p.36 #1 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Jeff, so you are still seeing focal plane issues? That is worrying? Can you post an example?
I guess I haven't shot anything where I would have noticed really but I need to contact Canon this week to arrange a calibration of my 1D3 and 400/2.8 since it is front focussing a bit.
p.36 #2 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Alistair Watson wrote:
Jeff, so you are still seeing focal plane issues? That is worrying? Can you post an example?
Not quite ready to do that, yet. I need to get my lenses calibrated as well as they can be before I'll draw any conclusions about these 'secondary' effects. Still need to work through it a bit more...
p.36 #3 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Tom_W wrote:
I experienced similar with my 5D at an air show last September. I was shooting with the 300/2.8 IS and 1.4X, but I left the battery grip at home. By the end of the show, it was starting to hunt and miss focus. Turns out that the battery was way down, probably due to driving the IS over long periods of time as I tracked the moving aircraft with the shutter button halfway down.
I usually put the grip on for long shoots, and this confirms my need to do so. Obviously, the grip/no grip issue doesn't exist for the 1D3, but I can see a low battery having an effect on performance....Show more →
Thanks for your post! I asked a friend of mine who's rather thrifty when it comes to electrical engineering and he said that companies can manufacture a battery to operate in certain ways. He said that the battery may be programmed to output a lesser voltage once it reaches a certain level of charge. He said that sometimes companies will make the battery output at full voltage until there's just a drop of juice left and then the battery will give out completely and cease to operate.
Not sure which way Canon went with this, but I'm glad to know it's not a camera-specific issue. I typically try to run a new battery down to 0% the first few times I use it and then I will charge as needed.
p.36 #4 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
k1n3t1k wrote:
I asked a friend of mine who's rather thrifty when it comes to electrical engineering and he said that companies can manufacture a battery to operate in certain ways. He said that the battery may be programmed to output a lesser voltage once it reaches a certain level of charge. He said that sometimes companies will make the battery output at full voltage until there's just a drop of juice left and then the battery will give out completely and cease to operate.
Hi Travis:
I'm not sure if your engineering friend misunderstood the camera battery situation "you may have" described to him or you misunderstood his/her answer.
A battery is a "battery", just that and nothing more. When fully charged the voltage will be higher than when it is somewhat discharged until it runs "nearly" out of charge, and from that point in time (nearly out of charge) the voltage output will rapidly fall as the remaining charge is used up.
Most electronic circuits in a camera dissipate constant power and are designed to run off a voltage source that must be reasonably stable in magnitude. To obtain a stable output voltage from a battery in an "efficient" manner a DC-DC converter is utilized. When the battery voltage is high the DC-DC converter draws less current from the battery to maintain a constant voltage output. As charge is depleted from the battery and the voltage level drops, the DC-DC converter will draw more current from the battery to maintain a constant voltage output.
The DC-DC converter could be packaged as part of the "battery module assembly" but I really doubt it; my "guess" is the converter is designed into the camera body and optimized consistent with each model's unique requirements (e.g. some models may require multiple and different voltage outputs compared to other models). Note, I said the location of the converter is a "guess' and I always reserve the right to be wrong. :-)
p.36 #5 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Jeff wrote:
That's up a canyon a few miles from my house, taken about 1000 feet above the trailhead (it's an 18 mile loop with 2500' of climbing). I was riding with my better half that day, who isn't quite as into mountain biking as I might like. We had a great ride, though...
Oh, man. Seeing the last few pics you've posted of the mountains around Denver has actually got me thinking about whether I ought to move there at some point. (And I live in the SF Bay area! I know you did too at one point.) Beautiful; mountains, flowing rivers--I used to whitewater kayak when I lived in the east. I've always loved Colorado.
p.36 #6 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Paul,
I was born and raised in the Bay Area, and although I miss it, I could no longer live there. We were in Walnut Creek until 10 years ago (right backed up to Shell Ridge, some great XC mountain biking), and it just seems such a rat race now compared to when we lived there. The mountain biking in the Front Range is virtually opposite of NoCal: all singletrack, no fire roads. And, the road biking is second to none (if you like to climb).
