I find the VF illumination way too bright and the af points are a pain in the butt to use.
I wish when I'm manually selecting the af point there was a way of seeing that point in red as it is on the 5dm2! In darker environments I can't even see where my focus point is unless I turn the viewfinder illumination on which lits up the whole dang screen and people looking directly at the lens see a red circle like a traffic light!

Even the focus confirmation would be so much better with the af point turning red in one shot mode... Why did Canon had to "improve" it this way?

Anyone close enough to see an AF point through the fat end of your lens is pretty darned close. VF illumination is there for this very reason. Turn it on and let it do its job.

The AF system has a lot more options, which are confusing folks, but if you dig deep enough you can set it to act exactly as your old 5DII did.

they dont see the af point...they see the big circle of the lens completely lit up by the viewfinder, obviously you didn't use it or have had anyone looking at while shooting with VF illumination on. There is NO WAY to set the af points to lit up in red when I select them where they have a "tiny spill" read area around the single selected point ala 5dm2.

Sounds like a very serious problem then. Are you going to return the camera? I know I would.

I gotta find out if its supposed to be like that or not first. You confirming you can get the af points to show *exactly* like with the M2?

with the VF illumination on don't you see areas of red light coming from left and right edges of screen? Not only the af points are red, but these areas are as well and they are distracting...

Interesting... I had to use the Mk2 and 3 side by side just to see what differs!
It's very dark both outdoors and indoors... my Mk3 took a long time to lock but finally gave confirmation both with beep and flashing focus point red. With my Mk2, the focus point turns red as I half press the shutter button and never aquires focus.

Not sure how to make the Mk3 behave like the Mk2 i.e. having the foucs point turn red prior acheiving focus lock

My 1D Mk2 differs too, it shows up the red focus point when pressing shutter, and flash brighter red once confirmation is acheived. Stays red this for a few seconds.

I've had my 5D3 for 3 days now and have read the manual and played with settings for hours upon hours.

I really think the way focus points are displayed/illuminated on the 5D3 is broken.

Problem (low light): In low light, the AF point is not visible. It is displayed as a dark square outline in the viewfinder, but in a fairly dark scene, it is impossible to detect. It does not illuminate until it achieves focus on something, and you don't know where on the subject to aim the focus point because you can't see it!

Problem (bright):In bright busy scenes, it can be difficult to see the focus point unless the scene is fairly uniform. The focus point does not blink or illuminate in any way until it achieves focus, so it can be hard to spot until it locks on something. It is easier to see the AF point in bright scenes compared to dark ones, but blinking the AF point when AF starts would be a huge help.

My Settings:
AF Point Display During Focus - Selected (constant) [tried all settings]
VF Display Illumination - Auto [tried all settings]

I submitted a support request to Canon with my issue/concerns.

The reply I received from Canon support:

Dear [Mtavel]:

Thank you for contacting Canon product support. We value you as a Canon customer and appreciate the opportunity to assist you. I am sorry that you are having difficulty seeing the AF points on the EOS 5D Mark III in certain situations.

Switching the VF Display Illumination to ON would be the recommendation so that when focus is achieved, the AF points and grid would illuminate in red. But you have already tried this setting and it is still not visible enough. Unfortunately, there is no setting on the camera that will make the selected AF point blink before autofocus begins. I will submit your feedback to the proper parties so that our engineers can review this problem. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance with your EOS 5D Mark III. Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Rxxxxx
Technical Support Representative

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I replied to clarify that I'm not looking for the focus points to be on all the time or 'before autofocus begins', but some indication of the selected focus point when autofocus starts would be helpful in low light situations (or challenging daylight scenes).

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Their final reply:

Dear [mtavel]:

We appreciate your continued correspondence regarding AF point visibility on your EOS 5D Mark III.

The autofocus points will only illuminate AFTER focus is achieved. I can understand where it would be difficult to see the AF points in low light. Hopefully, with enough feedback from our customers, our engineers may be able to develop some fix or implement an option to better illuminate the AF points prior autofocus is locked.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance with your EOS 5D Mark III. Thank you for choosing Canon.

Sincerely,

Rxxxxx
Technical Support Representative

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I would encourage anyone else that finds this frustrating contact Canon support to provide feedback.

I'm curious to see how you set it cause mine dont even illuminate when focus is achieved...regardless
I would love to have it shown in red before focus is locked...where do you submit feedback to Canon at?

I've added this to my thread as #10 as I also noticed the "red light in the lens" and so did my clients with a comment " what's wrong with your lens, it's on fire!".

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1099335/

pompo wrote:
I'm curious to see how you set it cause mine dont even illuminate when focus is achieved...regardless
I would love to have it shown in red before focus is locked...where do you submit feedback to Canon at?



Go to menu -->AF and make sure VF display illumination is ON and and AF point display during focus is not disabled. If that doesn't fix it, then your camera is broken. But as it was mentioned before, the red confirmation box is not visible all the time. In certain conditions it's not visible(eg. when it's bright)

yeah I found a way if enabling the af confirmation in red but the other points go away (!) , or otherwise if I want to see all points AND the single one I'm using with focus confirmation in red then they ALL lit up in red once focus locks...^^$421`1!~~~~~~!!!

Why can't the freaking cam have all points that you choose to use (like it was on the m2) and the one you using red while move it around and then red once its focused! lol

Does anyone have an idea is the fix for the AF illumination problem firmware or hardware?
Seems something that can be addressed with a firmware update?

Mike Mahoney wrote:
Does anyone have an idea is the fix for the AF illumination problem firmware or hardware?
Seems something that can be addressed with a firmware update?

If you focus on say yin and yang sign where half of the AF square will be on white and half on black, you'll only see the red confirmation light on the black portion of the sign, so it's my guess it's hardware. Again, it's only a guess

Just trying to keep things light



I'm inclined to think it is a firmware issue. If the selected focus point would just blink when I start AF, I could see where it is to make sure I compose properly. While it still may be difficult to see in some circumstances.... it is currently impossible to see in low light scenes.

Hahaha ^ ^ That's awesome!

As I was playing with my camera in a totally dark room I realized if you push the AF selection, all focus points lights up and you can easily see which one you have selected. Press the shutter, they go away and you get the normal red light at focus confirmation.

Of course the behaviour of how to lit the focus points are controlled by firmware.... if enough complaints I guess they may do something about it.

definitely sounds like Canon needs to implement a firmware fix of this issue.. 5d3 seems like a great camera, but not being able to quickly/easily see which focus points I'm working with in the middle of action would be a nonstarter for me..

DmitriM wrote:
10. Subjects who are being photographed see the lens "light up in red" every time the focus is achieved. While not a major issue, it's still is if you are using camera for journalism and just un -needed feature. I would guess that it won't be a camera of choice for journalists in war zones where you'd be the target. You can turn this "feature" off,but if you forget it- you are dead...

=P had to quote this from the other thread haha

Mike Mahoney wrote:
Does anyone have an idea is the fix for the AF illumination problem firmware or hardware?
Seems something that can be addressed with a firmware update?

The last cameras to get this right, the 1Ds3 / 1D4, had different viewfinder hardware. I don't think this is a software fix. I am equally frustrated with this, regardless deepblue's sarcasm.

WebDog wrote:
As I was playing with my camera in a totally dark room I realized if you push the AF selection, all focus points lights up and you can easily see which one you have selected. Press the shutter, they go away and you get the normal red light at focus confirmation.

Only if you use that focus point indication mode. If you use "show all", to be able to wade thru them all with the joystick, you have all of them flash, because the flash is an all or nothing thing. Add the grid display to it and it makes for quite some fireworks.