not flush where the thumb contour is? I was out shooting with three other MK III users the other day and it was the same on all examples.

Ummm £3000 for a MK III of £3000 for 3.8 40D's?

Regards

Simon

Sep 12, 2007 at 01:23 PM

ObservedTrials
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p.23 #13 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Not that it probably matters, but my first vote here was 525xx-529xx "no focus issues". That was the case during the first few shoots, but after more use (1.5months now), it is a problem.

Sep 12, 2007 at 01:52 PM

Nill Toulme
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p.23 #14 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Anybody else want to change their vote? We can't change them on the actual forum poll, but I can reflect it in the periodic snapshots.

Nill
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Sep 12, 2007 at 02:18 PM

dcmiller
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p.23 #15 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Nill Toulme wrote:
Anybody else want to change their vote? We can't change them on the actual forum poll, but I can reflect it in the periodic snapshots.

Nill
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I would like to retract my first term vote for Bush. Thanks.

Sep 12, 2007 at 02:33 PM

Nill Toulme
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p.23 #16 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

If only... ;-)

Nill
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Sep 12, 2007 at 02:43 PM

Kier
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p.23 #17 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Nill,

I can only vote once, but I've also had a 520xxx that was poor and a 523xxx that was bad, in addition to my current (bad) 534xxx, which is reflected in the poll. You may want to add those to your tally.

Sep 12, 2007 at 02:59 PM

Nill Toulme
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p.23 #18 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Which one did you vote already?

Nill
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Sep 12, 2007 at 03:00 PM

kazman442
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p.23 #19 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Kier brings up a good point, My brother and I have had 5 cameras between the 2 of us that had the focus issues. We only voted on the current cameras we have now. Don't know if we can get the older ones serial numbers at this stage in the game.

Sep 12, 2007 at 03:19 PM

Nill Toulme
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p.23 #20 · •Poll v3.1: MkIII have AF issues?

Well if you can I'll plug them in.

Nill
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Sep 12, 2007 at 03:26 PM

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