Pulled the trigger on 1D III -questions...

Hi folks,

Coming from a 40D (soon to be for sale)and just ordered a refurb'd 1D MK III from Adorama. Will be here Wed or Thurs.

Have read everything I can get my hands on including the manual, pamphlets, blogs, forums, etc. First question is I think I will miss the Mode Dial that allowed me instant access to three User Settings (C1-C3). I understand there are three sets of CF's that can be saved, but they are not complete camera settings, just the CF's. Then one can store 10 sets of complete camera settings on the card.

I used to be set up for "Dim Light", HDR and "Never Miss". Not with 10 available, I have designed a few more.

Question is, when really shooting, how easy to get to these changes and quickly are they applied? Am I really going to miss the dial?

I'm sure there will be more questions, but I find many answers without having to ask since there is so much discussion on this cam. A small aftermarket travel charger would be nice, but it seems there is little trust on these. Wouldn;t mind a comment or two if someone has found a great travel charger for these batteries.

Thanks.

~Bob

rebop wrote in post #8345342
Hi folks,

Coming from a 40D (soon to be for sale)and just ordered a refurb'd 1D MK III from Adorama. Will be here Wed or Thurs.

Have read everything I can get my hands on including the manual, pamphlets, blogs, forums, etc. First question is I think I will miss the Mode Dial that allowed me instant access to three User Settings (C1-C3). I understand there are three sets of CF's that can be saved, but they are not complete camera settings, just the CF's. Then one can store 10 sets of complete camera settings on the card.

I used to be set up for "Dim Light", HDR and "Never Miss". Not with 10 available, I have designed a few more.

Question is, when really shooting, how easy to get to these changes and quickly are they applied? Am I really going to miss the dial?

Thanks.

~Bob

The MKIII charger is smaller and lighter than previous chargers for the 1 Range. Not really a problem for travel. I haven't found a substitute although substitute batteries are available.

Metering and focusing is a very strong point of the 1D range. Let the camera decide.

Seems like you are intent on setting this body up even before you've got your hands on it! Not a good idea. That's one of the reasons even experienced users had such great difficulty getting used to it when it was first released. The MKIII is a Pro body which means less preset, and more about flexibility and choice of settings and you are going to need to be able to choose from quite a wide range of settings to suit conditions. It also means that the RAW image might be less appealing until it is processed. There is a Canon leaflet available which describes combinations of settings for different sports and non-sports conditions.

Finally, my experience is that the rear display can mislead you into thinking that your image is sharp. You need to get some practical experience by comparing the rear display with your computer editing screen to see how good it really is.

AND, why did you sell your 70-200 f/4 L IS? It's a great lens on the MKIII.

+1 to luke's post above.

The 1d is a completely different animal to the 40d etc. Get the camera in your hands and then play around with it's capabilities..they will blow your mind.

the large rear LCD is the only thing i dont like on my 1dmkIII..use or learn to use histograms to nail the exposure, but thats all the screen is good for.

as for batteries and chargers etc, this isn't really the system to invest in with generic and 3rd party batteries/chargers etc. The 1dmkII batteries give phoneomenal usage from a single charge.

selling good glass is not the way to go if you own a camera like this!

Whew! I don't see anything wrong with planning before I get it from the truck this Wed or Thurs I've learned a ton by reading for the last three days. Which is what brought me to the questions on changing user settings as I used that a lot on the 40D and having three sets of CF and 10 sets of user settings on a card made me wonder how easily accessible these are in the real world.

I'm sure when I get it I will have more questions, but I have a lot of tips now on just how to set it up. Surprised anyone would think its better to wait until its here.

I bought an extra Canon battery, so was not asking about those. But the charger looks larger than I would like to throw in my bag which is why I was asking about travel chargers.

And I sold the 70-200 F4L IS to buy a 70-300 DO. I actually prefer its size, reach and lack of being a white lens when walking around. The DO gets mixed reviews, but I am quite pleased. SO now I have 17-40L, 50 1.4, 24-105 L and 70-300 DO. This set works for me, though "one day" might grab a 70-200 2.8 for the rare occasion I might want that extra stop and wish to haul a larger lens around again.

Just reread and don;t understand the "less preset". If it has 10 sets of usr settings that can be stored on a card, it has 3 times MORE presets. I am not talking picture styles here, which is something I never used on any camera I have owned. And Even experienced pros having difficulty setting it up because they read and planned before they got it??? Again, makes no sense to me. But, c'est la vie.And I do have the Canon leaflet as well as all Canon docs and a few third party. I do my homework.

You sold a 70-200 f4L and got a 70-300 DO for a 1D Mark III? Say it ain't so!

Charging the 1d III isn't something you really need to worry about. The battery is good for a couple thousand shots. Yes, really. Enjoy the camera. Whilst there's a lot to learn, it's still a camera, and an awesome one at that.

emtp563 wrote in post #8347282
You sold a 70-200 f4L and got a 70-300 DO for a 1D Mark III? Say it ain't so!

Hey it sounds like it makes sense for him, the 70-300 is small light discrete and black, which all sounds like points he wanted...

Also he probubly made a bit, used 70-300 DOs are only $700-750..and a 70-200 f/4L IS is what...$1000 still?

I dont have a 1d3, but standard course for me is to get it and THEN learn about it....I'm a hands-on learner, i can read all the leaflets, pamphlets, reviews, how-tos, guides, manuals, technical briefings, opinions, and scrawlings of a drunken hobo made on concrete with a broken bottle of vodka which i bought him and I still wont quite understand the camera until i hold it and shoot with it...

