5D3 Focus point visibility

pwm2 wrote in post #14183858
Yes, but you are all the time sending out two messages. The second message being that you can't believe how anyone can complain about this because you (!) don't see a problem.

I CAN"T believe that anyone would complain but that doesn't mean I care whether it gets implemented or not. I'm not going to use it so I hope they do, for the sake of those who need it, which is not me

elrey2375 wrote in post #14183855
Why am I shooting car wheels at night again? You've solved your own problem; use the 1D

Why? You know, in some situation, you want to get paid for your photos??? You want to capture the shots differently than a guy who frames the subject always at the center of the frame and to crop the hell out of the shot later on.... Also, when you shoot with a wider lens capturing a fast moving subject at close distance in order to create a sense of dynamic and speed???

elrey2375 wrote in post #14183722
turn on VF illumination

check out this thread, it talks about what you're wanting and apparently it has ithttp://forums.dpreview​.com …rum=1032&messag​e=41073708

I'm not a completely versed user yet but the red AF illuminate (Auto or ON) only seems to consistantly work for me in One Shot mode. If I have the camera set to Ai Servo and a zone tracking type AF (still adjusting from my 5D2/40D days) the red AF illuminator doesn't seem to always activate, or blink, or whatever you wish to describe this as. If I tap the [-|-] AF button I can illuminate all the focus points and the active point however.

I can certainly see where some folks take issue; that said, I guess I'm not as bent out of shape - I certainly find the AF and shutter response on a whole worlds better than my 5D2 regardless. So I'll take this over the previous, but this seems like something a firmware may be able to adjust or tweak from an illumination stand point. But I'm far from certain.

I'm certainly not going to call this camera flawed and unusable though, I really do love this update. I'm thrilled to have this AF setup, having only ever used the Canon 7 point Elan 7e and 9 point 20D style systems for at least a decade, I find this system great.

But I can agree with others in very low dim light (lower than I can ever remember using my 5D2) the AF points are difficult to see in Ai Servo mode. However, I'm not certain my 5D2 could even work in light as low as I'm willing to push the 5D3 now, so again, I won't go too hard on the camera just yet. And frankly I rarely used the 5D2 in Ai Servo because in many cases I didn't find it snappy enough to warrant the use, so using Ai Servo on the Mark III is a new experience for me after 3 years of using the Mark II.

elrey2375 wrote in post #14183855
Why am I shooting car wheels at night again? You've solved your own problem; use the 1D

Obviously, you just want to argue for the sake of argument. You have provided exactly zero reasons why Canon should not address this issue. Let me guess, late 80's maybe 90's generation.

Hogloff wrote in post #14183918
Obviously, you just want to argue for the sake of argument. You have provided exactly zero reasons why Canon should not address this issue. Let me guess, late 80's maybe 90's generation.

Nope. Good guess though. I just dropped in to say that I didn't notice the lack of the feature to begin with and people acted like I had three heads because I couldn't see their obvious problem and jump on the bandwagon with them. When I see 10 people going one way, I go the other. Best way I know how to explain it.

The 5D mark III is great at low light. I would venture to guess a lot of people bought this body just for that capability.

To gain that low light functionality, but have selectable focus points that are invisible in low light situations (until after you focus lock on something) seems like a shortcoming.

There are Rebel bodies that have selected focus points that blink when AF starts so you can accurately pick what part of your subject you want to focus on. How does it seem unreasonable to want a feature on a $600 camera to also be included on a $3,500 camera?

And what is the point in stating over and over again that you don't personally use a particular feature and don't care about it one way or the other? There are lots of features in the Canon menus that I don't use, but I don't find people that DO use them and argue about how I don't find the feature necessary. I don't see the point there.

5D2 lights up when you start, and when it locks.
5D3 only lights up when it locks.

Why would they change this? Also, there's a trick with the af point selection button that flashes all the points and shows which is in use, not ideal but it does help.

to the OP, in daylight, can't you tell which point you're using just by looking at the shape? Mine are always different in size -vs- the rest of the points. How it's different depends on what mode you're using (spot, normal, helpers etc).

mtavel wrote in post #14184101
The 5D mark III is great at low light. I would venture to guess a lot of people bought this body just for that capability.

To gain that low light functionality, but have selectable focus points that are invisible in low light situations (until after you focus lock on something) seems like a shortcoming.

There are Rebel bodies that have selected focus points that blink when AF starts so you can accurately pick what part of your subject you want to focus on. How does it seem unreasonable to want a feature on a $600 camera to also be included on a $3,500 camera?

And what is the point in stating over and over again that you don't personally use a particular feature and don't care about it one way or the other? There are lots of features in the Canon menus that I don't use, but I don't find people that DO use them and argue about how I don't find the feature necessary. I don't see the point there.

Like I said. The dude just likes to argue for the sake of arguing. Nothing more.

Hopefully they'll fix this with a firmware update.
It's obvious that some people need this, others don't.
The back and forth is pretty hilarious.

The bottom line for me is when you have a dark background, all those nice black AF points disappear. I need to press an extra button to illuminate them. This is not a problem if you have colors that contrast well with black. For what I shoot, this can be a potential nightmare.

jacobsen1 wrote in post #14184135
5D2 lights up when you start, and when it locks.
5D3 only lights up when it locks.

Why would they change this? Also, there's a trick with the af point selection button that flashes all the points and shows which is in use, not ideal but it does help.

As has already been stated, the difference is a part of the change from a 'normal' focus screen to the transmissive LCD. It is the same viewfinder technology as the 7D and it behaves the same way as the 7D.

And, just like with the 7D there are a lot of people complaining about it at first but once people actually spend some time using it they will discover that under most conditions it's not nearly as much of an issue as they thought it would be.

Hogloff wrote in post #14184291
Like I said. The dude just likes to argue for the sake of arguing. Nothing more.

Don't talk about me like I'm not here LOL
I thought I wanted to be a lawyer when I was a kid

elrey2375 wrote in post #14183682
One in another long line of things people have nitpicked about this camera IMO. I've tracked plenty of subjects in all kinds of light situations and never even noticed with any camera and I won't notice it with this one either. #firstworldproblems

sorry, but i think you are in the minority here...i've been shooting concerts for a while now, and from the rebXT > 30D > 5D > 5D2 this has never been a problem.

suddenly the 5D3 has this issue?


it's really bizarre.

i hope they fix it, and fast.

AFAIK the 5D3 AF point(s) illumination & indication functions EXACTLY like the 7D?
Anyone who owns bodies both confirm this?

narlus wrote in post #14182242
this is my biggest gripe w/ the camera at the moment.

Mine too.

mtavel wrote in post #14180340
[I would encourage anyone else that finds this frustrating contact Canon support to provide feedback.

I have filled in the form with you description of the problem, and submitted it. Very frustrating, but hopefully easily solved.

BTW, what version of firmware are people on? Mine is 1.0.7

Has anyone played with the "AF Point Display During Focus" settings, it might help (page 102).