Awesome stuff, Josh!

Diggin #2

Originally Posted by bloomphotog Here's some more 5D3 photos for my Dgrin amigos.

Awesome shots.

Josh, those are beautiful shots!

Put my 5D Mark3 to the test today at the track




Still have 1,000 or so shots to go through before I have a better idea on how it worked.
But in general the focus for sure seems a lot better. I have to get used to some of the controls as they are so much different. Nothing major, just will take some getting used to.

The shutter sounds really weird. Way different than any camera I have ever used. Almost sounds broken or loose. The few images I have looked at seem nice up to 50% then kinda fall apart after that so Im not liking that at all. Not sure what is going on yet, but like I said, I have a lot of images to go through so I hope I can figure it out?

Originally Posted by nw scout Put my 5D Mark3 to the test today at the track

Good looking MX shot! What do you mean when you say you don't like the 5D3 images at 50% or greater?

Here's an out of camera S1 JPG from tonight's sunset. 5D3, 85 1.2L, Emerald profile with lots of amber/magenta WB shift.

Originally Posted by nw scout The few images I have looked at seem nice up to 50% then kinda fall apart after that so Im not liking that at all. Not sure what is going on yet, but like I said, I have a lot of images to go through so I hope I can figure it out?

Maybe your AF needs calibration, either by micro focus adjustment, or by Canon Service. I'm finding my 5D3 to be just as enjoyable to pixel peep as my 5D2, and more often due to the better AF.

See this thread for a couple of my action shots with 100% crops:
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=217762

My 7D was a different story. Compared to the 5D2 (and 3), which isn't really a fair fight, viewing at 100% just wasn't usually satisfying. I had to learn to judge 7D images at 50%. My 5D3 is not like that at all.

Originally Posted by bloomphotog Good looking MX shot! What do you mean when you say you don't like the 5D3 images at 50% or greater?

Its weird. It looks raserized? Not sure thats the right term for the look but its not smooth tones and the edges look very digital. Not a focus issue and its the same look at 100 to 400 asa.

Also got lots of errors. No error #, just an Err and it stopped working.
Turned if off and on then it was fine till it did it again. Only did it in auto focus mode, but not sure if that means anything as I was in AF mode most of the day testing all the new settings.

Originally Posted by nw scout Its weird. It looks raserized? Not sure thats the right term for the look but its not smooth tones and the edges look very digital. Not a focus issue and its the same look at 100 to 400 asa

What raw converter are you using? Try shooting some L JPEG's and see how those look.

Originally Posted by nw scout Its weird. It looks raserized? Not sure thats the right term for the look but its not smooth tones and the edges look very digital. Not a focus issue and its the same look at 100 to 400 asa.

Are you using DPP? If not, try it. If so, change the RAW sharpening method from "Unsharp Mask" to "Sharpness", I like that better.

Also got lots of errors. No error #, just an Err and it stopped working. Turned if off and on then it was fine till it did it again. Only did it in auto focus mode, but not sure if that means anything as I was in AF mode most of the day testing all the new settings.

Sounds very fishy, I'd take/send the camera back to where you bought it. No errors with my 5D3, and the images are stunning at 100% in DPP.

Originally Posted by jmphotocraft Sounds very fishy, I'd take/send the camera back to where you bought it. No errors with my 5D3, and the images are stunning at 100% in DPP.

this

Ha.
I was at the store doing just that (returning it) a little while ago.
Home now with the new one. Will do some testing later and let ya all know how it goes.

Studio shot it's 2nd wedding with the 5D mk3, and for a second time the lead shooter decided there was a SIGNIFICANT issue with "focus confirmation hesitance". In fact this lead shooter even switched back to the mk2 for a little while just to be sure they weren't just imagining the difference.

Hopefully we just have a lemon? We'll approach Canon about the issue, since the studio is right down the street from CPS...

