Emile Gregoire wrote: Daan B 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.
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.
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.
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.
Emile Gregoire wrote:
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.
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.
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.
ifxbonz wrote:
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?
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.
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?
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.
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?...Show more →
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...
Yes, we're quite curious as to what you think of the fix. My 1Ds3 went to Canon last Friday and I'm eagerly awaiting its return with crossed fingers...
Daan B wrote:
Question for you; are the different MA values for different AF points consistent?
Just finished testing and yes, they're more or less consistent, with the caveat that each and every point misfires around 25% of the time (some more, some less). But I can more or less repeat the results, no matter which lens I use. Top-middle needs centre-point MA plus 12; bottom-right needs centre-point MA minus 8. Forgive me for not testing each and every single point with three different lenses but I can guess they behave in the same way. Camera's going back tomorrow morning.
Oh, to top things off, I have encountered Err06 and Err70. Err99 didn't rear its ugly head though. Celebrate the good news
Can't change my vote in this poll but add one for 'worse' instead of 'equal'.
Emile Gregoire wrote:
Just finished testing and yes, they're more or less consistent, with the caveat that each and every point misfires around 25% of the time (some more, some less). But I can more or less repeat the results, no matter which lens I use. Top-middle needs centre-point MA plus 12; bottom-right needs centre-point MA minus 8. Forgive me for not testing each and every single point with three different lenses but I can guess they behave in the same way. Camera's going back tomorrow morning.
Oh, to top things off, I have encountered Err06 and Err70. Err99 didn't rear its ugly head though. Celebrate the good news
Can't change my vote in this poll but add one for 'worse' instead of 'equal'....Show more →
I find 25% off (on average) in a testing situation a little too much to call it consistent. But that is just me. It is also weird that one point needs +12 and another -8. Why does it do that?
I suspect you have installed the new firmware? No more err99, but just other err's instead. On the bright side, it should give Canon Service a better clue as to what is going on with your cam. I hope they can work things out for you. If not, I strongly recommend to persuade Canon to swap your 1D3 for another.
For another more time the camera should remain to the first build as it was before the initiall fix if the problem was small. Keep that in mind dear fellows next time you read such anounchments. I have almost decided for another more time not to send my camera in.
