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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

1DMK3 Problem's (1 Viewer)

What I would like to see, and I suspect many other bird photographers, is a review of the Mark III with regard to AF ability on flying birds which do not fill the frame;
all these published reviews based on large, obvious running people and birds like Great Blue Herons in flight, about the equivalent of photographing a steam train or a bus, do not address the quiestion of whether the new AF system will pick up and track a small bird in flight a) against the sky when the bird is moving about up, down, side to side and away and towards you and B) when it moves in front of vegetation or other distracting backgrounds which always seems to fool my camera. A test on something like a passerine, a rapid flying, not gliding raptor, or dare I suggest a Swift would produce more camparative results than an athlete moving on a set sourse at a predictable speed; so has anyone done such a test?
 
graham catley said:
What I would like to see, and I suspect many other bird photographers, is a review of the Mark III with regard to AF ability on flying birds which do not fill the frame;
all these published reviews based on large, obvious running people and birds like Great Blue Herons in flight, about the equivalent of photographing a steam train or a bus, do not address the quiestion of whether the new AF system will pick up and track a small bird in flight a) against the sky when the bird is moving about up, down, side to side and away and towards you and B) when it moves in front of vegetation or other distracting backgrounds which always seems to fool my camera. A test on something like a passerine, a rapid flying, not gliding raptor, or dare I suggest a Swift would produce more camparative results than an athlete moving on a set sourse at a predictable speed; so has anyone done such a test?
Click to expand...

Good point. All I know is that my 350D is plain old horrible in the situations you described, and a MkIIn I had a chance to try once does great. I hope the Mk III does at least as good as the MKIIn...
 
graham catley said:
What I would like to see, and I suspect many other bird photographers, is a review of the Mark III with regard to AF ability on flying birds which do not fill the frame;
...
...A test on something like a passerine, a rapid flying, not gliding raptor, or dare I suggest a Swift would produce more comparative results than an athlete moving on a set course at a predictable speed; so has anyone done such a test?
Click to expand...

Graham, what you are suggesting is incredibly difficult, particularly to do in a reasonably easy to repeat fashion.
Whether Canon have a suitable rig, I don't know - I would hope so. When I worked in industry (military avionics) we worked very hard on our test gear, and even so, we discussed and agreed with MoD statistical values and confidence levels before we did the testing.
I have tested my 5D against speeding vehicles on the M1, and the biggest variable I found was the amount of detail in the approaching vehicles. Hence the need for a test rig, rather than hoping that the "right" type of bird flies by!

I believe that Canon have just announced that new firmware will be available for the 1D MkIII in a few days - let's hope that it fixes the problems.
 
Not quite the unpredictability of Swifts but far faster, I did RIAT on sunday... and the MkIII hit everything time after time, large or small in the viewfinder.
As I've said before, I can almost walk to Canon from here, and to be honest the firmware update hasn't got me nipping up there in any rush. Early reports on the web indicate subtle improvement in AI servo with 1.09 but time will tell.
 

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Great shots Andy. I've looked at RIAT shots on a couple of other forums and these are the best I've seen. Are they taken with the 300 f2.8 and 1.4x?

Paul
 
Last edited:
Andy Bright said:
Not quite the unpredictability of Swifts but far faster, I did RIAT on sunday... and the MkIII hit everything time after time, large or small in the viewfinder.
As I've said before, I can almost walk to Canon from here, and to be honest the firmware update hasn't got me nipping up there in any rush. Early reports on the web indicate subtle improvement in AI servo with 1.09 but time will tell.
Click to expand...

Andy, these are sharp, brilliant images, some of the best Airshow pics I have seen as well. I can't get my head round this firmware update, do we put it on our M3's which have no problems at all? will it make ours even better? will it make ours worse?

Cheers

Nick
 
paul goode said:
Great shots Andy. I've looked at RIAT shots on a couple of other forums and these are the best I've seen. Are they taken with the 300 f2.8 and 1.4x?
Paul
Click to expand...

I think you're looking on the wrong forums ;) The gloom on sunday added a bit of drama to the shots, and hopefully mine are as good as most from sunday.
Yep, the 300/2.8 + 1.4x ... I used a 70-200 on another body for the bigger stuff, not shown here.

NickRno77 said:
Andy, these are sharp, brilliant images, some of the best Airshow pics I have seen as well. I can't get my head round this firmware update, do we put it on our M3's which have no problems at all? will it make ours even better? will it make ours worse?
Cheers
Nick
Click to expand...

Thanks Nick. Firmware updates aren't compulsory... if you're happy, then don't bother with it. Seems as if the lcd review has been 'improved' with the update, but that's not something that bothers me.
The firmware will be online at the end of the month, or so word has it.
cheers,
Andy
 
Andy Bright said:
I think you're looking on the wrong forums ;) The gloom on sunday added a bit of drama to the shots, and hopefully mine are as good as most from sunday.
Yep, the 300/2.8 + 1.4x ... I used a 70-200 on another body for the bigger stuff, not shown here.



Thanks Nick. Firmware updates aren't compulsory... if you're happy, then don't bother with it. Seems as if the lcd review has been 'improved' with the update, but that's not something that bothers me.
The firmware will be online at the end of the month, or so word has it.
cheers,
Andy
Click to expand...

My fault for looking on an airshow forum!

I was afraid it was it was that lens. Not taking anything anyway from the person behind the camera,which is by far the most significant factor, but images taken with that lens seem to have a clarity which stands out.

Paul
 
GYRob said:
it would apear to not be helping with the focus problems of the MK3 - wish Canon would get on with a fix lots are very dissapointed with not only the camera but the way Canon are NOT saying muct about it
Rob
Click to expand...

Yes would have to agree, im on the verge of buying something at the minute, and the strength of this it may be a 2nd hand 1D 2N until they sort it out !
 
Well it came yesterday but we have low cloud and drisle too so not had chance to try it out,
it is easyier to use than my mk2 no having to press 2 buttons to change everything although i keep doing that lol
a few simple tests in the garden show it to be working ok ,hope to get out soon .
Rob.
 
Not a problem as such, but something I am quite surprised at.
My 1d mkIII works as expected with my 100-400is and kenko 1.4x tc, ie no tape on the pins, full af and reports f6.3 - f8.
However swapping the 100-400 for my Sigma 500mm f4.5 without the pins taped on the tc, sometimes the aperture reports f4.5 sometimes f6.3 but the AF is always useless. Tape the pins and everything works fine. AF is very fast but obviously the aperture reported is wrong.

So does the 1d body AF up to f8 theory only work with Canon lenses?

Paul
 
GYRob said:
Well it came yesterday but we have low cloud and drisle too so not had chance to try it out,
it is easyier to use than my mk2 no having to press 2 buttons to change everything although i keep doing that lol
a few simple tests in the garden show it to be working ok ,hope to get out soon .
Rob.
Click to expand...

I took the plunge and got a 1D Mk3 as well, bit of an upgrade from the 20D,

Heres one i took at Gigrin on Sunday, 1d Mk3, 600 F4L and 1.4 TC, threw me a bit with the ISO of 2500 lol but then i realised it had changed it itself, not used to that happening lol

http://www.cookster.co.uk/gallery/albums/userpics/10002/0819-151014-01.jpg
 
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