p.6 #1 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
AGeoJO wrote:
I believe this needs to be clarified. It is not hidden, the active AF box is there but not lit. I don't see any difference in this case with the 5D Mark II in that case. Actually, it is a tad worse with the 5D Mark II. You don't see which AF point is active although since we are mostly relying on the center AF point, you just use the center AF point as the starting AF point. In the 5D Mark III, you can clearly see the big box of the active point, while the non-active points are represented as small boxes or you can turn them off. I hope this helps.
Except that you can't see the black boxes (large or small) when the background is dark (low light scene) or in some contrasty daylight scenes. Flashing the selected AF point goes a long way to make it clearly and quickly visible. Many other Canon bodies have it, in such a great low light camera as the Mark III, it's even more critical. An object in jungle camo in the jungle would be considered hidden. A black box on a dark background.... looks hidden.
p.6 #2 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
mtavel wrote:
Except that you can't see the black boxes (large or small) when the background is dark (low light scene) or in some contrasty daylight scenes. Flashing the selected AF point goes a long way to make it clearly and quickly visible. Many other Canon bodies have it, in such a great low light camera as the Mark III, it's even more critical. An object in jungle camo in the jungle would be considered hidden. A black box on a dark background.... looks hidden.
Yes Canon should and I think can fix this if enough people tell them to. It should be a simple firmware fix. They won't be able to ever give us the red color in bright light though as this is a physical difference in the way the red is produced.
p.6 #3 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
AGeoJO wrote:
I believe this needs to be clarified. It is not hidden, the active AF box is there but not lit. I don't see any difference in this case with the 5D Mark II in that case. Actually, it is a tad worse with the 5D Mark II. You don't see which AF point is active although since we are mostly relying on the center AF point, you just use the center AF point as the starting AF point. In the 5D Mark III, you can clearly see the big box of the active point, while the non-active points are represented as small boxes or you can turn them off. I hope this helps.
Joshua, as I understand it the box is there, but not necessarily discernible in all lighting conditions, specifically low light with a dark VF. In addition to this, you would need to remember exactly which AF point you have selected without a flashing reminder, as seen in older bodies. Am I understanding this correctly?
p.6 #5 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
It's there (black), if you enable it, but it never flashes red (unless you move the selected point). The red flash is for focus lock, but servo never locks.
p.6 #6 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
mtavel wrote:
Except that you can't see the black boxes (large or small) when the background is dark (low light scene) or in some contrasty daylight scenes. Flashing the selected AF point goes a long way to make it clearly and quickly visible. Many other Canon bodies have it, in such a great low light camera as the Mark III, it's even more critical. An object in jungle camo in the jungle would be considered hidden. A black box on a dark background.... looks hidden.
I tried that out last night and I still can clearly see that box under low light conditions. I can see Henry's (hrow) point about not being able to see that clearly under hectic conditions during a dark wedding party/reception. I would not try to AF on even surface that doesn't have any or low contrast. I would look for more contrasty area, at the boundary between the pants and shirt, for example. However, that is something that you have to decide whether the camera works for you or not under those conditions. But again, the same goes for the 5D Mark II.
Sorry, but your assertion that you cannot see the AF point during the day is completely off base. In my point, it couldn't be more visible. I don't what else I can add to that.
p.6 #7 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
M Vers wrote:
Joshua, as I understand it the box is there, but not necessarily discernible in all lighting conditions, specifically low light with a dark VF. In addition to this, you would need to remember exactly which AF point you have selected without a flashing reminder, as seen in older bodies. Am I understanding this correctly?
But it is the same as in the case of the 5D Mark II, right?
With the 5D Mark III, you can use the joystick to make it lit. The cluster of the AF points around the center is so dense, unlike that of the 5D Mark II , that the next, near-by AF point, which is still a cross-type can be use, if there is a need to. Again, I have not encountered this as an issue and I am just trying to figure something out. It may work or not under real life, hectic conditions.
With that said, I agree that some folks want the active AF point to be lit at the begining of an AF process and it could be modified in a new firmware.
p.6 #8 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
There are a lot of people coming to the 5D mk III from different bodies that had this feature, where the AF point blinks at the beginning of an autofocus operation to make it more visible.
A lot of people found this feature useful, and it helped them more quickly land focus on their target subject.
I don't think anyone is arguing that flashing the selected AF point would make it more visible in more lighting scenarios than just leaving the box as an unlit outline.
I'm not arguing that the AF on the 5D III is unusable. I'm just saying that there are features that exist on several other Canon bodies that make the AF more usable, that do not exist on the 5D mark III. This feature is even more sorely missed in extreme low light scenarios, where the MK III can still very adeptly lock focus.
I can't understand any continued argument that this feature should not also exist on this camera.
BTW: 5D MK II also flashed the selected point at AF start.
p.6 #9 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
AGeoJO wrote:
But it is the same as in the case of the 5D Mark II, right?
With the 5D Mark III, you can use the joystick to make it lit. The cluster of the AF points around the center is so dense, unlike that of the 5D Mark II , that the next, near-by AF point, which is still a cross-type can be use, if there is a need to. Again, I have not encountered this as an issue and I am just trying to figure something out. It may work or not under real life, hectic conditions.
