Robl114 wrote:
I am unable to achieve focus under low light conditions using the 580EX II or the 580EX. There is no problem when there is enough light to focus and the flash works correctly but as soon as it's too dark there is no assist light.
Dumb question, but you have it in One Shot focusing mode, yeah? The AF assist light will not fire in AI Servo.
Well, after purchasing a Mark 3 on the 1st June and returning it 3 weeks later for a refund, due to AF inaccuracy in AI-Servo mode, the need for a 2nd body has become too great and 2 days ago I picked up a very recently produced 1D3. Due to the terrible weather over the last days I haven't had too much time to test it but I did manage to zip out for an hour to test it. The clouds came out, the light dropped and handholding the 500/4 IS became not such a great idea but I did manage to capture a few very nice shots. I am not prepared to make a 100% statement that this one is better but initial impressions are good. This weekend I will know for sure.
Alistair Watson wrote:
Well, after purchasing a Mark 3 on the 1st June and returning it 3 weeks later for a refund, due to AF inaccuracy in AI-Servo mode, the need for a 2nd body has become too great and 2 days ago I picked up a very recently produced 1D3. Due to the terrible weather over the last days I haven't had too much time to test it but I did manage to zip out for an hour to test it. The clouds came out, the light dropped and handholding the 500/4 IS became not such a great idea but I did manage to capture a few very nice shots. I am not prepared to make a 100% statement that this one is better but initial impressions are good. This weekend I will know for sure. ...Show more →
Alistair, I hope this one works out for you, I must say I haven't heard of many bad MKIII's in the UK?
NickRno77 wrote:
Alistair, I hope this one works out for you, I must say I haven't heard of many bad MKIII's in the UK?
Nick
Hi Nick. I haven't heard of many bad Mark 3's in the UK either, according to Calumet I was the first to return one, actually this is the first piece of Canon gear I have ever returned in 15 years! Not bad going if you think of it like that I suppose. The first Mark 3 I had, had a very early date code (I forget what but I have it written down somewhere) and I got my camera out of Calumet's first batch into the UK. Just bad luck I guess but surprisingly Canon CPS were less than helpful even though I supplied them plenty of data and files on the problem.
I am 99.9% shooting in AI-Servo highest frame rate mode and the Mark 3 was giving consistently worse results than my well used, but oh so reliable 1D2N. Fingers crossed for this one!
Update, sort of...just got back the Mk3 from Canon Service. FYI, the S/N on this body is: 512074
The Service Details say: "We have examined the product according to your request and upon close inspection the exact cause could not be identified but it was found to be front focusing. Electrical adjustments were carried out on the internal component. Other electrical adjustments and inspection and cleaning were carried out. Update firmware. AF-ADJ (AI servro mode-No AF lock)."
I'm not sure what some of this means and will call them tomorrow, as well as test it out. Hopefully the AF will track better, which was the goal! More later after using it a while.
Shane Canfield wrote:
Update, sort of...just got back the Mk3 from Canon Service. FYI, the S/N on this body is: 512074
The Service Details say: "We have examined the product according to your request and upon close inspection the exact cause could not be identified but it was found to be front focusing. Electrical adjustments were carried out on the internal component. Other electrical adjustments and inspection and cleaning were carried out. Update firmware. AF-ADJ (AI servro mode-No AF lock)."
I'm not sure what some of this means and will call them tomorrow, as well as test it out. Hopefully the AF will track better, which was the goal! More later after using it a while....Show more →
Thanks for the feedback. It may look like they have adjusted & updated the code for AF-ADJ subsystem ... may be ...
Having spent hours trying to resolve this problem and once I saw how easy the mistake was to make I read the manual from cover to cover (my usual rule is - when all else fails, read the instructions) to see if, at any point, Canon actually says that the AF assist will not work in A1 Servo Mode. The manual does NOT address this at all.
I then emailed Canon and the help desk confirmed that there is no warning about using A1 servo setting and AF assist in the manual. This seems to be something Canon missed when they wrote the manual and is something they should address in the future..
Robl114 wrote:
Having spent hours trying to resolve this problem and once I saw how easy the mistake was to make I read the manual from cover to cover (my usual rule is - when all else fails, read the instructions) to see if, at any point, Canon actually says that the AF assist will not work in A1 Servo Mode. The manual does NOT address this at all.
