Look, I'm going to leave this entire SLR channel because I have no idea what your motives are, and have no intention of working it out with you, you won't hear anything from me in any string again in SLR, wow, you are really doing some strange things here and I have no idea why, cheers
I merely merged a thread about focus issues into the 'Master' thread for focus issues; it was redundant. It had nothing to do with you, but I see you've gotten another 7+ posts to your name in a mere 4 minutes. Well done.
Here was my email to Fred, but it didn't go through:
I'm sick of your games Jeff
Fred, Jeff in the SLR channel is moving me about from one string to another and I have no idea how or why, but I vowed never to post again in the Mark III channel because of the chat that I had heard over the months, I disagree with the general chat because I am completely pleased with my own Mark III, and became exhausted at chatting with the regulars there. I promised Jeff that I would never return to that string and then tonight, after chatting with him in another string, I found myself ensconsed in the very Mark III string that I vowed never to return to again, and a week ago a similar thing happened with photos where jeff removed a photograph I was chatting about because apparently it was "too large" for the string. It was less than 1000 pixels. My complaint with this guy is that he "does" things without warning. I was completely "amazed" to see my comments in a string that I vowed not to comment in ever again, and it was Jeff who transferred my comments to that string.
Jeff, you have too many knobs to press and not enough ability to moderate properly, You have turned me inside out like a clown and I'm still spinning at your seeming examination of my intentions. I'm completely amazed at your ability to do what you wish without even warning others that you are changing things around. You must be a freaking communist.
well I will tell you this. I picked up my second body one week ago and it only took one soccer game last weekend to find it had the same problem. No normcar latest does not mean greatest. It is hit and miss. Yours happens to work, you got lucky enjoy but does not help me or tons of others.
5hit, it is 08:15 and I just read all this! Enough indeed!
Some people really need to learn to chill out!
Sure, the 1D Mark 3 isn't perfect in AI-Servo for what I shoot and like everyone on here I am eagerly awaiting a modified firmware in the hope that it will improve things because in every other way I could not be happier with this camera.
Guys.. This is a FORUM not a CHAT ROOM. What is up with all the 1 sentence messages. I would suggest taking a breath, get your thoughts together and post one or 2 paragraphs instead.
9:15 in the AM! 3am over there? You must be one of those hard core FM'ers I keep hearing about!
This weekend is going to be a busy one, shooting a rugby match on Saturday and then a hillclimb on Sunday. I am planning to shoot my 1D2N as a primary, the Mark 3 going along just for backup.
Alistair Watson wrote:
I am planning to shoot my 1D2N as a primary, the Mark 3 going along just for backup.
That's the kind of comment Canon Inc. needs to hear. For many of us, the 1D Mark III is a lemon where autofocus is concerned, inferior to previous models due to inconsistency and the inability of photographers to rely on the camera to do the job for which it is designed.
Sure the rest of the camera is amazing but with broken AF it's all for nothing. If the forthcoming firmware release does not put these issue to rest, I for one will be approaching this issue from a far more anti-Canon standpoint.
Kier wrote:
Sure the rest of the camera is amazing but with broken AF it's all for nothing. If the forthcoming firmware release does not put these issue to rest, I for one will be approaching this issue from a far more anti-Canon standpoint.
Totally agree Kier.
If the new firmware is not a resolution of the issues Canon need to be made to comment on the issues.
There is no doubt in my mind that the camera has issues although it is not present in all conditions. Light is a big factor here I think not temperature.
Canon cannot bury their heads any further when people are buying a camera which costs such a large amount of money and is billed as the ultimate action camera.
People I think have been very patient to this point but I do not see it continuing.
Normally companies provide better customer service to people who buy their flagship models such as in the motor industry etc but it does not seem to be the case with Canon.
One of our members was kind enough to send me his EOS 1D3 that he has been struggling with AF on even with the firmware updates. This camera has 1.1.0.
After taking the profiling shots for ACR, I took it outdoors with a 300 f/2.8 to see what the AF issue is all about. Fortunately it's a partially cloudy afternoon so I could test in both conditions without having to wait very long. It was immediately obvious what the camera is doing to my eyes. In AI Servo, if you just move the camera around, focus travel is very fast but I did notice a bit of settling time with an initial overshoot followed by a settling over the next quarter second or so that is noticeably more pronounced with this camera than the 1D2n I was using right next to it. Then taking it to moving objects this settling time became a big issue. What the camera is doing is overreacting to movement. With a subject coming toward the camera, the predictive tracking is overcompensating resulting in the camera focus being in front of the subject. Then it realizes it missed and tries to catch up but by then the subject has moved resulting in a feedback loop that only leaves shots critically focused when the lens happens to be traveling through the plane of critical focus - about half the shots are within the DOF at f/5.6 using this method. It's like the camera thinks a 20MPH subject is going 30MPH, then realizes it isn't and thinks it's only going 15. It's not a focus calibration issue because in one shot or when the subject is still, once the focus settles, it is right on the money with no calibration required for my lens. This is very repeatable and is definitely more pronounced when the sun is out compared to when the sun is behind clouds. The 1D2n had no problem with this test using the identical lens and even though focus movement is a bit slower on this body, it is more accurate by the time the shutter actually drops. Some may question my ability to see this difference but to me its apparent. I can also see a CRT monitor's screen turning on and off at 70Hz refresh like someone is using a strobe light - I am extremely sensitive to this (it is one of my migraine triggers). Note that the misfocus is not gross but certainly enough to cause trouble for serious action shooting.
This reignites, in my mind, my initial theory, that in the servo or AF loop, there is an underdamped circuit - in other words an RC time constant that is just slightly off which could easily be the result of a component that is not speced correctly or a component tolerance that is speced to wide. This is what such a system would do (note I have spent a considerable part of my life dealing with RC circuits). I'm going to play with it some more but that is my one afternoon conclusion.
_________________
E.J. Peiker
Sr. Technical Editor, NatureScapes.net
www.EJPhoto.com ...Show more →
Here's another opinion regarding the AF problem
Edited by Jeff on Sep 21, 2007 at 07:32 AM GMT (Reason: gave quoted text proper html tag)
Thanks for the post! It seems very similar to what a number of people have mentioned here, just in a different way, it certainly does make sense to me though and I can identify with what he has written.
