Canon EOS 1D Mark III Still Not Perfect
July 24, 2007:I’ve written before about the depressing news that the long-anticipated Canon EOS 1D Mark III seems to be having some focusing problems. This week on the show, episode 60, we had a guest who has a Mark III, and loves it. He doesn’t find any problems with focusing.
But the respected and hard-working Rob Galbraith, who has been documenting the Mark III’s problem, just installed the latest firmwared update to the camera, which Canon says is supposed to improve the autofocus. Does it? According to Rob, the sad answer is no:
As earlier sections of this article describe, on sunny, warm days, the EOS-1D Mark III’s ability to grab focus initially, hold focus on static subjects and track moving subjects is both unusably poor and no match for the camera’s predecessor, the EOS-1D Mark II N.
We’ve now shot and analysed about 3400 track, soccer and test frames taken over two days with v1.0.9 cameras, under the bright, warm conditions that trip up v1.0.8, and the results are effectively the same as before: lots of out-of-focus frames that should be crisply focused.
If I could afford a Mark III, this would really be bumming me out. Aren’t I lucky to be broke?
Read Rob’s detailed analysis here.
Scott
July 26th, 2007 at 2:41 am
Congrats! You made it! Everybody — vote on the 28th!!!
July 26th, 2007 at 3:29 am
I was just over at the Podcast Awards site– congrats on your nomination! I’ll be marking my ballot for you as soon as voting starts!
July 26th, 2007 at 5:31 am
I have not heard this show yet, but I LOVE your podcast. It is geared to people like me and you don’t talk over my head. I have not professional training but fear that with a little more education I could become dangerous when I stalk my children with the camera.
I just wanted to say thanks for having a show for the average Joe…or in this case, the Average Jodi.
July 26th, 2007 at 5:53 am
Yes indeed you are there :) - I’ll be nominating as well.
Good luck
July 26th, 2007 at 6:59 am
Thanks for your great notes, all.
We LOVE you, too!
July 26th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Is the blog software going wacky? 5 responses to “Canon EOS 1D Mark III Still Not Perfect” but none of them have anything to do with the Mark III’s “focus problem”.
Anyways, all the talk about the Mark III not focusing properly has got me shaking my head … I have not had that experience at all.
I’ve set my Mark III to use the center AF point rather than the automatic mode that (as the manual says) “From among the 45 AF points, the camera selects the AF point automatically to suit the shooting conditions”.
This is one amazing camera, but there is no way it could possibly know which AF point I want it to use out of 45 available.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Didn’t Canon just announce a firmware update that is supposed to be released shortly? I think I saw a blurb on this on another site just a few days ago.
July 26th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Here is the link to Canon firmware news-
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9747991-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
August 1st, 2007 at 8:54 am
The v1.1.0 firmware update is out and you can download it.
But first I urge you to read my experiences with it at my 10fps blog at http://www.allensphotoblog.com/10fps/