I then emailed Canon and the help desk confirmed that there is no warning about using A1 servo setting and AF assist in the manual. This seems to be something Canon missed when they wrote the manual and is something they should address in the future.. ...Show more →
I was noticing that the engineer who wrote the Custom Functions addendum that Rob Galbraith posted on his site mentioned that about the AF Assist light CF. That it doesn't fire in AI Servo. I guess that's official, but they need to put in on BeBit or the regionalized Canon websites under Documents or maybe even FAQ.
I took my 1D Mark III in to the Canon Irvine facility last week. The installed the new firmware upgrade and calibrated my 100-400 lens with the camera and it's working like a charm.
I will be going to Huntington Beach sometime this weekend for the US Open Surfing Championship and will post some images of that.
I went down to Dana Point Harbor a couple of days ago in the evening and got some good sequence shots in Al Servo of the birds flying around.
Here is I took handheld in my friend's bird shop the other day. You can blow them up to "original" if you like. Exif info is there. Notice how slow the shutter speed is.
Note that when shooting birds, I do a focus on the eye, lock the focus and then recompose it. When I recomposed the shot, the focus info from Zoombrowzer shows the newer location even though the focus is locked on the eye. This is the Unprocessed image with the Zoombrowser focus info:
I know someone is bound to ask, so why not me... lets see some shots of the flying birds..
deedee4re wrote:
I took my 1D Mark III in to the Canon Irvine facility last week. The installed the new firmware upgrade and calibrated my 100-400 lens with the camera and it's working like a charm.
I will be going to Huntington Beach sometime this weekend for the US Open Surfing Championship and will post some images of that.
I went down to Dana Point Harbor a couple of days ago in the evening and got some good sequence shots in Al Servo of the birds flying around.
Here is I took handheld in my friend's bird shop the other day. You can blow them up to "original" if you like. Exif info is there. Notice how slow the shutter speed is.
Note that when shooting birds, I do a focus on the eye, lock the focus and then recompose it. When I recomposed the shot, the focus info from Zoombrowzer shows the newer location even though the focus is locked on the eye. This is the Unprocessed image with the Zoombrowser focus info:
This is my last update on this thread as I am please to report that the firmware and service has eliminated the severe background focus problem I experienced shooting a Rugby tourney. It is now spot on and has as high an in focus rate as my DIIN, or higher. This was not a minor issue for me as RG reports. It took my keeper rate way down to about 50%. Huge problem fixed. Also, I talked to the factory service folks to get the skinny on the "service" performed. They found "debris" sandwiched between my AF sensor and the glass cover plate. No wonder the AF seemed problematic, eh? Apparently there were some manufacturing or QA/QC issues (my words not theirs). In conclusion. My 501xxx performs at least as good as my DIIN and I can now only blame the pilot. And I can not say I have all the custom functions dialed in correctly for every event I shoot. It will be a learning curve. But what I am now certain of is this is truly an amazing camera. I hope one day my capabilities can do it justice.
graybeard wrote:
This is my last update on this thread as I am please to report that the firmware and service has eliminated the severe background focus problem I experienced shooting a Rugby tourney. It is now spot on and has as high an in focus rate as my DIIN, or higher. This was not a minor issue for me as RG reports. It took my keeper rate way down to about 50%. Huge problem fixed. Also, I talked to the factory service folks to get the skinny on the "service" performed. They found "debris" sandwiched between my AF sensor and the glass cover plate. No wonder the AF seemed problematic, eh? Apparently there were some manufacturing or QA/QC issues (my words not theirs). In conclusion. My 501xxx performs at least as good as my DIIN and I can now only blame the pilot. And I can not say I have all the custom functions dialed in correctly for every event I shoot. It will be a learning curve. But what I am now certain of is this is truly an amazing camera. I hope one day my capabilities can do it justice....Show more →
On the Bird images, the ISO was too high and it was too dark and I messed up the exposure, so without having to edit each one in raw.
I asked my husband to run toward me today in the heat (89 degrees) for these 20 images in a series.
NO processing. I took them in jpegs and all I did was resize them in CS3, upload them to pbase and here they are. I am posting a link because my husband doesn't have a shirt on - Warning - topless man. I don't know if I need to do that, but that's your warning. I don't want to offend anyone.
You can set this up as a slide show if you like. Click on the first image and to the upper right hit "next" to get the next image.
This weekend I will know for sure.
I don't know if I need to do that, but that's your warning. I don't want to offend anyone.