(Although, once again I'd like to emphasize, there is a SIGNIFICANT improvement in the keeper, in-focus rate. It just hesitates a little bit before confirming focus, which is noticeable enough to cause worries about missing candid moments...


=Matt=

Originally Posted by Matthew Saville Studio shot it's 2nd wedding with the 5D mk3, and for a second time the lead shooter decided there was a SIGNIFICANT issue with "focus confirmation hesitance".... =Matt=

I can replicate the same issue, and here's the fix:

• Use one of the TWO Single Point AF modes
• Do NOT use any mode that requires the camera to select the AF point
• Consider whether or not your comparing to situations in which the 5D2 would say "focused!", when it was really "close enough!"

Same goes for AI-Servo usage. I have not found the AF Point tracking to be all that impressive. I get better results in AI servo mode my using one of the Single Point or "cluster" AF Point modes. But I am hard to please. The D700 AF Point tracking didn't even make my cut. The D3s or 1DMK4 are the only bodies with AF point tracking that is really snappy enough to rely on...for me. The good news is the 5D3 has the processing power for this to work well, I would expect firmware updates to help out in this regard. Better written algorithms for the AF point tracking/selection would make things more responsive.

Has anyone tried the different shot priority and AI focusing mode combinations yet? All of the different AI focus modes? They do significantly change the behavior of it and most people seem to be going on the standard mode and not going over the other AF scenarios....

Originally Posted by bloomphotog Better written algorithms for the AF point tracking/selection would make things more responsive.

The AI servo behavior settings are the algorithms changeable at our disposal... did you change those yet? It sounds like you've only tried the AF point selection modes and left out the AI servo behavior settings. Standard mode is a little slow and changing the settings dramatically changes the behavior.

A lot of these problems are in the dark so if it keeps up I imagine something indeed will have to be changed by Canon in order to reduce that delay in the dark. I've still yet to do a low light shoot, so hopefully soon I'll be able to do this first person. So far no problems though.

And uh, forgot to ask... how dark are we talkin'? I haven't seen any examples of the scenarios people say they're having the problem with.

Originally Posted by Overfocused The AI/servo tracking modes are the algorithms changeable at our disposal... did you change those yet?

I am actually referring to One Shot usage, but the same applies for AI-Servo mode. Anytime I let the camera pick the focus point there is a perceptible lag in initial focus lock. The AF tracking modes all come into play AFTER the initial focus lock is gained. You can play with the Focus/Release priority options, but the real problem is just the decision making algorithm of the auto point selection system itself.

These are observations from in the field use. I think every camera has it's quirks, and the 5D3 has more than it's fair share cropping up these days. Early release, bugs, who knows, I am just stoked to be using and producing with my favorite Canon ever.

The Canon 7D also has a perceptible lag in AF lock in low light, and the 7D and 5D MKIII share a very similar, if not the same, metering module. The reason that this may be significant is that both the 7D and 5D MKIII tie the metering section with the focusing section.

The AF lag in low-light might be symptomatic to the metering module integration.

On the 7D, the metering system can slow down the frame rate to favor AF accuracy. There is even a vague reference in the 7D User Manual. (Bottom of page 93.)

"In low-light areas or indoors, the continuous shooting speed may become slower even if a fast shuttter speed is set"

Is there a similar mention in the 5D MKIII owners manual? (Like maybe page number 361?)

In low light I highly recommend the use of a flash with an AF Assist light, or at least an ST-E2. (The ST-E3-RT does not appear to have an AF Assist light.)

Originally Posted by Matthew Saville Studio shot it's 2nd wedding with the 5D mk3, and for a second time the lead shooter decided there was a SIGNIFICANT issue with "focus confirmation hesitance". In fact this lead shooter even switched back to the mk2 for a little while just to be sure they weren't just imagining the difference.

Were they shooting with all focus points active? Letting the camera decide where to focus? If so, that's more Artificial Intelligence that you have to wait for. This was a known characteristic with the 1D line as well. Shooting action in "Ring of Fire" mode was not advised.