After reading post after post here and other forums and constantly using my Mark 3 . My unfortunate conclusion is this is a great camera but it is not consistent with its focusing. I bet as another poster showed shooting a ruler at a focusing point with mirror lock-up and cable release on a good tripod it will not focus 90% of images taken, I haven't tried this yet but I get these results out in the field enough that I know something is not right I keep justifying other elements , as I get enough keepers I don't really think about it but I am in the process of conducting some controlled shoots as I need to get enough faith in this camera for future events or need to know there is a problem and shoot with a different style as its to late to send back for a money refund even than there are allot of great attributes it would be a hard choice, surely Canon can come up with a solid fix, but until I know more Later CC
did a quick test...not sure if it's accurate but looked good to me.
i got my girlfriend to drive my car past me at about 25-30km/h
AI SERVO CENTER FOCUS
Seemed to track well. I focused and followed the liscence plate.
AI SERVO MULTI FOCUS
Seemed to track well also, not as many keepers but still acceptable.
However….temperature wise, it was about 27 degrees celcius…so that may not mean anything at all..are people only having focusing issues in hotter temperatures? I know that is the case for RG’s report.
Not sure if my “test” is accurate enough but based on what I got, I think I should be happy with the results.
However, now I am getting an ERR99 a lot. I have shot 6000 shots already and it just started yesterday.
Going to post this problem someplace else though.
Brooke Clyde wrote:
Is that a Mk 3 serial number? The one I was given for the unit at the local shop is 8 digits: 2152xxxx. If it's not the serial number, what did they give me?
That's the serial number off of the warranty card. Knock off the 21 at the front and you'll get the # off of the body like everyone else is using.
FYI, according to Charles Glatzer (posting over on NSN), who says he can't say anything more, there's a firmware release scheduled for the 18th (p. 48 of that long thread on MKIII focusing issues.)
Well the clouds finally cleared, the rain stopped and the sun finally shone through this afternoon. So I decided to do one more test, birds/ducks in flight test to see if my Mark III has the focus issue that is extensively discussed in some forums. I have already done the running test and the Ai Servo in that test was perfect in my judgement. So out I went with my MKIII and 500mm lens hoping to spend an hour or so. 3 hours later I am back with a sore left arm from hand holding the 500mm. Boy I need to go to the gym to strenghten my muscles.
I hope this will dispel some of the concerns of my fellow photographers and help you make your decision easier if you are considering getting this camera. Only one thing was lacking in my test, hot weather.
Camera: 1dkIII
Lens: 500mm
Focus: AI Servo, 45 focus point (did not use any custom functions)
AV mode
ISO 400
Shutter Speed; varied between 1/1250 sec and 1/2000 sec
Perry
Here are 18 continuous pictures. I have cropped the pictures to fill frame and there are NO SHARPENING or processing in any of them.
The first 4 pitures to the series has fuzzy background and the camera was still able to keep the bird in focus. Some people have indicated that they have difficulty in tracking with busy background and some say they have difficulty in tracking in clear blue sky. I have both situations here and focus still stay on track. I understand Ducks in flight are difficult to track as this is my first attempt in taking ducks in flight. Every single shot here is in focus. I have also done various other BIF series and all with the same success
My MarkIII is back from CPS--see my posts on pages 10 and 24 of this thread for details on my focussing problems.
Of note is that the service rep. apologized for telling me a part needed to be replaced on my MKIII. He misunderstood the service tech who in fact needed a new part for testing and adjusting the MKIII. They did confirm the wild and erratic shifting from significant front and back focussing. I was skeptical they could adjust this out. But they assured me that the camera normally has an acceptable range of variation and threre is an adjustment to bring cameras like mine back into acceptable limits.
The short answer is that they were right. Repeating my focussing chart and ruler tests showed focus to be spot on and rock solid. Hooray! Well, almost.
Repeating the bikerider tests showed a marked improvement from almost zero in focus frames to somwhere around 70-80% in focus frames. Much better than the previous MKIII results, but much worse with this fairly slow and steady subject than my previous MKII would have done.But static subjects in the field are superbly focussed now.
Soooo-- seems I had a Mark III that needed adjusting to rise to the substandard active subject performance experienced by many others.
I'm leaving this morning for two weeks on Isle Royale. Hopefully the rumored coming firmware fix will be available when I return, taking this otherwise stunningly superb camera to the focussing level Canon has promised.
Rob Eckert wrote:
Isn't this funny. A few years ago people complained that the Hot Filter glass in front of the sensor was creating sharpness issues. Companies responded by reducing the strength or eliminating the hot filter altogether. Color shift issues have become a problem. Highlight ghosting on some cameras. Now a possible focus issue with the MkIII. That is the reason I just hold on to my MkII. Great camera and I know its quirks. I can work around them. I hate how many companies today practically use the public as "Beta Testers". Camera companies are not the only ones doing this.
Rob Eckert...Show more →
Yep, sure am glad Microsoft doesn't make camera's.
A friend of mine is in a trip in the far east. He claims to have been talking to a Canon executive in Tokyo and another Canon executive in Bangkok. He claims that both told him (separately of course) the same thing: Cameras with serial number 505XXXXX and up are free of this problem.
Currently I have no more info. If I have more, I'll post it here.
