Canon 5D Mark III Light Leak?

[tasteofjace]

I can't believe how people call this is not a problem.
If you shoot anything but the Manual mode all your exposure readings will be incorrect.

For example.
Shooting portrait of my daughter.
She is standing under direct sunlight.
I am trying find a good composition so I move around a little.
And I happen to walk into a shadow area.
Although my daughter is still under the sunlight.
my exposure reading changes because I just walked into the shadow area.
And when I walk back into the sun lit area my exposure reading changes once again.

If you want to call this a normal behavior go ahead.
If you want to pay $3500 for such non-sense go ahead.

Why are you taking 10 second exposures of your daughter?

 

[Fleetie]

It just seems to leak through the back of the LCD itself; not round the sizes.

I just tested mine with a VERY powerful (~50mW) green laser pointer, so I could try out different areas on the LCD. Pretty much anywhere on the LCD and down the exposure reading goes.

At ISO800, mode set to "P", I got 10s exposure with no light and 5 or 6 seconds with (A LOT!) of light.

I don't think it's a serious issue in real life. But I couldn't reproduce the behaviour with my 7D, though I didn't try very long, and didn't use the hella bright laser pointer for that.

When the lens cap is on and the VF cover is on, we are talking TINY amounts of light leaking to make the exposure reading change to 5s. Such a small amount of light would be TOTALLY AND UTTERLY swamped in any real situation, with a lens on. And remember, when the camera decides what exposure to use when the shutter is fired, it does so with the lens WIDE OPEN, before it stops down the lens and begins the exposure. So I think it would be hard to contrive a situation where the light coming in through the LCD would be anything other than negligible compared to the light coming in through the wide-open lens.

 

[prestonpalmer]

The issue is the same on my 5D2 and 5D3. Seems to be amplified on my 5D3 though... humm.

 

[HughHowey]

I can't believe they wouldn't have a solid backing on the other side of that LCD panel. Incredible.

Rushmore: thanks for the video.

 

[Dylan777]

Non-issue? Really? :

I just tried my 5D3. Yep, same problem.

I tried my 5D classic. No issue.

+1.... same here on my 5d III. Same test on 5D II - no problem.

 

[altenae]

This not an issue the way you describe it.

5d mark iii light leak

So you also have the lenscap on when taking pictures of your daughter ????????
When the lenscap is removed the test can not be reproduced

 

[Fleetie]

I think it is important to point out the following so that some people don't come away with an untrue impression of the scale of this problem.

Looking at the above video with the sun and the orange paper, it would be easy to come away with the impression that exposing the LCD to bright sunlight would cause the exposure used in a picture to change down to a half of the value that would be used without the sun on the LCD.
That is NOT the case.

Remember, in real life, taking a picture, a lens would be on the camera, and wide open. There would be no visible or significant effect on the exposure in that case; the light coming in through the lens totally dominates, and that coming through the top LCD becomes insignificant.

 

[altenae]

I think it is important to point out the following so that some people don't come away with an untrue impression of the scale of this problem.

Looking at the above video with the sun and the orange paper, it would be easy to come away with the impression that exposing the LCD to bright sunlight would cause the exposure used in a picture to change down to a half of the value that would be used without the sun on the LCD.


That is NOT the case.

Remember, in real life, taking a picture, a lens would be on the camera, and wide open. There would be no visible or significant effect on the exposure in that case; the light coming in through the lens totally dominates, and that coming through the top LCD becomes insignificant.

+1

Thank you.
I was just telling this in my last post.

What is it with this lenscap ON Photography these days ??????

 

[prestonpalmer]

Remember, in real life, taking a picture, a lens would be on the camera, and wide open. There would be no visible or significant effect on the exposure in that case; the light coming in through the lens totally dominates, and that coming through the top LCD becomes insignificant.

You are wrong. We are seeing the change from sunlight to shadow change the exposure by as much as 1/2 stop when the shooter moves from daylight to shadow in real shooting conditions. I can confirm this with a bright sunlit beach photo shoot yesterday.

 

[altenae]

Remember, in real life, taking a picture, a lens would be on the camera, and wide open. There would be no visible or significant effect on the exposure in that case; the light coming in through the lens totally dominates, and that coming through the top LCD becomes insignificant.

You are wrong. We are seeing the change from sunlight to shadow change the exposure by as much as 1/2 stop when the shooter moves from daylight to shadow in real shooting conditions. I can confirm this with a bright sunlit beach photo shoot yesterday.

Yes, but the lenscap is on !!!!

 

[neuroanatomist]

Such a small amount of light would be TOTALLY AND UTTERLY swamped in any real situation, with a lens on. And remember, when the camera decides what exposure to use when the shutter is fired, it does so with the lens WIDE OPEN, before it stops down the lens and begins the exposure. So I think it would be hard to contrive a situation where the light coming in through the LCD would be anything other than negligible compared to the light coming in through the wide-open lens.

I suspect that misses the point. It's the metering that's affected - similar to leaving the VF eyepiece uncovered when metering on a tripod. Extraneous (non-TTL) light hitting the metering sensor results in an underexposed shot, potentially resulting in lost shadow detail. Not saying this is a huge issue in real-world shooting, just defining the problem.

As for the severity, it's certainly true that leaving the VF eyepiece uncovered when metering on a tripod affects exposure - remember that often if there's a brightly lit subject, the camera is similarly brightly lit and the leak will still affect the metered exposure.

 

[altenae]

Such a small amount of light would be TOTALLY AND UTTERLY swamped in any real situation, with a lens on. And remember, when the camera decides what exposure to use when the shutter is fired, it does so with the lens WIDE OPEN, before it stops down the lens and begins the exposure. So I think it would be hard to contrive a situation where the light coming in through the LCD would be anything other than negligible compared to the light coming in through the wide-open lens.

