1D Mark III, first impressions

(or first 2500 actuations, however you wish to spin it)

My "Mark 3" arrived on Friday, and thankfully a trip to Sea World was already on the calendar for Saturday afternoon. I took some photos in the morning before and after a bike ride, but truly wasn't "proficient" yet. At Sea World, I shot about 2500 images, and came up with the following results (see http://photos.templin.​org/gallery/seaworld02 for the gallery of images) and opinions:

At the Viva! show (http://photos.templin.​org/gallery/seaworld02​a), I should have shot in manual mode because of the changing lighting. Nonetheless, the camera pulled off shots I'd never been able to get before. The 10fps was a dream - I wish someone could have photographed the grin on my face. I haven't figured out which settings to adjust to get the supposed 110 JPEG burst capability - usually my burst counter is at 34 (way lower than my girlfriend's 40D). At the end of the show, as the rest of the crowd was filtering out, I caught a few images of the beluga whales swimming along the glass by the front row. One sequence was nothing but horribly OOF images - not even focused on the glass dividers. None of the seats between me and the glass appear in focus, so I think it went to infinity.

At the Believe show (http://photos.templin.​org/gallery/seaworld02​b), I didn't do as much shooting - the whales seemed to be a bit less obedient (though a bit more playful) and I really couldn't predict where they'd pop out, even watching the trainers. Some sequences are shown in the gallery.

The Stingray feeding, Aquarium, and Penguin Encounter really showed the low-light performance. I shot almost the entire day with my 24-105 f4L, trying the 50/1.8 for only a brief bit and going back to the zoom flexibility (it's a dark room, with everyone seated on the floor or on the few benches at the back, so I can't walk around freely composing my shots) very quickly.

I captured a run of the Steel Eel roller coaster as it roared down. Though I need to work on subject tracking, the gallery (http://photos.templin.​org/gallery/seaworld02​g) shows the auto-focus performance this camera seems to be capable of. 90-degree temps, a side-to-back lit roller coaster, and dynamic speeds to be tracked - it all worked, right up until I allowed the fence and the flower into the frame.

As best as I can remember, everything you see was shot with center point AF only, AI Servo, focus tracking at #4 or #5, no noise reduction, all shot as L JPEG with quality 8 or 10. Images were preprocessed in Picasa, with "I'm feeling lucky" and one blast of "Sharpen" on most if not all. A few crops, but most are the full-resolution capture. Camera serial in the 532k range, firmware 1.1.0 as received from my dealer.

Supposedly, our guest caught a picture of both of us staring at our cameras (my 1D3 and and my girlfriend's 40D) at the same time - should make a hilarious recap to the day. Pictures from her 40D to follow later tonight or tomorrow.

Questions? Feel free to reply or PM me. Overall, I'm thrilled with the camera. It seems to have some AF gremlins, but the results are so much above what I'm used to and what I'd expected that I'm very happy with it.

2500 shots in a day - I can't imagine what processing that number of images would be like! Still you should have been able to detect any serious shortcomings - what are the AF gremlins you mention, perhaps the odd unexplained OOF image in a burst sequence?

I have a rather simplistic workflow, completely within Google Picasa. Select reasonable images (spacebar), apply the combo auto-color and auto-contrast (aka "I'm feeling lucky") tool, review the selected images and crop/straighten or unselect images, update the list of keepers, apply a dose of sharpening, export the modified images to a different directory, upload to server, load into Gallery, and sort if needed.

The only gremlins I saw were the horribly OOF shots at the end of Viva! and Believe! shows. Given the number of shots I just pointed in the right direction, put the hammer down, and hoped for results (and they came out good!), the after-show shots were less rushed but were totally OOF. Admittedly, it did do quite well with the Steel Eel.

wow - thanks for the post. i'm surprised that your camera is newer than mine and i just bought mine last week. the serial on mine is 531xx
and came directly from a hongkong seller. (probably explains it )
firmware is 1.1.0

pjtemplin wrote in post #3949600
The only gremlins I saw were the horribly OOF shots at the end of Viva! and Believe! shows. Given the number of shots I just pointed in the right direction, put the hammer down, and hoped for results (and they came out good!), the after-show shots were less rushed but were totally OOF. Admittedly, it did do quite well with the Steel Eel.

No offense, but I think this is where the phrase "spray and pray" came from. Just because you have the ability to take an insane number of shots per second doesn't mean that it helps you get the best shot. Again... no offense... but I'd suggest trying to work on your timing to get the best shot. It can be a lot more fun to do sometimes, and you feel like accomplished something when you get home. Oh yeh, and you don't have 2500 images to process.

All of that said, I'm not sure from your comments if you were happy or unhappy with the camera. Usually people that make comments like "horribly OOF" and "totally OOF" in a "first impressions" thread, are not happy. So do you like the camera or not?

