Your 1D Mark III after the fix

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Archive 2009 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Peter Woods
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p.3 #1 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Got mine back Monday..
Well went out Tuesday and rattled off a couple of 100 shots of which I deleted 15 for being OOF. OK this was just one outing but that is a vast improvement for me.... Also seem to focus better on low contrast shots and the images are sharper out of the camera in raw needing less usm when developed in CS4.. So far for me it is a thumbs up to canon

and to think I was happy with my camera before it went in

Mar 18, 2009 at 07:34 PM

jonbrach
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p.3 #2 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Got a chance to give mine a good workout at a spring training game in Florida.....the camera functioned flawlessly....AF was quick,accurate and spot on...everything felt snappier and just flat out better...now it is possible that it is the placebo effect at work but I am very pleased...I am away so I cannot post pictures but again..so far so good

Mar 18, 2009 at 10:15 PM

SLD
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p.3 #3 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Jon,

Glad to hear what you experienced said,,,

Lide

Mar 18, 2009 at 11:08 PM

jonbrach
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p.3 #4 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Mind you I was a fan of the camera beforehand but today it just seemed to function a bit better...quicker,sharper..more responsive..whether it is my imagination or not I am quite happy......great camera IMHO

Mar 19, 2009 at 01:46 AM

HorseRacing
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p.3 #5 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

mine was there 4 days and overnighted back too me

Mar 19, 2009 at 02:28 AM

Emile Gregoire
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p.3 #6 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Had to vote "same" though I've got the feeling it's actually worse. Been shooting all morning; test charts and real life situations outdoors. Center point is OK, maybe better than before. The other AF points are a mixed bag: some perform very well, others are off. Especially the corner AF points lower-left and lower-right are front-focussing heavily. It's almost as if they replaced the hardware but forgot to calibrate all AF points. It's going back next monday ;(

Mar 19, 2009 at 10:32 AM

Daan B
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p.3 #7 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

I don't get the remarks about snappier/quicker focus after the "fix"... All Canon does is calibrating the outer AF points

There shouldn't even be a noticeble difference regarding the center AF point (unless some lenses were way off to begin with).

Or has Canon also performed a hardware fix to your cameras

My replacement 1Ds3 performs brilliantly for what I use it for... If it ain't broken, why let them "fix" it... I am not sending my 1Ds3 in...

Edited on Mar 19, 2009 at 11:04 AM · View previous versions

Mar 19, 2009 at 11:00 AM

Daan B
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p.3 #8 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Emile Gregoire wrote:
Had to vote "same" though I've got the feeling it's actually worse. Been shooting all morning; test charts and real life situations outdoors. Center point is OK, maybe better than before. The other AF points are a mixed bag: some perform very well, others are off. Especially the corner AF points lower-left and lower-right are front-focussing heavily. It's almost as if they replaced the hardware but forgot to calibrate all AF points. It's going back next monday ;(

Emile... sorry to hear the AF problems seem to continue. Did they perform a hardware fix on your 1D3?

Mar 19, 2009 at 11:03 AM

jafant
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p.3 #9 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

My Mark III went to Virginia last week. UPS delivered the camera to Canon this past Monday. I haven't received any confirmation from Canon that they have received it. Is this typical or should I call them? Anybody have the number for the Canon center in Virginia? Thanks John

Mar 19, 2009 at 11:04 AM

Emile Gregoire
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p.3 #10 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Daan B wrote:
Emile Gregoire wrote:
Had to vote "same" though I've got the feeling it's actually worse. Been shooting all morning; test charts and real life situations outdoors. Center point is OK, maybe better than before. The other AF points are a mixed bag: some perform very well, others are off. Especially the corner AF points lower-left and lower-right are front-focussing heavily. It's almost as if they replaced the hardware but forgot to calibrate all AF points. It's going back next monday ;(

Emile... sorry to hear the AF problems seem to continue. Did they perform a hardware fix on your 1D3?

New mirror box and washers. Had some intermittent Err99 problems so I guess that explains the mirror box.

I'll be shooting some this weekend to be very sure it's the camera and not me.

Mar 19, 2009 at 11:56 AM

Grantland
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p.3 #11 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Emile Gregoire wrote:
Daan B wrote:
Emile Gregoire wrote:
Had to vote "same" though I've got the feeling it's actually worse. Been shooting all morning; test charts and real life situations outdoors. Center point is OK, maybe better than before. The other AF points are a mixed bag: some perform very well, others are off. Especially the corner AF points lower-left and lower-right are front-focussing heavily. It's almost as if they replaced the hardware but forgot to calibrate all AF points. It's going back next monday ;(

sorry to hear your frustration. your prior post must have been the placebo affect and/or some wishful thinking. you said "spot on with every focus point" i assume you never tested it or just miss spoke?

quote:
First impressions are pretty good. With my 24-70, some outer points were way off (arriving at a focus distance of 3 meters with an object 5 meters away) but now it's spot on with every focus point.

