5D MKIII users, how do you deal with MF lenses?

noisejammer wrote in post #14443464
btw... I've spoken to a couple of Canon Pro dealers. According to them, the only thing stopping wide scale desertion to Nikon is the (lack of) 800E availability.

"Wide scale desertion", eh? I think it depends who you talk to - photographers on the wedding side of things over over the moon with the 5D3 and disappointed by the D800. Sounds like the 5D3 is not a camera for you, and that's OK, it's nearly impossible to please all people with a single product.

I have the Zeiss 50 mm 1.4. In the field, I just hold the shutter button halfway and it beeps when I have focus. My shots come out fine.

For landscapes, I use LV and get really crisp focus, albeit above f/2.8.

noisejammer wrote in post #14437664
I replaced a focusing screen on a 7D without too much difficulty. (For those who don't know, it also has an LCD overlay like the 5D3.) The job took me 15 or 20 mins.

It appears the BrightScreen may be making one to suite the 5D3. Here's a link

I tried that screen and sent it back. It darkened the image in the viewfinder a lot, and even in focus, the background was so granular, I wasn't sure it was in focus, despite the center crescents aligning. It was very distracting for me.

melanopsin wrote in post #14446724
It has already been established in this thread that although the MKiii focus screen is not as easily switchable as MKii and Classic, it can be done with relative ease.

It has not been "established", and it isn't so.

- an -S type screen requires a different metering curve. This is in the Mark II firmware but not the Mark III.

- a split-image screen (Zeiss's recommended solution) means spot metering no longer works. Spot metering becomes even more important with fast Zeiss lenses, because like all fast lenses they have a "hot spot" in the middle (same as fall-off at the edges), but unlike fast Canons the camera firmware doesn't know to tweak the exposure for this. It is therefore very easy to miss exposure on them.

- you might like to modify a $4000 camera still under warranty; many will not.

As far as the improvements in AF confirm from the 5D Mark II to Mark III, I can't say, since I don't have either. I can say, and did over at Fred Miranda, that it always did work on the 1DS Mark III, used properly.

(On the 1DS Mark III, you look at the red box, *not* the green dot, which stays on for a fixed length of time. The red box flashes brighter. You can set it via a CF to be totally absent except when AF has been acquired, making this totally obvious. For me, this is not a good solution, because I have large hands and use AF-ON - I end up with a sore thumb.)

melcat wrote in post #14449406
It has not been "established", and it isn't so.

- an -S type screen requires a different metering curve. This is in the Mark II firmware but not the Mark III.

- a split-image screen (Zeiss's recommended solution) means spot metering no longer works. Spot metering becomes even more important with fast Zeiss lenses, because like all fast lenses they have a "hot spot" in the middle (same as fall-off at the edges), but unlike fast Canons the camera firmware doesn't know to tweak the exposure for this. It is therefore very easy to miss exposure on them.

- you might like to modify a $4000 camera still under warranty; many will not.

As far as the improvements in AF confirm from the 5D Mark II to Mark III, I can't say, since I don't have either. I can say, and did over at Fred Miranda, that it always did work on the 1DS Mark III, used properly.

(On the 1DS Mark III, you look at the red box, *not* the green dot, which stays on for a fixed length of time. The red box flashes brighter. You can set it via a CF to be totally absent except when AF has been acquired, making this totally obvious. For me, this is not a good solution, because I have large hands and use AF-ON - I end up with a sore thumb.)

All good points, thanks -- especially the point about warranty!

I forget sometimes about other styles. I assumed other people use MF lenses same as me. My style is to use M mode, exclusively. I use an incident light meter, set the camera iso & shutter speed & lens aperture accordingly, & make photos which are always perfectly exposed. Repeat when the lighting changes. Sometimes I'll use a spot meter & zone technique. I use the viewfinder to manually focus the lens because AF rarely puts focus where I want it.

I have a few zeiss lenses and a 5d2 but will upgrading to the 5d3 probably in july (as well as buying a 17mm tilt lens woohoo.

The reason is that I do not use the zeiss lenses i have now exclusively.

Also, there are improvements in the 5d3 that dont include the AF system.

My kids are 4 and 2 now.. as they grow I am sure I will need to break out the fast zooms to keep up with them.

The zeiss 21mm and 50 makro I have are primarily for automotive and landscape shots... thats doesn't mean I dont want a 70-200 to go to the zoo or trips to the beach.

I hope that makes sense.