CANON 1D MARK III – ONGOING AUTOFOCUS PROBLEMS

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Canon EOS 1D Mark III

I hate to see a great company release a much anticipated, pro-level product with a major defect. That’s been the case with Canon’s EOS 1D Mark III. Early on, highly respected photographer, Rob Galbraith, wrote about significant autofocus problems with the 1D Mark III.


One of my friends had major autofocus problems with his newly released 1D Mark III and returned it.

Firmware updates were released but the problems continued.

Canon recently announced a major fix which involves a revised sub-mirror mechanism and another firmware update.

Is the problem fixed? Although autofocus is significantly improved and some of the autofocus problems are fixed, some lingering problems remain.

When Galbraith complains, Canon listens. He made three trips to Arizona in conjunction with Canon to explore and work on the problem which is at its worst in bright light and when the mirror box gets warm. Canon came up with the sub-mirror and firmware solution which went a long way to alleviate much but not all of the problems.

You can read Rob Galbraith’s December 10 update. There is a summary of his observations near the top of the page, followed by a detailed explanation. The story of Canon’s attempts to get at the problem is interesting.

If you are thinking about getting the EOS 1D Mark III, I would suggest you wait until they get all the bugs worked out. Keep an eye on Galbraith’s site.

Despite some recent online paranoia, Canon is still a great company and they still make great cameras. At any major televised sporting event, look at the long row of photographers with white telephoto lenses. At the pro level, Canon is eating everyone else’s lunch.

Rob Galbraith’s summary from his December 10 update:

Summary

Without question, the sub-mirror fix improves EOS-1D Mark III AI Servo autofocus: it eliminates the camera’s big drop in autofocus accuracy when the mirror box gets warm or hot. Our experience is that it helps stabilize the autofocus performance so that the EOS-1D Mark III delivers about the same number of in-focus frames whether it’s warm or cold.
Firmware v1.1.3 ups the number of in-focus frames the camera captures too and is an important part of improving the camera’s autofocus. It does increase the number of properly focused frames the camera snares when the light is bright and, compared to v1.1.0, noticeably improves the feel of the autofocus system.

But in our view, there’s more work to be done. In bright conditions, the EOS-1D Mark III still doesn’t match the EOS-1D Mark II N; at times the two are close, and at other times the EOS-1D Mark III’s autofocus performance is below what we consider acceptable. The EOS-1D Mark III can autofocus much better outdoors on a warm, sunny day now than it could at the time of its introduction, though this is a reflection of how much room for improvement there was. There are also specific situations – mostly involving shooting indoors or in dimmer outdoor conditions – where its AI Servo autofocus is actually superior to the EOS-1D Mark II N.
Looking at all of what we’ve shot with the two camera models in recent weeks, however, the EOS-1D Mark II N is the one that has delivered the most in-focus frames. The culprit that continues to cramp the EOS-1D Mark III’s autofocus style is bright sunlight.