Firmware 1.2.1 for the 5D Mark III in the Wild

[msowsun]

You take a big IQ hit with the doubler. I rarely use it (2XIII) anymore except on my 70-200 2.8L IS II. I find I can crop without it and get better IQ. I believe the added "feature" is not worth all of the hype. Might prove useful with the video folks where the loss if IQ is also lost in the downscale to HD. For stills, cropping is still better than using the 2XIII.

That was also my experience with the 70-200mm 2.8IS II. Cropping a 200mm image to match the 2x III 400mm image showed almost no difference. For me it made no sense in having $500 worth of glass sitting in my bag when I could just crop the image instead.

On the other hand the 1.4x II or 1.4x III both show a noticeable improvement over just cropping.

 

[grimson]

Currently in Japan ..... (30th of April)

 

[rpt]

Currently in Japan ..... (30th of April)

You beat me to it
I was going to make the exact same comment!

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

You take a big IQ hit with the doubler. I rarely use it (2XIII) anymore except on my 70-200 2.8L IS II. I find I can crop without it and get better IQ. I believe the added "feature" is not worth all of the hype. Might prove useful with the video folks where the loss if IQ is also lost in the downscale to HD. For stills, cropping is still better than using the 2XIII.

Depends on the lens. The 2x III is MUCH better than upscaling from a bare a 300 2.8 IS or 300 2.8 IS + 1.4x TC III. At first I was all oh no my 300 2.8 IS looks like a tamron 70-300 vc now when I used the 2x TC but I learned to get over that since in the end you put so much more detail on birds and such that when compared in a fair way you see the 2x does so much so it's almost permanently locked on my 300 now for birds (even often enough for surfing, but basically never for soccer or football) unless I am in a close blind or something.

It even brings a bit more detail on a 70-200 f/4 IS than upscaling (compared to bare lens or with 1.4x TC III on)! Although the image does suffer in some ways that makes me think it is not worth it so much in that case despite a tiny bit more extra detail.

The 70-300L definitely does better with the 1.4x TC III than upscaling, not even close. Just hope they enable the AF like they did, unofficially, for the 1DX!!

 

[Vicente]

Available now. I had tested the f8 feature and it works great! Fast and reliable.
http://support-au.canon.com.au/contents/AU/EN/0400079902.html

 

[East Wind Photography]

For those that downloaded and installed the leaked version earlier in the week, it has the same MD5 hash as the released one on Canon's site. There is no need to re-install. They are the same FIR file.

 

[rpt]

OK, the 5D3 firmware is at version 1.2.1!

YAY! The f8 focus works!

At 100*1.4=140mm it did not seem slow. However at 400*1.4=560mm it is a bit slow. Need to test it with BIF. I still need to AFMA it. So that is the task for tomorrow. I also need to test the focus with the flash.