I personally love the camera handling, the only menu I use is My Menu, well 99% of the time anyway. I have also enabled the Set button to be image display.
My only gripe is when switching focus points on the fly. On my 1D2N I can go from centre point in either portrait or landscape format using the WB button to say the far left AF point in landscape, or top in portrait using the * button. Very useful for sports shooting. There doesn't seem to be a similar way on the Mark 3 and I have to reposition my thumb to use the joystick on the back. A small gripe....
Otherwise IQ and ISO blows me away everytime I use it. As soon as Canon sort the AF out I will be trading my 1D2N for another one.
brainiac wrote:
The monitor is yellow. I can't judge colour with it. It is badly at odds with what I get on my computers and print. Does anybody else have horrible yellow colours in skin and elsewhere on the back of the camera?
Yes, I noticed the same thing. When looking at skin tones on the LCD screen I often think that my parameters are way off, but on the pc the colours look fantastic. Didn't have this problem on my lowly 20D.
...and how about the way the custom function menus are organised? At first there seems to be little rhyme or reason. Given time, you can study the menu titles and learn which functions Canon thinks should go together. But it still doesn't feel as though Canon has looked at it from our point of view.
Hi everyone.
A few months back, there was a post about the price drop of ID MK11/11N, when the 111, hits the counters. I offered-what if its a dud? Might i have had good vision? Thats a lot of money for something that may not work properly and may not have a fix in sight. I am not anti Canon, having owned and used their cameras for 43 years, just some thoughts on there current engineering and marketing policies. A very smart camera store owner (repair shop), told me its un-wised to buy new techonology as it hits the counter, wait awhile.
Cheers
Harry
>...A very smart camera store owner (repair shop), told me its un-wised to buy new techonology as it hits the counter, wait awhile.
...yes, only buy it if it is placed gently on the counter.
This has been said, but it needs to be said again lest this thread loses balance: my 1D3 is giving me better image quality than I have ever seen. If you don't rely heavily on high fps focus tracking, this is simply the best digital SLR available in the shops now, and it's cheap for what you get. It has unprecedented high iso performance for low light freaks, all of the 1D body goodness, beautiful skin tones and a thousand other things to commend it. It's true that the 5D runs it a close second in price/performance, but if you want a higher frame rate, or better tone, or higher iso, and you don't need fast focus tracking reliability, then look no further.
I agree, from a technology point of view, it probably is unwise to buy into something so new, I work for a technology company so I am well aware. Saying that, despite the AI Servo AF performance in some situations I am incredibly happy with the Mark 3. I have no doubt Canon will fix the issues I am experiencing, I am going to a seminar at a Canon roadshow tomorrow, the seminar is specifically on the topic of 'how to use and tune the 1D Mark 3 AF' so it is going to be very interesting. Given everything I have been through since June 1st when I received my 1st Mark 3 to now, would I buy the camera again knowing I was going to get this? Yes. Luckily I still have a 1D2N to cover for the Mark 3's AF failings in people sports but in all other areas the 3 trounces the N. Just my 2p.
I am overall very happy with my Mark III. I might add... AF in Live Preview as something I'd like to see. However, it isn't much of a problem. I really like the UI and button placement of the Mark III over any of my previous Canon pro and semi-pro bodies, as well as the Nikon's I have owned. There was plenty of dual pressing of buttons on the Nikons and the "backwards" meter and direction of lens mount drove me crazy.
One by one the niggles accumulate:
I can't see how to disable AE-Lock on the shutter release. That's a big problem for autofocus-recompose. Maybe I missed something.
There seems to be no substitute for the 5D's 'Register Camera Settings'. I frequently switch the 5D to C mode = flash colour balance, 800 iso, 1/15s, Standard Style. The 1D3 * button is temporary and so has to be held down, and it doesn't include white balance. The Basic registered settings require fiddling with menus and don't include iso. The only way to match the 5D's mode seems to be fiddling through a menu, waiting for 2 seconds while the camera reads settings, and then holding down the * button permanently. This camera comes 18 months AFTER the 5D. Where is the progress?
Zoom to focus point in playback is a great feature which will save a lot of time. But why doesn't it work when the camera has chosen the focus point? Once again, interface consistency is a patchily constructed afterthought. A feature which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't undermines trust. It feels like Windows in that it lacks a coherent approach to HCI design.
The settings I change most often are iso and white balance. To change them I need to check them. The camera doesn't display white balance on the top plate so every time I check my settings I have to look first at the top plate, then twist the camera and look at the small display under the monitor. It is starting to annoy. Why isn't white balance and file type displayed on the top plate? 'Where it has always been' is irrelevant. Where SHOULD it be?
The rubber grip on the card door is porrly fixed where the "thumb" grip" bends round.
Mine lifts in hot weather. It is fine everyweher else on the camera but where the contour of the camera curves at the above point it is not flush. I was shooting with 3 other MK III owners the other day and it was the same on all three cameras.
I paid £3000 for this camera and at present am not particularly happy given the contsant AF issue and the build quality.
I had far better results with my 20D.
Maybe I should have waited, I could have purchased 3.856 40D's for the cost of my MK III.
Still Canon remain silent and ignore their customers. Appawling customer service and customer relations.
My 3rd Mk III doesn't seem to AF in very low light as well as my 30D does (both using the center AF point). I'm taking ISO 1600, f1.4, 1/125 sec low light. Since I mainly do music photography, this is where I live. Technically, the Mk III is rated for -1 to 18 EV whereas the 30D is -.5 to 18 EV, so the Mk III should be better. When people rave about the lowlight AF capabilities, I wonder how rigorously they are using it? Possibly the same situation as my usage of Servo and long lenses - certainly a valid point.
I'm considering returning mine and getting a 40D (although selling at cost may be an option since it seems decent compared to some copies out there - I would've done that gladly when I went through the Sigma 30mm/1.4 fiasco). However, it's hard to go back to a non pro body, as I've had to when returning my previous defective Mk IIIs.
I was doing a shoot with my MK III, 430EX, and a 16-35mm f2.8. I was in between grin and grip shots when the flash just fired. No picture was taken. I didn't have my finger on the shutter button. I was holding my setup in my right hand with the back of my hand facing the ground. I took me by suprize to just see the flash fire. I put the camera to my face and when I touched, wiggled, the lens it fired again. All of this gear is new. I was not able to replicate it. I have looked very closely at the contacts, all are new and clean. I can rotate the lens a small amount. Every lens moves a little bit, but I wonder if there is a mounting issue with these cameras? Like the contacts are just a bit out of alignment or something.
I don't know.....
Z
That's interesting Valerie. I worked with my 1Diii at the weekend for the first time, and I too struggled to get it to focus in very low light. However, I didn't think much of it and switched to MF as usual, because I routinely shoot in such low light that AF gives up. I am talking about iso 6400, f2, 1/20th situations: http://cyberphotographer.com/p/20070909charlotteparadisebatmitzvah/884.jpg
I haven't really encountered situations that extreme out in the field; perhaps walking around my house with the lights off. However, I don't expect any results at that level and maybe that's my lower standards.
So what do you like about the camera? Why have you kept it?
>So what do you like about the camera? Why have you kept it?
I only bought it on Friday after much thought. I like iso 6400, beautiful tone (14 bit?), feel and speed. I tend to focus either by using the lens scale or by focus bracketing, so the AF problems aren't a big deal, and high frame rate makes a 5-frame bracket very quick.
I don't like the size, weight, price, crop factor, and reduction in megapixels from my 5D's, but I can't complain about those things because I chose to accept them for the sake of 6400 iso.
