Loss in Resale Value of 5D Mk3

[awinphoto]

Hahaha....  For me with my lens cap on photography, I like to use the light from my LCD to add a cool accent light on my subject, how about you?  haha It's just a pain that that light doesn't travel far!

What WB setting would I use for this? The LCD is kinda amber so I am thinking tungsten might fir the bill 

nope custom white balance all the way 

[Wrathwilde]

Shouldnt Canon be somehow more responsible in this Light Leak issue - even if its not an major issue - they have made it a big enough issue by statements they have issued along with affected serial numbers. New buyers dont seem interested in purchasing any of the 1X or 2X serial models. So we early adopters have been penalized by what something Canon is totally responsible for. If you tried to resell your camera that you bought last month you may have already lost a couple of hundred dollars because of the light leak issue. Apart from setting the price of the new Mk3 out of the reach (esp when compared with the D800) they have now reduced our investment, and dont seem to care.

That's absolutely right, your 5D3 isn't worth the plastic and metal that it's made of, you'll never get close to full retail for your camera... you'd be lucky to get 1/100th, but I'll make you a deal I'll give you 1/50th if you send your 5d mark III to me within the week... as long as it's still fully functional.

[awinphoto]

Shouldnt Canon be somehow more responsible in this Light Leak issue - even if its not an major issue - they have made it a big enough issue by statements they have issued along with affected serial numbers. New buyers dont seem interested in purchasing any of the 1X or 2X serial models. So we early adopters have been penalized by what something Canon is totally responsible for. If you tried to resell your camera that you bought last month you may have already lost a couple of hundred dollars because of the light leak issue. Apart from setting the price of the new Mk3 out of the reach (esp when compared with the D800) they have now reduced our investment, and dont seem to care.

That's absolutely right, your 5D3 isn't worth the plastic and metal that it's made of, you'll never get close to full retail for your camera... you'd be lucky to get 1/100th, but I'll make you a deal I'll give you 1/50th if you send your 5d mark III to me within the week... as long as it's still fully functional.

That's an excellent offer given the severity of the issue....  I hope youre not planning on lens-cap-on photography or you may be very bummed.  I would offer no more than 1/75 personally

[bonedaddy.p7]

I acknowledge that they offered to fix the problem if it exists. But its obvious why one does not want their 'brand new camera'  fixed. And they will have to convince any buyers down the road of their reason. But its a cop out by Canon. This is a design flaw, they should have replaced every single affected camera, or given users some kind of rebate for continuing to own a 'defective product'. I have a better word that describes this: "kyosei". (Japanese for F%$# every last cent from your most loyal customers).

 seriously, get a grip. This is in no way a cop-out, do you have any idea what this fix will cost Canon? Do you have any idea what it means to be an early adopter? yes, you get to play with the newest, shiniest toys but you also have to deal with the potential design quirks that are still being ironed out and limited compatibility until other manufacturers/developers catch up and integrate. This is the same reason I don't buy a car the first year it comes out; they always have small glitches to iron out, buying one used is not too big of a deal, provided the owner took them in for all the required work. As an engineer that designs products, I can attest to the fact that no amount of testing will provide a perfect product; there will always be some odd ball situation that someone will come up with (Like shooting with the lens cap on) and complain about it. I've had a user complain that my product doesn't work if you unplug it. well, guess what? neither does your tv, toaster, microwave, etc..
 If I buy a piece of electronics and they come out with a new board revision for a component inside of it, they're not going to offer you the new version if there's nothing wrong. At best, you can get yours modified. The only real way you will get a replacement is if it is a safety hazard (exploding batteries, under rated power supplies, etc)
 
 So let's pose this question: what do YOU want Canon to do? replace your camera? refund your money? write you a check for the $200 you probably won't lose?
 
 Guess what, it probably costs canon more money to apply this fix than you could potentially lose on resale. I think Canon has done more than enough and has earned more respect from me due to the incident.
 
 in summary: you're an early adopter who is unhappy that you found out what it means to be an early adopter. Great, get your camera fixed and it will be indistinguishable to a serial 3+ camera, then use it. if you're worried about resale, go get a niche camera that depreciates slower (Leica, medium format, etc...)
 

