Canon EOS 5D Mark III Blinking Red AF Point Information

[Marsu42]

I dont care, i just dont want it to be a step backwards from the 5D II

You can't make an omelet w/o breaking eggs, most successors to tech products have some regressions if you really, really search for them.

I was pretty shocked by the poster above who asked for apologies and even money.  Can we please avoid badmouthing Canon for not delivering things they never promised?

+1 ... everyone was rather surprised that they put the 1dx af system into the 5d3. Whatever the motivation, avoiding different parts or making up for the lack of sensor advancement - the same basic af system doesn't mean that all 1dx features (like f8-af, metering on af) will or must be available on the much cheaper 5d3, even if $3500 is a lot of money. If they would have put an inferior "5d-special" system into the 5d3 people wouldn't be complaining, that's a bit strange.

Note: You pay for a camera that is available, not what could be potentially be added to it. If it is too expensive then wait and watch the feature list and fw updates, actually that's what I'm doing right now.

[carlc]

attn:  bkorcel, I have an offer for you.  How about I trade you a little of my kindness and respect for others for your eyesight?  My sight is failing and I need all the help I can get through the viewfinder.  And one more thought; you might be the answer to all my retirement needs:  I just buy you for what your worth and sell you for what you think your worth....

PLEASE!  If that is a reason to return your MK3 in favor of the 7D then you obviously spent too much money for your ability.  GO ahead and return it or sell it and those of us who use the 5D3 will continue to turn out better pictures with less noise and higher resolution.

At least they should try to make the outline of the focus square box (selected AF point) bolder.  At the current "very thin lines" it is very hard to find against any back ground but white.  I shoot single point most of the time and compared to my 7D the 5DMkIII is a pain in the bippy.  A bolder box should not affect metering unless the bolder lines will emit more light the instant it flashes red when focus is confirmed.

At this point I am considering the return of my MkIII and just go back to my 7D.  Otherwise it is a wonderful camera body.

[neuroanatomist]

I dont care, i just dont want it to be a step backwards from the 5D II, i would be happy with the same funcionality if more cant be done. But less is just not an option.

What you got was a transmissive LCD enabling the on-demand display of AF points.  In exchange for red AF points in AI Servo, would you like all 61 of those points visible as black squares all of the time?  You can turn that on in the menu options, try it and see what you think, if they get in the way of seeing your subject, and then imagine them being darker and more evident (which they would be, if etched in the focus screen). 

[nwardrip]

I'd rather have metering linked to AF point, than a red blinking one anyway.

And I shoot most frequently in very dark circumstances, usually in AI Servo... I've just gotten used to it.  If I don't know where the AF point is, I just move it back and forth (which lights it up a bit).  Thumb is always on the joystick anyway.

The metering at the center, regardless of AF point is what really kills me

I, too, really wish the metering was linked to the AF point on the 5D3, but the density of the focus points versus the density of the metering grid does not match well, so I don't think that this is a likely 5D3 feature.  The 5D3 and 7D share the same 63-zone, 9x7 grid.  On the 7D (which has AF point-linked exposure), the focus points directly matched up with the exposure metering region, as can be seen in this graphic from the-digital-picture 7D review:



So AF-linked exposure was a no-brainer.  Not so on the 5D3.  However, on the 1DX, the metering grid is now 4x more dense (252 zones or 18x14), plus it has the 100K pixel RGB metering sensor, so it can match up the regions and pixels closest to the AF point with much more precision.

[AlicoatePhotography]

I don't get this whole problem.  How hard is it to move your thumb one centimeter and touch the focus selection button?  It lights up and you can see what is selected.  If you need confirmation of AF, then use one shot. I have a 7D and it isn't significantly different in practice than my 5DMKIII.  If you are in that low of light, I would use center focus anyway and not be using AIServo.  5D is really a great camera as witnessed by this nitpicking.

[Drizzt321]

I don't get this whole problem.  How hard is it to move your thumb one centimeter and touch the focus selection button?  It lights up and you can see what is selected.  If you need confirmation of AF, then use one shot. I have a 7D and it isn't significantly different in practice than my 5DMKIII.  If you are in that low of light, I would use center focus anyway and not be using AIServo.  5D is really a great camera as witnessed by this nitpicking.

Why should I be using center point and AI-Servo when I have 41 cross-points (maybe not as great as the dual cross, but still damn good). I wouldn't have been able to get some of the shots here, which are of someone surfing, at night, next to the Santa Monica Pier with the Ferris wheel providing some light. With him moving, I needed to keep it on AI-Servo the entire time, and it was impossible to see which AF points were currently tracking him. I had to use the AF point select button to get the AF point highlighted to put over top of him to start the AF-Servo tracking. Frankly, it shows how amazing the system is that once I got it to lock after a second or two, it kept tracking him with surprising accuracy in such crappy and changing lighting conditions. But. I still would have liked to have gotten the feedback that the AF point that was currently locked was still over the subject. Would have been much nicer.

