A bit more about the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III [CR2]

Oct 22, 2014
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This is completely absurd. I could afford to buy several 1DX MkIIs right now if I really wanted to. You know why? Because I have a very deeply entrenched habit of not spending excess money where I don't really have to.

I buy third party batteries, and at the price they cost, I can get way more of them for the same price than if I bought Canon batteries. So even if the life is not quite as good as Canon, I'm still getting more battery capacity for the money.

This trope of "well if you can afford the camera you should be able to afford the Canon batteries" sounds just like some elitist nonsense to me. None of us have unlimited resources. And even though I could buy hundreds and hundreds of official Canon batteries if I wanted to, I choose not to buy any. Because then I can put those monetary resources to use elsewhere... Towards other cameras, lenses, or even a plane ticket so I can go actually use my gear somewhere.
Right, "I could afford to buy several 1DX MkIIs right now if I really wanted to" If you can truly afford it, it's not going to be a huge issue to buy a few extra batteries.
If you're talking about putting it on a credit card (which at that point, I too, can "afford" about ten of them), than you can't actually afford the camera. Having credit isn't the same as being able to afford something.
 
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I have even sold my 5d IV. My eos r is just not as good as my 5d IV was. I don't use AF a lot so I don't really mind. Waiting for the eos r pro .....

If you don't use AF a lot, the enhancements in AF made available by the R would be lost on you. I thought I would miss the joystick, but touch and drag combined with eye AF has improved my keeper rate. I also appreciate the lighter weight, and the fact that the RF 24-105 is significantly better than the EF 24-105. Looking forward to the 15-35, and the smaller, lighter RF 70-200 as well.
 
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SecureGSM

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I wonder what the "new feature" on the battery itself is? Only two things come to mind:
1) Some sort of indicator for the level, and maybe a smart chip allowing rapid charging to 80%
2) A built in USB-C charging port.
3) Cease / disable the camera AF ability when a non genuine battery in use is detected. Allow manual focusing modes only with shutter speed restricted to B mode exclusively.
 
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Which settings do you use for birds?
EOS R Setting: Image Review (off); Continuous AF (on); AF Tracking Sensitivity (0 or +1); Acc./Decl. Tracking (+2); AF Point Switch (-2); Lens Drive when Focus Impossible (off); One Shot AF Priority (Focus); Highlight Alert (on); AF Point Display (on).
 
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Nelu

1-DX Mark III, EOS R5, EOS R
CR Pro
EOS R Setting: Image Review (off); Continuous AF (on); AF Tracking Sensitivity (0 or +1); Acc./Decl. Tracking (+2); AF Point Switch (-2); Lens Drive when Focus Impossible (off); One Shot AF Priority (Focus); Highlight Alert (on); AF Point Display (on).
That's interesting!...
First, there's no such thing as "AF Point Switch" value of " -2". It can only be 0, +1 or +2.
Secondly, if you sett the AF Tracking Sensitivity to something on the plus side, the focus will jump onto any new subject coming into the frame. Really the opposite what you need when trying to keep the focus on birds.
Your setting for the "Acc/Decl Tracking" is correctly set to a value on the plus side, in order to be able to handle birds chaotic movements.

Other than that, "Continuous AF" set to "On" will only eat up your battery and it's not important for photos as it might be for videos.
 
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That's interesting!...
First, there's no such thing as "AF Point Switch" value of " -2". It can only be 0, +1 or +2.
Secondly, if you sett the AF Tracking Sensitivity to something on the plus side, the focus will jump onto any new subject coming into the frame. Really the opposite what you need when trying to keep the focus on birds.
Your setting for the "Acc/Decl Tracking" is correctly set to a value on the plus side, in order to be able to handle birds chaotic movements.

Other than that, "Continuous AF" set to "On" will only eat up your battery and it's not important for photos as it might be for videos.
Thanks for correction. Yes, for "AF Point Switch" I meant minimum possible value which is zero.
And "AF Tracking Sensitivity" is usually zero, except for when there are multiple birds and I want to focus on a random one, let the camera decide.
 
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I'm with you here. I had purchased some LP-E6's off brand a while ago and they were hot garbage. Held a charge for less than half the time of the Canon-manufactured battery which was years older. From then on it has been nothing Canon batteries, and no issues at all.
Every third party battery I have purchased since the 10D has been complete garbage. Every time I hear "Well, some are rotten but these are different" I fall for it and buy several batteries and chargers and find that the new "much better" batteries are actually the same old crap in new boxes. Shame on me for falling for this scam so many times.
 
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Michael Clark

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I'm with you here. I had purchased some LP-E6's off brand a while ago and they were hot garbage. Held a charge for less than half the time of the Canon-manufactured battery which was years older. From then on it has been nothing Canon batteries, and no issues at all.

You're buying the wrong third party batteries. Some of them are junk. Others are just as good, if not better than, the genuine Canon batteries. Try STK (Sterling Tek), they last more charge/recharge cycles than my Canon originals do.
 
