dslr.ws

Canon is apparently halting the sale of their high-end 1D Mark III digital SLR, at least in the UK, and recalling unsold products so they can fix an issue with the autofocus. They won’t replace sold units, but they will repair them.

From the letter they sent to the dealers, the issue is apparently in “the adjustment of the AF Sub Mirror,” and Canon states that they believe that the issue only affects “a minority of the units in the market at this time.”

The phenomenon resulting from this problem (especially in high temperature) is that the optimal focus point is uncertain in AI servo mode, or that the tracking performance of AI Servo is not accurate.

It sounds like the firmware update that Canon released for the 1DMkIII a few weeks ago — which claims fixes in the autofocus system — may not have fully addressed the 1D Mark III auto focus issues that had been reported a while back. There’s no guarantee that this recall is related to that previously reported auto focus issue, but it seems like a good guess, and we’re all about making guesses around here. Facts? Facts are for the uncreative people of the world.

Normally all of this information comes out at once: camera names, specs, price, ship dates, etc. Nikon seems to enjoy trickling out little bits of information over time. I guess if I wanted to teach them a lesson I wouldn’t keep posting when they’re announced — and, to be honest, I’ve posted some Nikon rumors about these cameras. I guess I can forgive myself, especially with the D3, since it’s a fairly major camera.

Anyway, the new details announced by Nikon Japan says that the Nikon D300 will go on sale on November 23, and the Nikon D3 will go on sale on November 30. The new 500mm and 600mm lenses will go on sale in January, while the other new lenses will be on sale on November 30th along with the D3 (and the WT-4, as well.)

Also, the first 300,000 buyers — how many are they planning on selling, exactly? — will get CaptureNX for free.

All of you web sites that get these cameras when they come out (and earlier) for review purposes (i.e., not me) better hurry up with your reviews. I want to read about these guys. No, I’m not going to dress up as a D3 for Halloween, I’ll leave that to somebody more obsessive. I’ll just sit on the sidelines and wait for reviews and sample photos.

Adding themselves to the Canon 40D review pile-on, Imaging Resource has posted their review. The main point is that not a whole lot has changed from the earlier D models, but that’s a good thing: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and that line of cameras has always been well-liked and produced excellent images.

From the various improvements that it does have, Imaging Resource likes the sealed body, the faster frame rates for burst shooting, and the larger viewfinder; the reviewer doesn’t really care so much about live view, the larger LCD display, or the increase in resolution.

They did find a few issues with the autofocus system which I haven’t seen mentioned in other reviews. It may not be much, but it may be something worth considering. Autofocus is one of those features that lots of people overlook, but plays a much bigger role in real-life shooting conditions than many people think about. Here’s what the review has to say about the issues they saw:

Canon says that the various improvements make the EOS 40D’s autofocus calculation speed 30 percent faster and more accurate than the EOS 30D, and better in low light. The 20D and 30D have what I consider to be the best low light AF system on the market for the price, focusing on a person lit only by a television screen, and it does seem that the 40D can best them in some situations.

However, there have been quite a few situations where the Canon 40D kept on seeking when the 20D just quickly found and locked focus, specifically when the 40D was in Multi-point AF mode. I’ve found a few situations where the Canon 40D just seeks and seeks, and never stops. Most cameras give up after a few seconds. This is the first autofocus SLR of any make that I’ve seen do this. You can turn Focus Seek off in the Custom Function menu, but that still doesn’t stop the endless seeking. Oddly, this occurs more for me in vertical mode.

In horizontal mode, Dave had a heck of a time getting the Canon 40D’s top center AF point to focus on Marti’s hair during the indoor shots. Hair isn’t the best place to focus, of course, but it works well enough when we do it with other cameras. In Dave’s case, the camera said it was in focus, but it was either front- or back-focusing.

When shooting a soccer match in AI Servo mode recently, the Canon 40D had a hard time finding and keeping focus on my subject. It was usually okay if I could keep the player over the center point, but not always. It still randomly focused many yards behind a player for one frame, then snapped back to proper focus, then back out. Soccer is an extreme example — and I am spoiled by shooting the 1D Mark II N, and even the 1D Mark III — but the 20D does better than the 40D in these situations. I got better results shooting in AI Focus mode, which is probably more appropriate for a more random movement game like soccer.

However, when it’s working well, the AF is very good:

Testing in the lab proved that the EOS 40D does even better than the company claims, focusing accurately at less than -0.5 EV (1/4 foot candle), all the way down to 1/16 foot candle, the lowest light level we test. Of course, that’s with a high-contrast black and white test target, and we have no way of knowing what Canon’s test conditions are.

In summary, I’ve found the Canon 40D’s AF system to be stronger in some ways and weaker in others when compared to the more predictable 20D and 30D AF system. I got more consistent results in single-point AF mode.

Personally, I’m ok with that, since I always shoot with just the center AF point selected, and I know a lot of other photographers do the same thing. Maybe camera makers need to find some extra-special improvements that they can offer for shooters like us — an extra-super-sensitive center AF point? I suppose they already did that by making the center point cross-type before the other points (though on the 40D they’re all cross-type) but maybe there’s something left, like the Olympus E-3′s new double cross AF points? Just a random, uneducated thought.

Other possible significant negatives that the review points out are horizontal banding at 3200 ISO and a shorter battery life, due to the larger LCD screen and the automatic anti-dust shake system.

Be sure to check out the full review for all the details and the sample pictures, as always.

The good people over at Luminous Landscapes have posted a “first impressions” essay based on a pre-production Canon 1DsMkIII. It’s very preliminary, and he warns people not to put too much stock in any one part of the post, since he was just out taking photographs for fun, not for evaluation or comparison purposes.

That said, he did shoot enough to come up with, as promised, some first impressions:

Auto white balance is as good as I’ve ever seen. Tonal renditions are excellent, and it appears that the 14 bit processing capability is of definite value, especially when working on files which require some extensive manipulation.

At 21 MP the extra pixels are very welcome for either making big prints, or cropping. I have not done any comparisons yet to a 1Ds MKII or the 5D (I plan on doing this before my Madagascar report appears in mid-November).

My quick summery is that the 1Ds MKIII is Canon’s best camera yet for anyone that doesn’t specifically need higher frame rates for sports or similar subjects. The camera has excellent image quality, much improved features and user interface, a much superior battery system, faster frame rate, etc etc.

Sounds good to me! Even more entertaining is this little blurb about an upcoming trip to Madagascar and the opportunities that will bring for a more extensive look at the 1Ds Mark III. My favorite part is to see what he considers traveling light:

Our shoot will encompass landscape, wildlife, and cultural photography, and we’ll be offroading, flying in small planes, canoeing, camping, and hiking – what promises to be a pretty rugged journey. We have to travel light, so what camera gear to bring is going to be a tough choice. Right now the 1Ds MKIII will be my primary camera, with a 5D as backup. I also have a Canon G9 along as my pocket snapshot camera. My lens choices aren’t final yet, but I’m thinking of the 24-105mm f/4L IS, the 50mm f/1.4, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, and 100-400mm f/5.6L IS. All of this and whatever other shooting gear I bring will have to fit in a Lowepro Minitrecker. A 13″ Macbook Pro and 4 portable hard drives totaling about 300GB of storage, as well as a satellite phone, will travel in a rolling briefcase, and everything else including tripod, chargers and clothes in a duffle bag.

Two DSLRs, one point and shoot, four lenses, a laptop, four hard drives, a satellite phone, and a tripod. And here I’m often leaving my single DSLR and its two (relatively) small lenses behind because I don’t want to deal with the bulkiness. I’m clearly not doing this right.