Mar 19, 2009 at 01:38 PM

Ralph Thompson
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p.3 #12 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Just got mine back. It was 7 days door to door. I'm shooting today so we'll see.

Mar 19, 2009 at 03:06 PM

ifxbonz
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p.3 #13 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Emile Gregoire wrote:
Had to vote "same" though I've got the feeling it's actually worse. Been shooting all morning; test charts and real life situations outdoors. Center point is OK, maybe better than before. The other AF points are a mixed bag: some perform very well, others are off. Especially the corner AF points lower-left and lower-right are front-focussing heavily. It's almost as if they replaced the hardware but forgot to calibrate all AF points. It's going back next monday ;(

I can agree on all points. Mine is going back for a second look.

Andy

Mar 19, 2009 at 03:32 PM

K_Strecker
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p.3 #14 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

jafant wrote:
My Mark III went to Virginia last week. UPS delivered the camera to Canon this past Monday. I haven't received any confirmation from Canon that they have received it. Is this typical or should I call them? Anybody have the number for the Canon center in Virginia? Thanks John

Totally normal. Your camera's at the service center but doesn't get a repair number till it's at someone's bench. There's a line in front of yours is all.

Mar 19, 2009 at 04:06 PM

Emile Gregoire
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p.3 #15 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Grantland wrote:
sorry to hear your frustration. your prior post must have been the placebo affect and/or some wishful thinking. you said "spot on with every focus point" i assume you never tested it or just miss spoke?

quote:
First impressions are pretty good. With my 24-70, some outer points were way off (arriving at a focus distance of 3 meters with an object 5 meters away) but now it's spot on with every focus point.

Simply too hurried. Came back from Canon, mounted what I thought was my 24-70, didn't zoom, just checked a few of the outer focus points not taking any images, thought 'hurray', posted that and ran off to a party. This morning it turned out it wasn't my 24-70 but my 135 which always has been a stellar performer... Lesson learned: to keep my big mouth shut

A closer check with that lens (and others) learned that it's off on a bunch of AF points too. I just came back from an afternoon in Paris with my 70-200 and even at f/8, IS on and a good shutter speed (mostly around 1/400), a lot of images are clearly front focussed. Back to square one.

Hate to have to go back to Canon's repair facility though. They've tended to shoot the messenger the past few times I was over there. Last time I brought in a 16-35 with sample images that clearly showed the lens was way off on subjects further away when shooting at 16mm, I got back a sheet of paper showing it is focussed spot on at 2 meters on the long end with no repairs done... Right, now that wasn't my beef. It was, by the way, the third time I'd sent in that particular lens over two weeks time. Problems were all when mounted on my 1D3, which accompanied it two times, was checked only one of the two times and was acting "according to Canon specs".

This is a huge bummer... Don't know what to do next. Am considering taking my loss and selling the damn camera but that certainly doesn't feel right.

Sorry for the rant, folks!

Mar 19, 2009 at 04:18 PM

Garylv
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p.3 #16 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

And Jafant, I had mine back in my hands while the website still said "Not shipped yet". So don't be alarmed at the website status.

Mar 19, 2009 at 05:54 PM

Grantland
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p.3 #17 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Emile Gregoire wrote:
Grantland wrote:
sorry to hear your frustration. your prior post must have been the placebo affect and/or some wishful thinking. you said "spot on with every focus point" i assume you never tested it or just miss spoke?

quote:
First impressions are pretty good. With my 24-70, some outer points were way off (arriving at a focus distance of 3 meters with an object 5 meters away) but now it's spot on with every focus point.

Simply too hurried. Came back from Canon, mounted what I thought was my 24-70, didn't zoom, just checked a few of the outer focus points not taking any images, thought 'hurray', posted that and ran off to a party. This morning it turned out it wasn't my 24-70 but my 135 which always has been a stellar performer... Lesson learned: to keep my big mouth shut

Mar 19, 2009 at 09:20 PM

apdieb
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p.3 #18 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Emile,

That is exactly what I got when I sent my 1D3 to Newport News, VA for the submirror "FIX". It came back and front focused like crazy. I sent it to Irvine...and they fixed the "FIX".

I just sent my 1D3 in for this latest recall yesterday....I am more than a bit worried that I'll have to resend it to Irvine again to fix the fix.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Mar 19, 2009 at 09:55 PM

Emile Gregoire
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p.3 #19 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Grant, thanks for the heads up - I got kind of frustrated along the way.
Andrew, odds are good you'll be happy, looking at the poll results. Keep up the good spirits.

Mar 19, 2009 at 10:39 PM

Emile Gregoire
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p.3 #20 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

ifxbonz wrote:
Emile Gregoire wrote:
Had to vote "same" though I've got the feeling it's actually worse. Been shooting all morning; test charts and real life situations outdoors. Center point is OK, maybe better than before. The other AF points are a mixed bag: some perform very well, others are off. Especially the corner AF points lower-left and lower-right are front-focussing heavily. It's almost as if they replaced the hardware but forgot to calibrate all AF points. It's going back next monday ;(

I can agree on all points. Mine is going back for a second look.

