My experience so far buying a 1D MKIII Refurbished

Thought this might be interesting for some and also a place I can ask more questions as they arise.

Received my refurb 1D MKIII yesterday from Adorama. Sealed Canon White Box marked REFURBISHED. Most things looked brand new, with just a few exceptions.

First, the camera. Immaculate and indistinguishable from new. 1.25 firmware installed. Serial number indicated post first focus fix. I emailed Canon to ask if it had the second fix and they have no record of any service on this serial number, so I imagine another production line did the refurbing. SO will need to test for off center focus points this weekend. But very happy with the camera.

Most accessories look new with the exception of the charger which is well used. Surprised me that would have shipped that way but it is a refurb and it does perform perfectly. Would have liked a little cleaner charger, but will live with it. Its maybe a 7 on a scale of 10.

But, struggled for quite a while trying to put the eyecup on and no luck. I finally Google images of it and it turns out they packed a "B" for the 40-50D instead of the "G" for the 1D. I called Canon this morning and they are sending a replacement.

Camera has 0 dead pixels and only 2 hot at 1 and 2 second exposures, so very pleased there. A small amout of dust left over from a cleaning which I will get with Eclipse this weekend.

About all for now. Tonight starts the setup phase and testing more over the weekend.

40D with lots of extras will be going up for sale here shortly.

~Bob

Post pictures, we should make a thread all about refurbs, with reviews and pictures illustrating, and where we bought it from, it'd make a great guide for refurb buyers, if more people are up for it, i'll take some of my 5d a little awhile from adorama refurbed!

Have you set the shooting speed to H yet and experienced it ripping 10 FPS? First time I did it I had a smile that lasted all day!

Not yet, but I will

Congrats on your MK III! Sadly, my MK III has been sitting on the sidelines since I have the 1Ds MK III but, it's still a great camera.

I have had my Canon Mark III factory refurb from Adorama now for 2 weeks. Perfect AF focus for the first time finally. The camera body looks brand new so are the accessories also. The only difference between new & refurb is the color of the box it came in. What made me decide to try another Mark III was Adorama return & warranty on it & the price. For the time I can say it's a keeper. My serial #57xxx has not had the March 2009 fix it's getting it now.

I've had my III refurbished from Adormama for a couple of months now, yes the first time I used H, a man standing near me was quite startled, "hey your camera sounds funny".

Love this camera, really, really love this camera. I bought an extra battery and they are amazing, I am getting between 3,000 and 4,000 frames per charge shooting RAW.

The only thing other than everything seeming new was that the charger only had one protective cover.

Refurb Canon Mark III & 300 f2.8 & 1.4 in harsh Florida light. PP exposure + 1/3 & a little USM

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Really nice pic.

Tell me, what exactly do they do for the March fix and what is the easiest way to tell if it is needed? I understand its soft images with any but center AF selected, but is there more to it?

rebop wrote in post #8371596
Really nice pic.

Tell me, what exactly do they do for the March fix and what is the easiest way to tell if it is needed? I understand its soft images with any but center AF selected, but is there more to it?

out of focus, not soft.

rebop wrote in post #8371596
Really nice pic.

Tell me, what exactly do they do for the March fix and what is the easiest way to tell if it is needed? I understand its soft images with any but center AF selected, but is there more to it?

In my case, all my images seemed to lack any predictable focus point despite careful single point focus which included centre point. This wasn't just at high temperatures involved as some users had reported. (we haven't had a high-temperature summer in the UK this year). The body was unusable really.
The difference since April has been incredible and I now have the camera working predictably. Its so easy now. That's why it was to be the camera of choice for professionals. They can't afford to go out on any assignment and come back with nothing.
One of the early symptoms of a fault was shown by taking a continuous sequence of shots of a moving target (running towards you) and noticing whether any of the sequence appear to have lost focus. I noticed that problem the first time out, but was advised that it was "user error". At that time, the body had already been back to Canon and should have had the equivalent of the "Blue dots" fix. However, I believe that my body had another fault related to focus accuracy. After the recall, both problems have now disappeared.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, Luke.

But from what I understand, and correct me folks if I am wrong, that was for the first sub mirror fix. This March problem is different and again, if I understand correctly, this was when using a single AF point which was NOt the center point and it would not have perfect focus.

If that is correct, I just took a series of shots using the middle 9 AF points in low light and quite pleased with the focus. And VERY pleased with the color. Amazing how different the color pops from my 40D. But, is that enough of a test to show this problem is not on my camera? If not, what would be? Bursts with off center AF?

Appreciate any insight. Googling was not helping me find how to test for this one.

~Bob

Got my 1D mkIII refurb from Adorama in November of '08. Everything in the
white "refurb" box appeared to be new - not a mark or blemish on anything.
The camera has performed flawlessly in all conditions (got rained on Monday,
still 100%!).
Oh yes, I'm VERY pleased with my refurb, will purchase refurbs again without hesitation.

Not a "new" refurb..but I have a 40D enroute to me from a member on here. Was a Adorama refurb and said to be in good condition.

Will post pics and experience...

Subscribed.

OK, I am sure I read this, but cannot find the setting that allows me to save images to the CF card and save camera settings to the SD. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.