With that said, I agree that some folks want the active AF point to be lit at the begining of an AF process and it could be modified in a new firmware. ...Show more →
Well, to be honest, in the instances I've used the 5DII (mostly daylight) I didn't really notice (I thought it blinked upon activation). I primarily use my 1DIII, 5D for event/general stuff and, for some studio work, 40Ds...that is the type of AF operation I am most familiar with. Either way I'm going to wait for my 5DIII to arrive before I jump to conclusions, but it does seem a bit odd for Canon to discontinue the older AF illumination operation.
p.6 #10 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
arbitrage wrote:
Yes Canon should and I think can fix this if enough people tell them to. It should be a simple firmware fix. They won't be able to ever give us the red color in bright light though as this is a physical difference in the way the red is produced.
That's it in a nutshell. A blink of the selected point would be useful, but we're not going to get it lit in red the way the older bodies work.
p.6 #11 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
mtavel wrote:
BTW: 5D MK II also flashed the selected point at AF start.
Yes, and I did say that last night, correcting my previous point, maybe on the previous page of this or was that even on the page before that? This thread moves at a fast speed .
p.6 #12 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
AGeoJO wrote:
I got the hunch that the complaints are from 5D Mark II users and not from users that are used to that system coming from the 7D. That's basically how the 7D works and as far as I know, 7D users didn't have any issues with that overlay system. Maybe I am wrong but not to my knowledge at least. I am used to this setup and I have used it for over a year on my 7D and I didn't see that as an issue, let alone that the display of the camera is broken, like you indicated . Come to think of it, the way it works on the 5D Mark III came naturally to me.
Just push the AF setting/selection button and your AF buttons will be displayed and you can easily tell which one is active for you to put that on your target. You push either the AF back button or the shutter button to focus, if there is enough light or contrast for the camera to focus, then it will. Otherwise, you are out of luck, it is too dark or a blank wall doesn't have enough contrast. You can try to get the AF assist of a flash in that case.
True, the ilumination of the AF point can be hard to see but there are other ways for you to get that. But the AF point itself very clearly visible for you to just put that on your target. You can confirm the AF by either the audible beep or by the round AF confirmation light on the bottom. ...Show more →
p.6 #13 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
So even the black 5D3 AF points are an overlay? Are they visible when the cam is turned off?
On the 5D2 the AF points are always visible, even with the camera turned off so they must be etched on the focus screen or something. And with the 1 series it's an overlay but red (or bright red depending on your preference)
p.6 #15 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
Mike Mahoney wrote:
So even the black 5D3 AF points are an overlay? Are they visible when the cam is turned off? No they are not visible when the camera is off. The LCD has to be active.
On the 5D2 the AF points are always visible, even with the camera turned off so they must be etched on the focus screen or something. And with the 1 series it's an overlay but red (or bright red depending on your preference)
They are not etched or projected. The LCD is in the optical path and nothing will show when the LCD is not active. However, the screen will darken somewhat when there is no power at all (like when you remove the main battery).
p.6 #16 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
mtavel wrote:
There are a lot of people coming to the 5D mk III from different bodies that had this feature, where the AF point blinks at the beginning of an autofocus operation to make it more visible.
A lot of people found this feature useful, and it helped them more quickly land focus on their target subject.
I don't think anyone is arguing that flashing the selected AF point would make it more visible in more lighting scenarios than just leaving the box as an unlit outline.
I'm not arguing that the AF on the 5D III is unusable. I'm just saying that there are features that exist on several other Canon bodies that make the AF more usable, that do not exist on the 5D mark III. This feature is even more sorely missed in extreme low light scenarios, where the MK III can still very adeptly lock focus.
I can't understand any continued argument that this feature should not also exist on this camera.
BTW: 5D MK II also flashed the selected point at AF start....Show more →
try to frame a backlight area such as window blind from the inside of your house , with the 5d m2 the red focus point (while I move it or once confirmed focus), is brightly lit in red and showing just fine. On the mIII you can barely see any red at all. This is a joke of a toy viewfinder in a $3500 camera!
p.6 #17 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
There must be a reason for the black AF point overlay? .. red is common and of course highly efficient but if Canon changed the color to black it must be to achieve some benefit?
p.6 #18 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
It's an LCD. You have your choice of basic black or black. And if you don't like that , you can always take black. Technically, you could have shades of grey, but what would be the point of that?
p.6 #19 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
Mike Mahoney wrote:
There must be a reason for the black AF point overlay? .. red is common and of course highly efficient but if Canon changed the color to black it must be to achieve some benefit?
Canon didn't change it from red to black, what I'm saying is the viewfinder illumination when framing a strong backlit subject does not show ( or very barely show) any difference from the standard black to the "active " red. It does turn red and it shows in average light, it's just that it doesn't get bright enough to be noticeable in high contrast situations.
p.6 #20 · 5d M III Viewfinder illumination and af points!
pompo wrote:
try to frame a backlight area such as window blind from the inside of your house , with the 5d m2 the red focus point (while I move it or once confirmed focus), is brightly lit in red and showing just fine. On the mIII you can barely see any red at all. This is a joke of a toy viewfinder in a $3500 camera!
I don't want to sound like a broken record here but so be it . It seems like you have either a defective body or it wasn't set properly. I am not sure what the problem is. The AF point is clearly visible on mine, at least.
, that the next, near-by AF point, which is still a cross-type can be use, if there is a need to. Again, I have not encountered this as an issue and I am just trying to figure something out. It may work or not under real life, hectic conditions. 
Technically, you could have shades of grey, but what would be the point of that?