[AlicoatePhotography]

So would you want multiple points flashing constantly?  If you are using multiple points to track the subject, I would think you would have a pretty bright VF.  Would you have been able to effectively see the subject at that point.  Cool photos by the way.  They really look bad in the thumbnail scale, but when you go into them, you can really see some decent detail there, and the shallow depth of field is nice. 

I usually use AI Servoe with one point and I keep that point on my subject.  Center point is easiest, but I will use others, I just need to remember where they are. 

Another workaround other than pushing the AF selector button is to change your orientation from Portrait to Landscape or vice versa.  The indicator of how your af point is selected will show up.  this might be tied into having a separate vertical point from a horizontal point.  It works for me though.  It is brief, but it helps.  Especially if you had gloves on or something and could hit buttons other than the shutter button.  It could happen.

[wickidwombat]

just make it available as a selectable option

I dont give a rats ass if it affects metering
Why?
Because in Manual and spot metering it only uses the center
so I meter before focusing anyway
Since I use Manual and spot focus I would rather have the red AF points
and make it selectable so people that find it affects their metering with how they shoot
can turn it off

just give us the ability to turn the damn thing on!

And let us customise the rate button while they are at it

[Bosman]

Comment i didn't like. just buy a 1dx if you want that.

WTH Canon, April 2013 for firmware? What in the world, this isn't coming up with an anti virus for anthrax. Are these guys geniuses or not? How can I think Canon has their crap together when they claimed F8 wasn't possible on the 1dx. What is their angle or game or are they really that incompetent. I know i couldn't ever do this kinda thing but a multi billion dollar company that doesn't have the brightest minds on this makes me wonder. What is the angle on the timeline??? If they were smart they would have polled photographers about this asking what would you rather have this or that (in reference to interchangeable screens or the new kind they use). You know the guys shooting with the demo's were like, wth this is a pain when its dark. Jeff Ascough is also saying wth, why are my zoom buttons not where they have always been. I know we can change things as time progresses on but the changes they are making aren't seemingly well thought out, which also makes me think that can't be true so what's the angle?
Rant I Know lol.

[sanj]

At least they should try to make the outline of the focus square box (selected AF point) bolder.  At the current "very thin lines" it is very hard to find against any back ground but white.  I shoot single point most of the time and compared to my 7D the 5DMkIII is a pain in the bippy.  A bolder box should not affect metering unless the bolder lines will emit more light the instant it flashes red when focus is confirmed.

At this point I am considering the return of my MkIII and just go back to my 7D.  Otherwise it is a wonderful camera body.

Sir don't. 5D3 has much better quality and lens options on the wide side. Regards.

[sanj]

I am in minority here but this is a non issue for me. Does not bother me much.

[thelebaron]

how much work do you think they are putting into this update? think we'll get any other unexpected bonus updates/improvements?

[Louis]

Keeping you waiting to April 2013 could be a marketing strategy, To keep you happy with the 5D3 until they announce some other camera, it wouldn't surprise me,

[Marsu42]

Keeping you waiting to April 2013 could be a marketing strategy, To keep you happy with the 5D3 until they announce some other camera, it wouldn't surprise me,

If so, I don't see any 5d3 users happy to wait until April ... more likely that just like the af servo indicators the 5d3 is a bit different from the 1dx and they need a lot of testing with their lens lineup to make it work reliably - just enabling it and saying "try if it works for you" isn't a thing you can do with a camera of this category. The other possibility for the delay is that they're trying to include the af servo indicator fix, too.

[ScottyP]

attn:  bkorcel, I have an offer for you.  How about I trade you a little of my kindness and respect for others for your eyesight?  My sight is failing and I need all the help I can get through the viewfinder.  And one more thought; you might be the answer to all my retirement needs:  I just buy you for what your worth and sell you for what you think your worth....

PLEASE!  If that is a reason to return your MK3 in favor of the 7D then you obviously spent too much money for your ability.  GO ahead and return it or sell it and those of us who use the 5D3 will continue to turn out better pictures with less noise and higher resolution.

At least they should try to make the outline of the focus square box (selected AF point) bolder.  At the current "very thin lines" it is very hard to find against any back ground but white.  I shoot single point most of the time and compared to my 7D the 5DMkIII is a pain in the bippy.  A bolder box should not affect metering unless the bolder lines will emit more light the instant it flashes red when focus is confirmed.

At this point I am considering the return of my MkIII and just go back to my 7D.  Otherwise it is a wonderful camera body.

A classy response to a nasty comment.  Your attacker says you spent too much money for your ability level, but I think what he did was spend too much money for his comfort level, and it is making him hyper-defensive of the camera body to justify the purchase to himself.