Messages

1

EOS Bodies / Re: 5D3: ISO 160, 320, 640 etc cleanest ISOs?

« on: April 17, 2012, 10:17:24 AM »

Whether it's native or not, the multiples of 160 definitely look better in videos and stills.  So that's what I'm going to stick with.

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EOS Bodies / Re: 5D3: ISO 160, 320, 640 etc cleanest ISOs?

« on: April 17, 2012, 02:12:35 AM »

Here is a very unscientific test I just did in my Kitchen as I was very interested in this as well.  It runs out when shooting RAW, staying in multiples of 160 definitely pays off.  I purposely underexposed the shot, shot it in RAW, and then pushed it 5 stops in LR to bring out the noise.  These are 100% crops with ISO 320 showing considerably less noise than ISO 250. 

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark iii AF issues

« on: April 09, 2012, 11:56:35 PM »

Yes I've tried it with multiple lenses and multiple focusing modes, including expansion.  The results are very erratic.  Sometimes it will be great.  Sometime it will totally front focus, and sometimes it will back focus.  All without even moving my tripod in front of the brick wall...which like mentioned above, is not hard at all to focus on to.  : /  I seriously DON'T want to send it back, but I will if I have to.  I wish B&H wasn't closed for another week. 

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / 5D Mark iii AF issues

« on: April 09, 2012, 03:37:14 PM »

I've gone through and tried af fine tuning.  Tried turning it off.  Etc.  Here's my issue with my 5d Mark iii camera that I want so desperately to love.  Maybe I have a dud?  I dunno? I will put the camera on a tripod, point it at a brick wall and focus and shoot, and sometimes it will nail it, and sometimes it will be dreadfully soft.  I'm using the center point.  I've tried all different focusing modes, and I'm shooting a very contrasty (should be easy to focus on) brick wall.  Again, it's about 50/50.  Sometimes it nails it.  Other times it locks on very fast, which is great.  I take the shot, zoom in and see how ugly soft the image is. 

The reason I'm even doing these test is I've taken it on two engagement shoots so far.  And have seen this issue.  There will be times when it will lock SOLID on exactly what I'm trying to focus on, I'll take the shot and it's awfully soft.  Other times it was doing great.  So I was thinking it was user error until I set up these very controlled tests shooting at a brick wall.  I'm shooting with nice L lenses as well.  Any help?  What would you do?  Would you send it in?  Would you return and just get a new one? 

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Lenses / Sigma 85 1.4 vs Canon 85 1.2L

« on: April 05, 2012, 01:43:04 PM »

I'm about to invest in an 85mm lens and I've heard amazing things about both of these lenses.  Is the 85L really $1000 better than the sigma?  I shoot weddings, and want that beautiful creamy look that is so famous in Canon's L primes.  Have any of you used both of these lenses?  What would you recommend?  Thanks!

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EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Mark iii focusing issues

« on: March 26, 2012, 01:54:44 PM »

You scared me into doing the leaning ruler test (a'la the lens cal things they charge $80 for). On my 24-105L, 5d3, I tested every af mode without any prior calibration at a close and far distance...and I'm happy to report the focus was always dead on to the millimeter.

So there is at least one 5d3 in the world that with a 3 year old 24-105L focuses perfectly straight out of the box.

Sorry if your camera and lens fairs worse than this, but I am really impressed with the AF system!

Thanks for Posting!  That's seriously great to hear.  I want so bad to love this camera, but haven't been able to yet because of that.  I need to test with another lens as well to see if it's just the lens or just the body or a bit of both. 

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EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Mark iii focusing issues

« on: March 26, 2012, 01:38:07 PM »

It would be useful if people posted their relevant settings when making complaints. So what AF mode and point selection are you using? This is a completely new and complex autofocus system and I wouldn't do manual calibration until I had mastered it completely. I have no idea if you've done that study from this post, but if you haven't fully understood the system, default away all those calibrations as they may just hang over your situation.

I'm on a tripod shooting at a tack sharp image on a wall using the center focus point on one shot AF.  There's not a lot you can mess up there. If I don't put in any AF fine tuning, the image looks somewhat great at distances greater than 10-12 feet.  But as soon as I get closer (4-8 feet), the image is badly soft and back focused.  Again...on a tripod, center focus point.  If I fine tune the lens, I get great results at 4-8 feet, but as soon as I move the tripod back to 10-12 feet, now the images are severely front focused.

So the different autofocus modes (available from the M.Fn button) you are using the leftmost spot focusing mode? because that is a very narrow pinpoint focus. I wonder if changing the mode to different ones (say expand or surround) will alter the situation.

No I'm using the one right next to that.  Just the normal spot focus.  Not the "NARROW" spot focus that there's an option for.  The spot focus SHOULD be able to hand a flat image on a wall on a tripod in complete controlled environment with plenty of light...right!?

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EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Mark iii focusing issues

« on: March 26, 2012, 01:31:23 PM »

Hi there!