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Michael Clark

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If they are supposed to be shooting this thing at the Tokyo Olympics isn't it waaaaaay late for a development announcement? Kind of time for a release announcement isn't it?

The 1D X was officially announced on 18 October, 2011 and officially began shipping 20 June, 2012. Units bound for the 2012 Summer games were shipped ahead of the official June release date, which was moved back from an initially announced April release date due to supply chain issues.

The 1D X Mark II was officially announced February 1, 2016 and began shipping in April, 2016.
 
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Michael Clark

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While I love to save money, and I'm sure 3rd party batteries can deliver similar performance to genuine Canon batteries, my biggest concern with using 3rd party batteries - at least in cameras still under warranty, is damaging the camera and voiding the warranty. I'm sure the chances of something like that happening are remote; nevertheless, is it worth taking that risk on your new $3K-6K camera in order to save $30 or $40?

My first DSLR was a Rebel XTi so I did not have $3K-6K invested at that time. I did learn that the cheapest third party NB-2LH batteries were junk but the NB-2LH batteries from reputable makers like Sterling Tek and Maximal Power were just as good and sometimes better than the originals supplied with the camera. That held true with the BP-511 batteries my 50D used and has held true with the LP-E6/LP-E6N batteries my 7D, 5D Mark II, 5D Mark III, 7D Mark II, and 5D Mark IV use.

The only LP-E6 battery I've had completely die was an original Canon LP-E6 that was less than three years old at the time. I've got third party LP -E6 batteries that are 7-8 years old and still work, though they do not hold as much charge as when they were new. But then again, my Canon LP-E6 batteries that are the same age don't last as long as they used to, either.
 
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Michael Clark

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Strange. I get all kinds of sharp photos chasing a 2.5 year old around that is camera shy. Many, many more than I ever did with my 5D Mark III. I turned continuous focus on and use eye-AF. Voila! Even get the little pores the eyelashes emanate from and can see myself clearly in his brown eyes.




That's the oldest looking two year old I've ever seen!
 
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Michael Clark

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I have to say, I kind of thought the 1DX2's release as a little disappointing in terms of how much progress had been made in the 4 years since the 1DX came out. I owned both, and I liked the II better, of course, but I waited a few years to upgrade, once the prices had almost halved on a used unit.

Back when the II came out, I had an expectation - long since disabused - that the lack of relative progress would mean a sooner upgrade to the III, and when it came, it would have disproportionately improved features. Lots of us here on this forum thought that.

I hold out hope that the III will indeed be remarkable, but I can't find one of us here who actually expects that anymore. I think our expectations are that it'll be akin to the 6D to 6D2 upgrade. Throw some megapixels on there; maybe a few new whistles. The years are no longer correlating to the progress; one would hope because behind the scenes there is much development on the R system.

The thing that continues to give us hope is that they must have something quite bodacious on the way, otherwise, why bet the company on a bunch of never-done-before R lenses without a pro body equal to them. But, the thing is, we know that's not going to be the 1DX3. The 1DX3 is most likely going to be sort of like the delta between the Sony A9 and the A92 that's being released in a couple weeks. It's just some frills for the Olympics, and likely indicates the body in development that they'd hoped to be able to announce in Q3 2019 is just not far enough along to release.

Canon spent a bajillion dollars to be an honest-to-goodness official sponsor of the Olympics ($40-200 million), and there's a product manager somewhere in Integrated Design Department 232 who had to tell the bosses that the be-all mirrorless camera they were hoping to launch to the world when everyone came to Japan won't be ready.

Meanwhile, down the hall, the guy who did something so utterly terrible that he was reassigned to the B team tinkering with the 1D body just in case the company needed a plan B is suddenly asked what he's been doing for the past 18 months. We're about to find out the answer to that question. I think the majority of us are expecting there was a lot of solitaire and resume burnishing and not a whole lot of let's-fit-eye-AF-in-this-thing-ing.

You are imposing your view of American corporate culture on a Japanese company. You've obviously never done business with Japanese companies.
 
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Michael Clark

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Thinking a bit more about this, I find it odd that Canon would create a new battery for the 1DXIII when the LP-E19 was released with the 1DXII. I wonder if that new battery feature is something really interesting or if the 1DXIII is going to be notably more power hungry than its predecessor...

I guess Canon have released a number of new batteries which have backwards compatibility in the past as minor upgrades (i.e. LP-E6 vs LP-E6N), but it seems like Canon tries to get as many years and models out of a battery as possible. I mean, the LP-E6 went into the 5D II in 2008, and only got a refresh to the N variant in 2016 with the 5DIV 8 years later. It just seems unusual to refresh a battery in one model, then refresh it again in the next model without a good reason to do so. Maybe the 1DXIII is going to have a pretty good reason for an early refresh of the battery...

The LP-E6N was introduced with the EOS 7D Mark II in 2014.
 
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Michael Clark

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