I suspect that misses the point. It's the metering that's affected - similar to leaving the VF eyepiece uncovered when metering on a tripod. Extraneous (non-TTL) light hitting the metering sensor results in an underexposed shot, potentially resulting in lost shadow detail. Not saying this is a huge issue in real-world shooting, just defining the problem.

As for the severity, it's certainly true that leaving the VF eyepiece uncovered when metering on a tripod affects exposure - remember that often if there's a brightly lit subject, the camera is similarly brightly lit and the leak will still affect the metered exposure.

Have tried your 5D Mark ii ?
Some reported the same issue.
Also on 20/30/40D

 

[prestonpalmer]

Remember, in real life, taking a picture, a lens would be on the camera, and wide open. There would be no visible or significant effect on the exposure in that case; the light coming in through the lens totally dominates, and that coming through the top LCD becomes insignificant.

You are wrong. We are seeing the change from sunlight to shadow change the exposure by as much as 1/2 stop when the shooter moves from daylight to shadow in real shooting conditions. I can confirm this with a bright sunlit beach photo shoot yesterday.

Yes, but the lenscap is on !!!!

I can assure you my lens cap was NOT on during my beach photo shoot yesterday. Stepping under the shadow of the palm tree significantly changed the exposure of my subjects, who were quite far away, as I was shooting with a 70-200 wide open. When I stepped into the bright sun, (2 feet from my original spot) the subjects are dramatically underexposed. Nothing changed on my camera, or with my subjects, except the fact that bright sunlight was hitting the LCD on the top of my camera. I am testing this now.

 

[prestonpalmer]

Such a small amount of light would be TOTALLY AND UTTERLY swamped in any real situation, with a lens on. And remember, when the camera decides what exposure to use when the shutter is fired, it does so with the lens WIDE OPEN, before it stops down the lens and begins the exposure. So I think it would be hard to contrive a situation where the light coming in through the LCD would be anything other than negligible compared to the light coming in through the wide-open lens.

I suspect that misses the point. It's the metering that's affected - similar to leaving the VF eyepiece uncovered when metering on a tripod. Extraneous (non-TTL) light hitting the metering sensor results in an underexposed shot, potentially resulting in lost shadow detail. Not saying this is a huge issue in real-world shooting, just defining the problem.

As for the severity, it's certainly true that leaving the VF eyepiece uncovered when metering on a tripod affects exposure - remember that often if there's a brightly lit subject, the camera is similarly brightly lit and the leak will still affect the metered exposure.

It seems bright sunlight does indeed change the exposure significantly. I am testing this now. I can confirm this by theory with my bright light photoshoot on the beach yesterday. When I was in the sun, I had to bump the exposure by as much as 1 stop, then back it down as soon as I stepped into a shadow.

 

[kbmelb]

I tested my 1Ds II and my 5DII and no changes in my exposures. My 5DIII definitely has this issue.

 

[Viggo]

Blocked the VF completely, took one shot (in Av-mode) then put a very bright light to the top lcd, got the exact same exposure. So for me this seems only to be an issue with the body-cap on....

 

[Radiating]

It seems that this is a an issue with the LED's of the LCD backlight leaking light onto the metering sensor. The amount of light that's leaked is so small that in most situations it would effect exposure about 1/100th of a stop which is not noticeable to the human eye. The light doesn't leak onto the sensor so that's a non issue.

The far greater issue is when bright sunlight strikes the LCD and leaks to the metering sensor, that could noticeably affect exposure. (this is unconfirmed though)

I just tried this on my 5D II and 20D and this seems to be an issue there too. Clearly this is a small enough issue that it took 10 years to find, and everyone still took great photos, but if the LCD actually does leak light onto the metering sensor that should be fixed, otherwise, it's a non-issue.

 

[tobiah]

yep in av and P etc it doesn't seem to do it... with a book over the top of the top lcd and then with a spotlight on... didn't seem to change...

to the poster who posted the video - you are moving the camera - can you show us with this on a tripod? (not that I don't believe you)

thanks

 

[Fleetie]

Such a small amount of light would be TOTALLY AND UTTERLY swamped in any real situation, with a lens on. And remember, when the camera decides what exposure to use when the shutter is fired, it does so with the lens WIDE OPEN, before it stops down the lens and begins the exposure. So I think it would be hard to contrive a situation where the light coming in through the LCD would be anything other than negligible compared to the light coming in through the wide-open lens.

I suspect that misses the point. It's the metering that's affected - similar to leaving the VF eyepiece uncovered when metering on a tripod. Extraneous (non-TTL) light hitting the metering sensor results in an underexposed shot, potentially resulting in lost shadow detail. Not saying this is a huge issue in real-world shooting, just defining the problem.

I think that is an understatement in real-world situations.

The huge difference in quantities of (TTL light) and (extraneous/"leaked" light) with a wide-open lens on (certainly when holding the VF to the eye, anyway - and that issue is definitely outside the scope of the present discussion anyway) means that the LCD leak is a non-issue almost always, or always. IMO.

So I stand by my assessment of the scale of the problem.

That is not to say I don't think Canon messed up; I think they have done by not incorporating better light sealing.

 

[neuroanatomist]

The huge difference in quantities of (TTL light) and (extraneous/"leaked" light) with a wide-open lens on (certainly when holding the VF to the eye, anyway - and that issue is definitely outside the scope of the present discussion anyway) means that the LCD leak is a non-issue almost always, or always. IMO.

What is unclear is the severity of the leak. I don't have a 5DIII to test (and hopefully the 1D X will not have this issue). I do know that with the sun at my back/over my shoulder, camera on a tripod, not covering the eyepiece can alter the exposure by a full stop or more (I hang the lens cap on the eyecup).