Andy

Just spent an afternoon checking the behaviour of a few of the AF points with my 135, micro adjusting for them separately and found my bottom-right AF point needs between -10 and -7; center is good between -5 and 0 and top-mid needs between +10 and +13. Hopelessly incompatible numbers I'm afraid. As my center point remains perfectly acceptable in a long range of adjustments, I'd hoped that I'd arrive at a solution this way, but alas.

I fear the 1D MkIV where they'll introduce micro-adjustment per AF-point

And then they'll sell special test charts against crazy prices, albeit weather-sealed, haha.

edit:

On a more serious note: am I expecting too much? At f/2.8 and MA at 0, all images on all AF points are crisply sharp, at least with my 135L. Can I expect good autofocus at apertures below f/2.8?

Mar 20, 2009 at 03:41 PM

Daan B
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p.3 #21 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Emile Gregoire wrote:
On a more serious note: am I expecting too much? At f/2.8 and MA at 0, all images on all AF points are crisply sharp, at least with my 135L. Can I expect good autofocus at apertures below f/2.8?

My 135L @ f/2 gives me sharp focus on all the AF points of my 1Ds3. The same for my 85L II. So, I would say you can expect good AF below f/2.8 with those lenses.

Question for you; are the different MA values for different AF points consistent?

My previous 1Ds3 had random mis-focus on all the AF points, including the center one. Obviously all the MA's of the world coundn't handle that. Calibration by Canon Service made things only worse. In the end Canon swapped this troubled 1ds3 for a new one, that doesn't have these AF problems. I suspect the troubled body had a hardware problem.

The only time I get less reliable AF results with the outer AF points, is when I am using wide angle lenses (near to) wide open. But in case of my 35L things are back on the right track at f/2. But that is only logical considering: how AF systems work, that wide aperture lenses aren't really sharp away from the center at wide apertures and the effects of field curvature.

Mar 20, 2009 at 05:03 PM

Emile Gregoire
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p.3 #22 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Daan, "random mis-focus", like when you shoot the same test chart five times in a row, one or two are usually off? I've got that. Had it from day one. There are good spells though - sometimes I have a day in which it's 90% accurate. Sometimes most images are off.

I'll check for consistency of the values as I described with other lenses next week. Need to have an accurate report on the situation before I can send it back in. If a third repair doesn't help, I'll have to escalate things. How did you do that, through your repair center? Through a CPS rep?

Mar 20, 2009 at 06:25 PM

Rick1000
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p.3 #23 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

I have had my MK3 back from Canon a week or so and I have time to check AF on a variety of subjects as well as micro adjusting lenses. The AF is much improved, faster lock and repeatable focus. One test of a truck coming directly toward at about 45mph produced no oof frames and one slightly soft. Much better than before. I had microadjusted my lenses some time ago but did not get repeatable critical focus so I had left all lenses at zero. After the update, I can obtain critical focus every time, (and the center point performs the same as outerpoints), although all of my lenses required between +10 and +13 adjustment. Lenses range from 30 F2, 17-40, 100 Macro, 70-200 and 300 2.8. I was pretty happy with Mk3 before but had a nagging doubt about the percentage of shots that were ok but not crisp. I am now delighted with camera. Before the update I did not realize how good the camera could be. I appreciate Canon staying with the issue and offering a fix.

Mar 20, 2009 at 07:13 PM

Daan B
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p.3 #24 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Emile Gregoire wrote:
Daan, "random mis-focus", like when you shoot the same test chart five times in a row, one or two are usually off? I've got that. Had it from day one. There are good spells though - sometimes I have a day in which it's 90% accurate. Sometimes most images are off.

I'll check for consistency of the values as I described with other lenses next week. Need to have an accurate report on the situation before I can send it back in. If a third repair doesn't help, I'll have to escalate things. How did you do that, through your repair center? Through a CPS rep?

Yeah, "random mis-focus" as in shooting the same test shots a number of times (tripod, and everything, jada, jada), and every time focus was placed differently on all focus points. On top of that there were the huge front focus issues (like a few meters) out of the blue. It drove me nuts. Canon Service calibrated it three times with no results. If anything it made matters only worse.

I am not sure anymore who made the decision (at Canon) to give me a new 1Ds3. I remember that I wrote an angry e-mail to CPS. I had a few meetings with them as well. I think they took care of the whole matter. But IIRC it is someone else at Canon that makes the final decisions in these matters. In the end I got the replacement body through ETB (Canon Service) in Roosendaal. Hope this helps...

Mar 20, 2009 at 07:31 PM

musclepics
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p.3 #25 · Your 1D Mark III after the fix

Ralph Thompson wrote:
Just got mine back. It was 7 days door to door. I'm shooting today so we'll see.
And?

Mar 21, 2009 at 08:17 PM


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