5d3 Annoyances

[peederj]

This thread is intended for specific things Canon should be able to fix (easily?) in firmware updates.

I'll kick it off with an obvious one: Why can't HDR shooting be set as C1, C2 or C3 on the mode dial? The most natural thing I would want is to be able to just turn the mode dial to C3 and get an HDR shot...it would give me similar ability to AEB plus a nifty HDR shot ready made to ogle at. But not only will the custom mode not auto-update in HDR mode, it also grays out the whole custom mode menu item. Why? Who knows why? Why force us to menu dive to pull an HDR shot?

 

[prestonpalmer]

LOL!

 

[peederj]

It's a relief that at least the SET button can be made into the magnifier. But why can't pressing down on the multi-controller (aka "joystick") be the magnifier/focus assist? All it can be is AF direct point selection in the custom controls settings. If press down on the joystick was magnify, you wouldn't have to reposition your thumb to the joystick to move the magnification around. Really this is obvious and suggests a rush to market (over a 3.5 year period?).

Unbelievable they won't let the old buttons work for focus assist/digital zoom...but I think their rationale is based on getting people away from those buttons because they are going to replace them with a proper video autofocus system. But it's a generation too early to wean people off those buttons. Let the people work the way they want to. Which btw includes focus assist during video recording!

 

[KeithR]

Why force us to menu dive to pull an HDR shot?

Because it's a gimmick?

 

[JerryKnight]

Right now, my only annoyance is that they didn't release the BG-E11 at the same time as the 5D3. All of my other SLR's have had the grip, and it just feels wrong without it.

I tried it, and you're right. Canon deliberately went out of their way to prevent the custom settings from retaining the HDR setting. It's okay for me, because the delay when it processes the HDR means I can't be in a hurry anyways. At least AEB can be stored in C1-C3.

I do wish that they would have moved the BULB mode past C1-C3. I use it sometimes, but not as often as I would C1, and the chance that I miss and leave it in BULB is too great. I'm still getting used to the locking mode wheel, but I can't count the number of times I've accidentally changed the mode on my 5D2, so it's a welcomed addition.

 

[mackguyver]

I only have two annoyances:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Not having a 5D Mark III yet
[*]Listening to those that do complain within days of getting one
[/list]

 

[K-amps]

I agree on the HDR thing... why cripple it...?

Many of my shots are not as sharp as I would expect from a 22mp cam... then again I have no reference points except the 5dc I had... Shots are good to ok, but I need to sharpen in PP to get decent results...

On the other hand, I got a shot of a UFO... yes Zerg Guardians do exist !!!

 

[Loswr]

I do wish that they would have moved the BULB mode past C1-C3. I use it sometimes, but not as often as I would C1, and the chance that I miss and leave it in BULB is too great.

Not that I have a 5DIII, but I really like that C3 is the end of the dial on my 7D and 5DII. My C3 setting is sort of 'OMG I've got to capture that' setting (birds in flight, etc.), and being able to just spin the dial until it stops. I'll miss that on my 1D X.

 

[keithfullermusic]

I only have two annoyances:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Not having a 5D Mark III yet
[*]Listening to those that do complain within days of getting one
[/list]

It's times like this when I miss the applaud button.

 

[JerryKnight]

I do wish that they would have moved the BULB mode past C1-C3. I use it sometimes, but not as often as I would C1, and the chance that I miss and leave it in BULB is too great.

Not that I have a 5DIII, but I really like that C3 is the end of the dial on my 7D and 5DII. My C3 setting is sort of 'OMG I've got to capture that' setting (birds in flight, etc.), and being able to just spin the dial until it stops. I'll miss that on my 1D X.

That's a good point. You can put your "go to" settings in C3 and turn the mode dial all the way clock-wise without looking. I guess I was thinking going one notch from M to C1 and back.

My thought is that if you're shooting BULB, you're definitely on a tripod and it's probably an elaborately set-up shot, so why does the camera mode have to be right next to M? Put it in the menus, or the other direction past the "green square" mode. I like BULB when I use it, but I don't need it to be that accessible.

Still, Canon did really well in my book if this is the only thing that remotely annoys me.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I only have two annoyances:

• Not having a 5D Mark III yet
• Listening to those that do complain within days of getting one

It's times like this when I miss the applaud button.

+10 ;D

 

[peederj]

A complaint is a gift, and the camera will not be improved if complaints are not aired and discussed. Which hurts Canon and you. If a courtesy period was observed for complaints, few would remember to post them later, just resigning themselves to "that's the way things are."

Now then, the next annoyance:

The Silent Control feature during movie shooting is a terrific idea, but really only currently makes sense for audio control. The reason is the exposure controls are not graduated in effect: the picture suddenly shifts from one ISO or aperture to another. While I understand shutter speed might be hard to ramp up and down, aperture and sensor gain (ISO) should be able to have smooth ramping functions applied to them. This might get a little tricky with different lenses' implementations of aperture control (I have no idea) but at least sensor gain should be rampable because the non-whole-EV ISO's (e.g. 320 or 640) are non-native pull-up/pull-down implementations as I understand it and therefore Canon ought to be able to create a ramping function in software that ramps up to nearly a whole stop of gain before switching to the native ISO of the next stop up. With a ramp speed parameter (say 10ms-1s).

Not as easy a change as my first two but it would really be a big positive impact in getting around our lack of manual (and declicked) aperture controls on Canon glass. Sure Canon will say "just buy the Cinema lenses" but no one shooting 5d3 has the money for such things. And it's in Canon's financial interest to complete this incomplete feature, to stave off people buying the Samyang declicked/cine lenses.