[atvinyard]

I would expect your resale value to be about like the resale value of the previous 5Ds.  When the Mark IV comes out, you'll probably be able to sell it for about half what the origional price was.  When the Mark V comes out you can probably expect to get about a quarter of what you origionally paid for it.  Seems like the resale value is cut in half with each new iteration. Its not an abrupt change, but over time, the general trend seems to be about 50% depreciation by the time the next model comes out.

No one will care about the light leak issue by that time.  Not that many people seriously care about it now.

[neuroanatomist]

Not that many people seriously care about it now.

Dude, where have you been?  It's clearly the be-all, end-all issue for many people.  At least nine photographers are known to have free-climbed to the top of the Canon S Tower in Tokyo and jumped to their death after learning that they had paid good money for a camera so defective that the metering was perturbed by activating the top LCD light when the lens cap was in place.  There have also been reports of people wrapping themselves in light-blocking tape and burning themselves in effigy in front Canon's regional headquarters offices in the USA and several European countries, to protest Canon's inadequate fix for this problem.

[mitchell3417]

Canon acknowledged the 'issue' (I'll stop short of calling it a bona fide problem).  They offered to fix it, for free.  What, you now expect them to refund part of your payment as well?  New buyers here probably care a lot more about 'affected' bodies - even then, a significant number of people indicated that they have no intention of send their camera in for the fix.

nuff said

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Do you have a 5DIII?  If so, are you planning to sell it next month?  Most people will keep a body for a few years.  By then, not many buyers will know or care about it (yes, some will, but it's unlikely to have any impact on selling the camera).

Totally. In 6 months no one will even remember.

Actually, I do remember it happening when the 5D MK II was new, someone discovered it.  Now, few people remember, because it was a non issue.

[V8Beast]

There have also been reports of people wrapping themselves in light-blocking tape and burning themselves in effigy in front Canon's regional headquarters offices in the USA and several European countries, to protest Canon's inadequate fix for this problem.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I wonder what all the Nikon guys have planned to protest the blurry viewfinders, oil-spotted sensors, scratched mirrors, green-tinted LCD screens, random lockups, and soft left-side auto focus points of their D800s?

[unfocused]

burning themselves in effigy in front Canon's regional headquarters

Well...if I were to burn myself, I'd rather do it in effigy. Hurts less.

[briansquibb]

I found putting a hole in the black plastic on the front of the lens helped a bit. Cant work out how to screw a filter on there yet.

Low light performance seems quite poor

[V8Beast]

For me with my lens cap on photography, I like to use the light from my LCD to add a cool accent light on my subject, how about you?  haha It's just a pain that that light doesn't travel far!

Great tip. I haven't tried that yet, but if Canon sensors weren't so miserable in the DR department, I wouldn't have to do that, as I'd have the luxury of pushing the exposure five stops in photoshop.

[Positron]

burning themselves in effigy in front Canon's regional headquarters

Well...if I were to burn myself, I'd rather do it in effigy. Hurts less.

Where were you in the DxO thread? And more importantly, where's the applaud button when you need it?

[edawg]

Taken with my light leaking "1" series 5d III which I received on Mar 22. I do lots of travel photography including night and long exposures. LCD on or off, every DSLR meter I have ever seen has underexposed in extremely low light. Anyone with experience knows you need to use the histogram if you want to create an adequate low light exposure. Obviously, the leak has not been an issue for me thus I don't plan on getting it fixed.

[V8Beast]

Taken with my light leaking "1" series 5d III which I received on Mar 22. I do lots of travel photography including night and long exposures. LCD on or off, every DSLR meter I have ever seen has underexposed in extremely low light. Anyone with experience knows you need to use the histogram if you want to create an adequate low light exposure. Obviously, the leak has not been an issue for me thus I don't plan on getting it fixed.

Great shot! What cracks me up about the whole light leak saga is that back in the film days, the light meters were so bad that no one in their right mind relied on it for long exposures at night. You'd just start by overexposing whatever reading the light meter indicated by a couple of stops, bracketed a ton of frames, and hoped that one of them turned out OK. Even then, you had things like reciprocity failure to contend with. In contrast, a light leak - even if it does exist - doesn't change the fact that you have the luxury of reviewing an image and histogram on the LCD screen almost instantaneously, and adjusting the exposure if necessary. I suppose that's too much effort in this day and age.