I believe timing is important to get the best out of camera performance. I usually lock focus first on the subject and than fire away than track the target as they move along. I purposely at times go out of track of the subject to relock focus and it locks onto the subject no problem. Spray and pray is not the best way to use this camera. No offense to the user if he/she knows what is doing.

racketman wrote in post #3949490
2500 shots in a day - I can't imagine what processing that number of images would be like! Still you should have been able to detect any serious shortcomings - what are the AF gremlins you mention, perhaps the odd unexplained OOF image in a burst sequence?

i took that many in 36hours with an xt...

as for oof sequence, dirty glass+water+low contrast objects=nightmare for any camera, and at 10fps, it's a lot of oof shots.

I have to ask - have you ever been to Sea World? You don't know where the animals will pop out of the water. Based on the quantity of shots I captured, you've got about 1.3 seconds from emergence to submergence. If you want to document that Flipper did a one-and-a-half, you need at least three shots, but your audience will have to read between the lines. And this past Saturday, the animals (at least for the shows we attended) seemed to be more playful but less obedient than my previous trip two weeks before - you couldn't get clues from the trainers, as the animals were doing their own thing.

For the record, my intentions were to learn the "mechanisms" of the camera. Several sequences didn't make it to the keeper bin whatsoever. My goal was to push the buttons and learn capabilities and limits - not to come home with a stunning gallery. In addition, I wanted to do what I could (given my limited knowledge of Canon camera operation) to gather statistics on camera performance. Many folks suspect that something was changed on the production line, and Canon's silence about the AF issues means we just don't KNOW anything. My "test" brings a simple conclusion: I haven't triggered the primary (AI Servo tracking a moving target) AF issues reported here. Might I still be holding a problematic camera? Sure. But at least in somewhat similar surroundings (90-95 degree weather, backlit subject, dynamic speed), I didn't run into the issue. At least we have one more datapoint for the research project.

Impressions? I love the camera. The IQ is as phenomenal as others indicate. The focusing is certainly fast. The frame rate is capable of creating a huge grin, even if it's not how you'd like me to be shooting. A few frustrations, but thankfully I'm not trying to sell my images so it's not a big deal (though I can now interpret what others would be experiencing). Battery life is out of this world. I have a lot to learn, but I'm excited to have the tool available to me.

My advice is stop testing the camera and taking test shots. The best test shot is one that you wanted to get but you didn't and from there try to see if it was the camera. I went from a 10d to a MKIII and the first time I used it I got these shots. I am not saying there isn't anything wrong with your camera. I'm just saying don't forget to shoot the shots you would shoot with your other cameras...

Are you a previous 1DMKIIN owner?

pjtemplin wrote in post #3952575
I have to ask - have you ever been to Sea World? You don't know where the animals will pop out of the water. Based on the quantity of shots I captured, you've got about 1.3 seconds from emergence to submergence. If you want to document that Flipper did a one-and-a-half, you need at least three shots, but your audience will have to read between the lines. And this past Saturday, the animals (at least for the shows we attended) seemed to be more playful but less obedient than my previous trip two weeks before - you couldn't get clues from the trainers, as the animals were doing their own thing.

Just a comment. It is exactly the reason that you stated above requires multiple visits to familiarize the routine and timing. I mean all of those amazing wildlife photos you see in the magazines are results of knowing your subjects extremly well.
Anyway, nice effort, and keep shooting

pjtemplin wrote in post #3952575
I have to ask - have you ever been to Sea World? You don't know where the animals will pop out of the water. Based on the quantity of shots I captured, you've got about 1.3 seconds from emergence to submergence. If you want to document that Flipper did a one-and-a-half, you need at least three shots, but your audience will have to read between the lines. And this past Saturday, the animals (at least for the shows we attended) seemed to be more playful but less obedient than my previous trip two weeks before - you couldn't get clues from the trainers, as the animals were doing their own thing.

I shot Sea World dolphins and whales with an XT and Bigma.

pjtemplin wrote in post #3952575
I have to ask - have you ever been to Sea World? You don't know where the animals will pop out of the water.

Impressions? I love the camera. The IQ is as phenomenal as others indicate.

Yes, I've been to Seaworld a few times, and got some amazing shots (by my standards... but I'm sure I could find someone that would give me the ... looks a little soft). I'm still unsure how holding down the shutter for a long time is going to help you when you don't know where the animal is going to pop up at, but maybe I misunderstood what you were saying. I can certainly see your point of wanting frames of a flip or something, although its not anything I'd probably do more than once in an outing... but that's what makes the world go around... different strokes for different folks. I also see the point of testing the camera. I think that this whole thing has struck some fear and doubt into all MIII owners. I know that I am always looking for something being wrong, even though my MIII has been performing up to my expectations.

The shows were different. OK?

I didn't push the button until the animal was out of the water.

You buy a camera with 10fps and put it in single-shot mode on the first day with frolicking animals, OK?

C.Fn III-3 was set to 0 - I haven't changed it. As such, if I push the magic button, pictures should be in focus, right? I've got five that weren't. Oh, and before the rest of you jump my shorts, they weren't close. Nothing in the field from me to the subject was in focus. I'll let all of you decide whether you think that's a problem or not - I have my own opinion, and at this point I don't want to know your opinion.

pjtemplin wrote in post #3957303
I have my own opinion, and at this point I don't want to know your opinion.

Then why bother starting a thread in a public forum?