 

[candyman]

I do wish that they would have moved the BULB mode past C1-C3. I use it sometimes, but not as often as I would C1, and the chance that I miss and leave it in BULB is too great.

Not that I have a 5DIII, but I really like that C3 is the end of the dial on my 7D and 5DII. My C3 setting is sort of 'OMG I've got to capture that' setting (birds in flight, etc.), and being able to just spin the dial until it stops. I'll miss that on my 1D X.

So you can't set Cases under the Exposure Mode button on the 1D X


How can you setup Cases on the 1D X?

 

[bchernicoff]

Not that I have a 5DIII, but I really like that C3 is the end of the dial on my 7D and 5DII. My C3 setting is sort of 'OMG I've got to capture that' setting (birds in flight, etc.), and being able to just spin the dial until it stops. I'll miss that on my 1D X.

I do the exact same thing.. f/2.8, 1/500s, Auto ISO, Ai Servo, All AF points... That is my OMG setting.

 

[smirkypants]

Not that I have a 5DIII, but I really like that C3 is the end of the dial on my 7D and 5DII. My C3 setting is sort of 'OMG I've got to capture that' setting (birds in flight, etc.), and being able to just spin the dial until it stops. I'll miss that on my 1D X.

Having C1-C3 is one of the main reasons that I prefer to shoot with my 7D or my 1D4 when there is plenty of available light (the other is the extra reach). You will miss this more than you know

 

[dr croubie]

Not that I have a 5DIII, but I really like that C3 is the end of the dial on my 7D and 5DII. My C3 setting is sort of 'OMG I've got to capture that' setting (birds in flight, etc.), and being able to just spin the dial until it stops. I'll miss that on my 1D X.

Ditto, on my 7D it's also my 'quick, a bird!' setting.
C2 is for macros and landscapes I see while i'm wandering around forests looking for birds.
C1 is for HDRs, pre-set to 2-stop bracketing with a -2/3 centre, take 3, turn EV dial to 0 centre, take 3, turn EV dial to +2/3 centre. so within 5 seconds I can get a 9-shot HDR spread 2/3EV apart.

I find it strange that my 7D can set bracketing to a custom-mode and the 5D3 can't.
Is it only the 5/7/9-brackets that can't be set to a Cx?
Or is it the special in-camera HDR setting that can't be a Custom Mode?

 

[nikkito]

I only have two annoyances:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Not having a 5D Mark III yet
[*]Listening to those that do complain within days of getting one
[/list]

It's times like this when I miss the applaud button.

Haha me too

 

[peederj]

Ditto, on my 7D it's also my 'quick, a bird!' setting.
C2 is for macros and landscapes I see while i'm wandering around forests looking for birds.
C1 is for HDRs, pre-set to 2-stop bracketing with a -2/3 centre, take 3, turn EV dial to 0 centre, take 3, turn EV dial to +2/3 centre. so within 5 seconds I can get a 9-shot HDR spread 2/3EV apart.

I find it strange that my 7D can set bracketing to a custom-mode and the 5D3 can't.
Is it only the 5/7/9-brackets that can't be set to a Cx?
Or is it the special in-camera HDR setting that can't be a Custom Mode?

As mentioned AEB (and from 2 to 7 shots) works fine for C1-C3. It's just HDR that they actually worked extra hard to prevent from working. You're going to love the 5d3's 7-shot AEB with continuous drive...rip out that whole ladder with one instantaneous button press.

Since I feel a need to post a new annoyance with each of my comments here, next up: there is room for both the realtime histogram and the electronic level at once in the live view screen during manual mode, but additional INFO presses toggle one off and the other on. You can't tell me that the CPU just can't handle drawing both at once, right? How about letting us see both at once, so I can just set the whole shot up with no additional button presses. A minor nit.

I just love the electronic level in the optical viewfinder (settable to the M.Fn button, it uses the AF points to dynamically show you tilt and level). I really do like this camera, don't get me wrong...I just want them to fix the firmware a bit while they are still interested in it.


Oh and another one, I can RATE pictures immediately after taking them, but I can't do it with movies, I have to go into play mode. If I'm on set and we screw up or nail a take, I should be able to RATE right away, right? How about letting us RATE during the recording too? And also, what about the X Rejected rating that appears in DPP but doesn't appear in camera? And I would also love an Erase Images option that went by rating. So "Erase All Images ** and lower" etc. would be terrific...save us from using the Lock function when prioritizing storage.

 

[Bob_McBob]

Pretty minor really, but it would be nice if you could have just the selected AF point light up when focus is achieved. They give you so many options for how the points are displayed, but for illumination it's either everything or nothing. I like the red focus confirmation, but I find the entire viewfinder flashing red very distracting.

 

[Loswr]

Not that I have a 5DIII, but I really like that C3 is the end of the dial on my 7D and 5DII. My C3 setting is sort of 'OMG I've got to capture that' setting (birds in flight, etc.), and being able to just spin the dial until it stops. I'll miss that on my 1D X.

Having C1-C3 is one of the main reasons that I prefer to shoot with my 7D or my 1D4 when there is plenty of available light (the other is the extra reach). You will miss this more than you know

Well...the 1D X does have C1-C3 modes (a first for the 1-series), just no dial to select them. I've read that one of the paired buttons on the front can be assigned to Custom Modes, I'm just not sure it'll be as easy as the dial (might be push the assigned button, spin main dial to select which C mode, press ok or some such - time will tell).