5D3 continuous shooting speed

[KubaN]

Hello!

I have a kind of problem connected with continuous shooting mode speed in my 5d3.

When the battery level is over 50%, everything seems to be OK, so 6 fps.
But the problem starts, when it goes under 50%, so beginning from 49%. Then the shooting speed reduces to 3 fps without a reason.

I should add, that I'm working without battery grip, and the CF card is not the problem, because it's fast and, what is more, the shooting speed would probably reduce also over 50% of battery, if the problem is connected with memory card.

My 5d3 is not the only one that slows down under 50%, my friends 5d3 also behaves the same way. He bought the camera at the same time as I, in the same store, so our SNs are simillar. It's very annoying, especially when shooting sports, so we often change the battery for another one, when it goes under 50%...

Does anybody have the same problem with 5d3?

Thanks.

 

[ishdakuteb]

very interesting... will find out this weekend. however, canon please fix this problem as as if it is the case...

 

[can0nfan2379]

This happens with my 5D3 also......not sure exactly at what battery level the frame rate drops but yes it does drop when the battery power is depleted. Not sure if this is how it is supposed to behave or not but I don't every recall my 7D ever dropping under 8 fps even when I only had 10% battery power left. Right now I'm running the 5D3 gripped but I haven't played with the continuous shooting speed at low power with 2 battery packs in place yet. Will let you know if the same behaviour is seen with a grip.

I'd have to check the manual, there might be something in there on continuous shooting rate and battery level.

 

[can0nfan2379]

pg 113 in the 5D3 Manual:


"When the battery level is low, continuous shooting speed may become slower"

They don't say how low or how slow but when I first got my 5D3 and the battery was fairly empty and tried High-speed continuous it was definitely not 6fps.

Still, I'm quite please with the autofocus and the frame rate when it is actually shooting at 6fps. With my 7D and 8 fps, I always found if conditions weren't perfect, about 50% of the photos would not be critically sharp when viewed at 100% pixel peeping. With the lower frame rate but better autofocus, I still find the 5D3 gives me more keepers.

 

[bchernicoff]

I think this is happening with my non-Canon battery even when full. I bought it strictly as a backup and have only really used it for the first time last weekend. It was fully charged, but the camera flashes the low-battery indicator.

 

[KubaN]

Ah, I forgot to mention, that we are using an original C battery. I realize, that the shooting speed may decrease when battery level is low, but I thought , that this is going to happen around 9% when low batt sign blinking is enabled... I'd never expect it to happen around 50%!

When realized that this is happening I called to Canon. They really have no idea that this can happen, and a sweet-voiced C girl told me, that if Canon knows about it, they will probably fix it in next firmware.

 

[bchernicoff]

I'll go home tonight and fully-charge both batteries and do a back to back comparison to test the theory that it affects non-Canon batteries.

 

[awinphoto]

I dont know how much this applies, but I used to work in a studio that was rented to photographers and we rented gear to those photographers... We were always taught that even when the charger shows 100%, charge it for another 15-30 minutes as the batteries when they read full, really were around 90ish percent... Now with the cameras and how they give you the "exact" percentage, i'm not sure if the battery really is lower than you realize or it's reporting... But anyways, maybe that's a side effect of having a "fast" FPS with only 1 digic...

 

[bchernicoff]

But anyways, maybe that's a side effect of having a "fast" FPS with only 1 digic...

I would think you have it backwards... two digic would require more power than one. I could see it dropping down to one when the battery is low.

 

[THX723]

Processor/bus speed isn't the limiting factor here, the shutter/mirror mechanism is. It would appear (for the 5D3) the voltage drop by 50% battery capacity exceeded the threshold to properly energize the actuators for high-speed operation.

 

[pwp]

I generally get through a full day shoot OK on the 2 batteries in the 5D3 grip, even if I'm shooting 2000-3000 frames as I don't tend to chimp much at all. That's what sucks on the juice! But if the FPS issue is real that's a heads-up to get another couple of genuine LP-E6 cells ready for the day when I need that 6FPS rate for the entire day.

With luck this will be picked up in the firmware update due sometime in 2014. March? April? May? December....

-PW

 

[rlarsen]

I was surprised when I discovered the problem detailed here. It was shocking to experience how much the frame rate drops.

I don't use a grip but I keep an extra battery with me and may buy a second spare. This is a serious issue when covering sports and news. I can get by with the 5D3 and 6 fps for most sports but not if the rate drops even a little bit.

A firmware fix....hmmm, we can only hope.

 

[M.ST]

Canon knows the problem and describe it as a fact in the manual.

I don´t think that we get an update next year that fix the problem.

Use the 1D Mark IV or 1D X for sports and action shots. Compared to the 5D Mark III the 1D X is worth the money you pay for it.

 

[tomscott]

Does it depend on condition of the battery too??

 

[infared]

How about a better battery?

 

[Octavian]

pg 113 in the 5D3 Manual:


"When the battery level is low, continuous shooting speed may become slower"

They don't say how low or how slow but when I first got my 5D3 and the battery was fairly empty and tried High-speed continuous it was definitely not 6fps.

Still, I'm quite please with the autofocus and the frame rate when it is actually shooting at 6fps. With my 7D and 8 fps, I always found if conditions weren't perfect, about 50% of the photos would not be critically sharp when viewed at 100% pixel peeping. With the lower frame rate but better autofocus, I still find the 5D3 gives me more keepers.

This should be a menu option to disable that right and code it to go as low as e.g. 10% or something.
Some photographers (journalists, sports, wildlife) would require high speed up until the battery is close to depleted.
These heavy users would have other batteries to swap in when needed.
Having to do this after every 51% usage would be less than ideal for those folks.

 

[pwp]

How about a better battery?

Could it be that the better battery is the one mentioned in the spec list for the upcoming 7DII?

-PW

 

[tron]

How about a better battery?

OP has already said that the battery was the original one. How better than this?

 

[KubaN]

The recharge performance of both batteries that I'm using is 3 green, so that doesn't matter.

Today I'm going to the same store I bought my 5d3 and will check if the same problem is noticable in other bodies, with a fully charged battery and 49% of power. Will let you know what happens.

 

[DeckardSolo]

Just received my brand new 5D3 today from Adorama and this was one of the first things I tested. Two brand new Canon batteries first time ever charged. Brand new Sandisk Extreme Pro CF card only. The first battery at 48% charge was shooting bursts very noticeably slower than the second battery at 92% charge. This would definitely be an issue for sports shooters.