I'd always loved Colorado, too, which is why we moved!
p.36 #7 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
k1n3t1k wrote:
May I ask what battery level you are testing at? On Saturday night, I finally drained my first Mark III charge down into the 'blinking' zone. (below 10%) I noticed that my camera performed quite sluggish - it hunted with my 70-200 for the first time I've owned the camera in a week and with about 2,300 actuations under the battery's belt. When I noticed that I was consistently missing shots and getting OOF frames, I found myself frustrated and could relate to some of you on here with defective units. I immediately changed the battery with a fresh one and found the camera to perform infinitely better. With the low-life battery, I seemed to get 1 or 2 properly-focused frames out of a burst of, say, 6 or 7 frames. I can usually shoot 10-12 and maybe get one or two soft frames on a normal night, but most or all are acceptable after sharpening and post-processing.
Just thought I'd bring this issue up as I am a new 1-series owner and thought I may seek some assistance or possibly stir up some new thoughts on an issue that has caused many headaches on this forum.
This is not a Mark III issue or problem. I've had a 1DMII, 1DMIIn and two Mark IIIs. AF on all of them started to slow down once the battery got low. Seems to be the nature of the beast. You'll get to the point you can tell when the battery is getting low without even looking at the readout.
p.36 #8 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
A funny thing I noticed on my pre-BD bodies (2) was that when I got low on battery I think it was under 10% or 5% it would make a high pitch whine in a series of shots. Anyone else notice that?
p.36 #11 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Yakim, I have to disagree with your assertion.
If one earns one's living from photography, one cannot simply go out with a new camera and start shooting. If the camera has a problem that results in one's shoot being spoiled, one's livelihood may be on the line. Therefore it is simply not sensible to start shooting without testing. On the other hand, if one were to go out shooting with the intention of getting to know the camera and to see what it can do, but not to do a paid shoot, isn't that testing?
p.36 #12 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Yakim, I have to agree with Kier. To illustrate, my 1DMkIII came back on Saturday (Canon gets a point or two for Sat. delivery) and my wife brought it to me while I was on location doing a video project that is being supported with stills. I started it up, gave a quick configure and put down my back-up. WB is way off, the non-selected AF points are lighting up making it very difficult to focus and every flash exposure is WAY off. I put down the camera and immediately went back to the back-up until I can get this sorted out and things working properly. If I had relied on being able to shot right out of the box I would have been royally screwed.
p.36 #13 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Yakim Peled wrote:
Jeff, when you buy a new camera or lens, the standard procedure should not be to test it. It should be to go out and shoot with it.
Happy shooting,
Yakim.
Really? Going out and shooting with them was what caused me to have to test both these cameras. This is the least fun I've had with photography in decades, and I'm not the kind of guy to 'test' anything I buy; I shoot with it, and if it works, all is good. Up until the last 6 months, everything I've purchased has just 'worked', out of the box.
Since I've recently spent so much time with the MkIII, I just haven't had time to get out and shoot, with either camera. The lenses are now calibrated at the long end to about a 25' distance. We'll see now what happens in practice.
p.36 #14 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Nice Epic Jeff! I bought a Stumpjumper FSR last year as well. I just have to say that I went to the X Games this weekend and shot mainly with my 40D and 85 1.8 and was amazed at how well it tracked. After keeping up with this thread I wonder how well the guys shooting with the M3's were doing.
p.36 #20 · ['NEW Fix' UPDATE!] - MkIII AF still broken
Well... got mine back on Saturday. I have no idea what they did to it but it was just bizarre. Awful white balance, terrible flash exposures (hugely off), AF points lighting up all over the place. Put the camera down and stayed with the back-up. Reset everything and reset-up the camera and all seems pretty much OK except that I noticed that my full charged battery was down under a half after less than 100 shots. I'll have to keep my eye on that.
However, after 11 days in the shop the damn thing still won't focus consistently. It is raining and pretty yucky around here so the tests were short (meaning more are needed) but out of 5 shots of a street sign with a 300mm F4 L in One Shot 3 are fine, one is usable - if it had captured a once in a lifetime event, and one is pure crap. That's a 40% failure rate when shooting a friggin street sign!
I have an $1100 lens on a $4500 body sitting on $800+ of tripod and head using a cable release and still not breathing and it can't focus. Canon has already told me that they are going to want me to send all of my lenses to them despite the fact that my 20D hit 5 of 5 (not that a street sign is much of a challenge) with the same lens. Urghhhhhhhhh....
And the worst part is some smart ass around here is going to say if you aren't happy go buy Nikon!