I've had the 5D3 for 3 days and I'm loving it so far.  Despite one big major pitfall.  While the AF is lightning fast, it seems to produce soft images.  I had issues with 50-70% of my images turning out very soft, even in controlled conditions.  I decided to print out a focusing chart and see if my lens was back/front focusing.  Turns out in my test, it was severely backfocusing.  Corrected the probably (-15 af fine tune) and was in love with what I was getting with anything 4-8 feet away from me.  Then I took a picture of something further away, and now it severely back focuses.  As in, the camera/lens need the AF fine tune with close subjects, but not with far subjects.  So how do I calibrate for back focusing when I'm close to my subject, but then normal or front focusing when I'm far from my subject.

I experienced something similar with my 5DmkIII using even the single spot center focus point (hey, am still used to my old obsolete AF system from my mkII after all ).  I did not try MA because I decided to get a different unit and returned the one I had instead...

I may end up doing this.     I don't want to.  Are you just returning it and re-buying it or did you send it into Canon? 

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EOS Bodies / Re: 5D Mark iii focusing issues

« on: March 26, 2012, 01:29:08 PM »

It would be useful if people posted their relevant settings when making complaints. So what AF mode and point selection are you using? This is a completely new and complex autofocus system and I wouldn't do manual calibration until I had mastered it completely. I have no idea if you've done that study from this post, but if you haven't fully understood the system, default away all those calibrations as they may just hang over your situation.

I'm on a tripod shooting at a tack sharp image on a wall using the center focus point on one shot AF.  There's not a lot you can mess up there. If I don't put in any AF fine tuning, the image looks somewhat great at distances greater than 10-12 feet.  But as soon as I get closer (4-8 feet), the image is badly soft and back focused.  Again...on a tripod, center focus point.  If I fine tune the lens, I get great results at 4-8 feet, but as soon as I move the tripod back to 10-12 feet, now the images are severely front focused. 

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EOS Bodies / 5D Mark iii focusing issues

« on: March 26, 2012, 12:50:17 PM »

Hi there!

I've had the 5D3 for 3 days and I'm loving it so far.  Despite one big major pitfall.  While the AF is lightning fast, it seems to produce soft images.  I had issues with 50-70% of my images turning out very soft, even in controlled conditions.  I decided to print out a focusing chart and see if my lens was back/front focusing.  Turns out in my test, it was severely backfocusing.  Corrected the probably (-15 af fine tune) and was in love with what I was getting with anything 4-8 feet away from me.  Then I took a picture of something further away, and now it severely back focuses.  As in, the camera/lens need the AF fine tune with close subjects, but not with far subjects.  So how do I calibrate for back focusing when I'm close to my subject, but then normal or front focusing when I'm far from my subject.

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EOS Bodies / Re: So frustrated with new 5DmkIII - returning it!

« on: March 26, 2012, 12:39:47 PM »

So I have been thinking the EXACT SAME thing as JR...that's it's soft.  I focus locks, I take the picture, and the image is soft.  In camera I'll zoom to 100% and see how soft it is.  It has been driving me nuts.  About 20% of my photos are sharp, but even still, not that incredibly sharp.  I was SURE it was my unit, and I had played around with af fine tuning...but decided to print out the test that was posted here earlier.  I printed it out, did the test and WOW!  That helped TREMENDOUSLY!  My camera/lens was backfocusing.  I had to set it to -15 to get it in the sweet spot.  Now the images are MUCH more tack sharp.  Thank you for posting that link to the Focus Chart.  : )

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EOS Bodies / Re: 5D mk3 - A few complaints

« on: March 26, 2012, 04:22:21 AM »

I know the rating button is honestly useless to many.  But I'm actually excited about it.  I do same day slideshows at weddings, and throughout the day as I see an image I like, I can very easily rate it without even really thinking about it.  Then by the time the reception hits, I can pop in my card, and just use the rated images, and I instantly have 20-30 favorite images from the day.  No more quickly culling through the images to find the best shots. 

On the AF note though...I also have been a little dissapointed.  I am switching from Nikon so right now only have the 50 1.4 and I'm glad to hear that others haven't liked that lens.  I'm hoping the images turn out to be sharper with the 1.2.  We'll see.  Sometimes it'll nail it, most times it wont.   And I'm shooting at 2.0-2.8.  On Nikon I could easily shoot at 2.0 and have things TACK SHARP!  Hoping I can do the same on Canon. 

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark 3 Queue @ B&H

« on: March 22, 2012, 02:15:49 PM »

naterz, body only or Kit?

body only

i haven't got the email notification yet, but if i check my order status, it says shipped with tracking number.

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark 3 Queue @ B&H

« on: March 22, 2012, 01:25:01 PM »

Good news!  I'm order number 540xx and my status on B&H says shipped.  So I should get mine tomorrow.  It has a tracking number and all!  WAHOOOO!!!  I was worried that I wouldn't be on the first batch.  Looks like they got a BUNCH!

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EOS Bodies - For Stills / Re: 5D Mark 3 Queue @ B&H

« on: March 22, 2012, 11:45:48 AM »

My debit card was just charged!  I hope that means that they'll be shipping out today.  My order number ends in 540xx so I think there are quite a few before me, but if my card was charged, that means they're shipping soon right?