You seem to panicing over nothing to be honest, Calm down, Get your new toy, play with it, and learn about it...

That said before I got my EOS-3 I remember practically memorizing the manual, But I didnt know how it really handled until i developed my first roll of film....And boy were THOSE the days... All that nervous anticipation for DAYS before you got your slides back...

I wouldnt worry about the charger, Since its going to do you a fat lot of good at a shoot most likely id pack it in a seperate piece of luggage and keep it in my hotel room if i had to...I think you can always find a place for something you want to take [My rocket blower on the other hand i cant find a nice place to put..]

Hah. No panic, just two simple questions, or so I thought

I'll find out soon enough how easy to access the saved CF's and user settings. Just thought I would ask to save some time, but no worries. And I'll also see just how big the charger is. Though I am sure it will not fit in my bag with all in there.

And, I did buy the DO for the 40D, but just as applicable o the MK III I think. If I find out differently, I'll get a 70-200 2.8. And very close on the numbers. I paid $700 for a used and mint 70-300 and sold the 70-200 for $975. But I do like the size and that it is more discreet. But with a MK III that all will likely change anyway.

More when the cam arrives - hopefully Wed but likely Thurs.

~Bob

Bob,

I've never gotten around to the stored settings, but I've heard others mention their use of them and they say they are pretty easy to get around. Keep an SD card in your second slot for storing or applying 10 sets of complete settings.

You can get to each of these things with a pretty quick menu selection.

There are three types of "saving" settings.

The most comprehensive is Save/Load Camera Settings from Media: you can save up to ten complete camera settings, including Cf settings, on a card. To retrieve them it's just going to a menu page and choosing the Save/Load option then the settings group (you can name them).

You also have a quick Register/Apply Basic Settings menu item on the same menu page as the previous that lets you store basic (operating) settings in a given scene, so if you change your type of shooting for whatever need you can quickly revert back. There is only one group of settings you can use for this.

Then, there is the Register/Apply Custom Functions choice that lets you store three different sets of Cfs. This is located on the Cf menu page, again, a quick press of the menu button then moving to that page to find it. This could be useful if your exposure type is all the same but you want to adjust your settings to fine-tune your AF, such as you might encounter with different wildlife scenarios where you use your AF differently. These are things 1D3 shooters have to juggle, becuase there are so many possible adjustments to fine-tune things.

So, it's more complex than just three dial twitches because the capabilities are more advanced. The closest to the three dial twitches are the 10 media-stored sets with all basic and Cf settings in there, but it may not be as quick as the Cf sets that are stored in-camera.

They do all require a menu operation, though, which makes things a bit slower than the dial twitch. They don't have dial, I believe, for weather-resistant reasons.

Good information. Thanks, Tony.

I might try putting these on the My Menu page and see if they are quick to access that way.

~Bob

rebop wrote in post #8347794
Good information. Thanks, Tony.

I might try putting these on the My Menu page and see if they are quick to access that way.

~Bob

The My Menu page is nice, but limited in how many items you can put in. I put some frequent things like Format, Mirror Lockup, a few more things, then it got full!

But, yeah, it is for most frequent uses, but really only a click or two away from the "normal" pages these things are in.

That's interesting. MLU is a given, but I don't understand why format. I format a new card, but then rarely if ever after that. Is there a reason to format more often with a 1D?

And then, would be interesting to know what else folks put on their My Menu page. I know its limited to 6 items and I'm thinking MLU, the Load Saved Settings, maybe the switch between the three CF sets, Flash enable and ISO and Shutter range.

~Bob

Never use the stored settings, my assumption is that they are similar to those the C1,2,3 on the 50D and any changes you make to those during the shoot and the camera goes to sleep the modifications need to be reset. Easier for me to just adjust to the circumstances.

I too use format and it is on the my menu, erasing images does remove the file structure (think that is right) and after several erasures your card loses capacity, not much at first but it can grow to the point where you should have only 128k used on a clean card but instead you find megabytes are tied up.

I don't understand why you would put ISO on the my menu when there is a dedicated button on the body for it.

On my menu is battery info, format, flash sync, Custom WB registration, Highlight tone priority, & MLU

ISO: I mean the ISO range setting, not the ISO. May not settle on that, whcih is why its interesting to see what others have chosen.

The formatting of cards is interesting. I got out my 4 cards and they all have identical capacity when the files have been removed by Lightoom after transfer. So I have never heard that frequent formatting was desirable or necessary.

I'll do a little Googling on that.

~Bob

For a long time it was "common wisdom" that it was better to format the card in the camera, and camera manuals told you to do that. I did notice, though, I think it was in the 1DM3 manual, that they said either in-camera or in the computer is fine. Whichever, I just got in the habit of formatting in camera rather than walking through it on the computer. But the option of having Lightroom move the files (which only works if you are doing an import from a file or folder rather than the Auto Import from a card) is fine but with such things it's suggested you do a periodic format anyway just to reset things.

Computer stuff is full of "common wisdom" types of things and you don't always know what's best! Why, I remember some years ago when there were all these stories about these computer viruses out doing things over the Internets, and a lot of us just kind of chuckled and shrugged it off 'cause no stinkin' viruses were buggin' us, I tell ya. Heh! Just goes to show how things can catch up to you! I hate anti-virus software, by the way!