Canon's EOS-1D Mark III autofocus fix makes strides, stops short
By Darren Murph 
posted December 13th 2007 1:43PM
posted December 13th 2007 1:43PM
Remember that autofocus fix that Canon was supposedly working up? Turns out, the company isn't quite ready to start accepting faulty EOS-1D Mark IIIs just yet, but it is shipping out upgraded versions to new buyers. Rob Galbraith managed to wrap his hands around not one, but three of the new DSLRs in order to substantiate his findings, and what he found was noticeable improvement. In summary, the sub-mirror fix was said to boost the performance of the AF, as it enabled the camera to deliver "about the same number of in-focus frames whether it was warm or cold." Unfortunately, it seems that the solution still left a lot to be desired; Mr. Galbraith noted that it still couldn't match the EOS-1D Mark II N, and implied that there was still room for betterment. 'Course, we're really just scratching the surface on his thorough (and we mean thorough) look at the sub-mirror fix and v1.1.3 firmware, so if this issue has been hounding you, do yourself a favor and check out the read link.[Thanks, Anand]
It is believed that the AF system is actually accurate, but that camera produces a high frequency resonance inside the mirror box during 10fps shooting. If you check out the DPReview and FredMiranda forums there are many post of shooters analyzing this resonance which causes ghosting in the thought to be out of focus images. This ghosting of In Focus images caused blurring. The theory is the sensor is actually vibrating in the mirror box. Guess the sensor is not completely looked down in the sensor cleaning system.
Just get a Nikon D3 and avoid all this mess. ;) 6 months ago I had almost come to terms with my decision to switch to Canon in 08, but then this focus problem came up so I waited. Now Nikon has the D3, which is arguably the better camera, plus I just like the familiarity and ergonomics of a Nikon.
@dayton, That is interesting and kinda scary, if that is indeed the problem how are they going to fix that? Massive recall from professionals? That wont work very well.
You could always get Canon to put a fixed sensor in the mirror box and get rid of the cleaning mechanism.
"Massive recall from professionals? "
Actually, Yes. Canon has already stated that they will be sending out return shipping labels for any affected units and fixing them at no charge
Well, it comes down to lenses... it always does. I just picked up an EF 70-200 2.8 and 24-70 2.8, there's no way in hell I could afford to switch to Nikon. You'd be in the same boat if you bought Nikkor lenses and wanted to go Canon later.
I guess you guys didn't actually read the article...
In the article, it is discussed in what situations make the problem appear and when it is better than the previous model and when it supersedes the previous model.
M
...and to save people the trouble, the answer is that it's rarely better than the previous model and usually worse.
That is not what the article said...
M