Focusing on L lenses vs LII

[Txema]

Hello, I talked with canon tech service about adjusting the focus of my 16-35L, 24-70L and 70-200L to my %D mark III and I was told that the micro adjustments of the 1DX and 5D mark III are only useful with LII lenses since it adds a third focusing parameter that the L series lack.
Is it true the there is not worthwhile adjusting my lenses?

 

[Brand B]

It is not true. AFMA works fine with older L lenses as well, not to mention non-L lenses and even non Canon lenses.

I believe it will work properly with any lens that has some form of chip inside to identify itself to the camera.

 

[East Wind Photography]

So probably what they were trying to explain is that the series I lenses do not report their serial number so once you make the AFMA setting it will apply to any copy of the same lens you attach. If you have two 70-200L the camera cant tell which lens is which but it knows it's the 70-200L.

With the series II lenses they report the serial numbers and will retain AFMA settings for each serial number.

Other than that, AFMA works with any EF lens.

 

[Loswr]

With the series II lenses they report the serial numbers and will retain AFMA settings for each serial number.

Not all 'series II' lenses. The serial number reporting is a feature of newer lenses only. The 16-35 f/2.8L II doesn't have it, but the 600mm f/4L IS II does...and so does the 40mm f/2.8 'pancake'.

But it's still possible that's what the Canon tech was talking about. In many cases, Canon tech support doesn't know what the heck they're talking about (e.g. the recent thread where they repeatedly claimed the BG-E13 grip for the 6D had a multicontroller on it).

 

[East Wind Photography]

That's why we have these GREAT forums on CanonRumors !!!

With the series II lenses they report the serial numbers and will retain AFMA settings for each serial number.

Not all 'series II' lenses. The serial number reporting is a feature of newer lenses only. The 16-35 f/2.8L II doesn't have it, but the 600mm f/4L IS II does...and so does the 40mm f/2.8 'pancake'.

But it's still possible that's what the Canon tech was talking about. In many cases, Canon tech support doesn't know what the heck they're talking about (e.g. the recent thread where they repeatedly claimed the BG-E13 grip for the 6D had a multicontroller on it).

 

[Txema]

That's why i asked. It didn't seem too convincing. I don't know elsewhere but Canon support in spain sucks.

 

[cliffwang]

AFMA on my 5D3 works well with all my lenses. If the third party lenses works fine, the older L lenses should be fine as well.

 

[Pixel]

If the camera doesn't recognize your SN, you can always enter it manually.

 

[East Wind Photography]

I'm not sure that will really help though. Even if you put the SN in, if the camera cant read it off the lens it wont really know if it's the same one or a different one right? Some kind of comparison needs to be made in order to load the correct settings from the camera. Otherwise it's just basing the lookup on the lens model.

If the camera doesn't recognize your SN, you can always enter it manually.

 

[Loswr]

I'm not sure that will really help though. Even if you put the SN in, if the camera cant read it off the lens it wont really know if it's the same one or a different one right? Some kind of comparison needs to be made in order to load the correct settings from the camera. Otherwise it's just basing the lookup on the lens model.

If the camera doesn't recognize your SN, you can always enter it manually.

Not quite - there are actually three possibilities. With the newest lenses, the serial number is transmitted from lens to camera. With older lenses (but not too old), you enter a serial number manually, and it's stored in association with that specific lens. I assume there must be some other sort of UID number transmitted from lens to camera, but it's not the serial number. There are quite a few lenses in that second category. With even older lenses, you can record a serial number but it is not uniquely tied to the lens. That's indicated on the serial number entry screen by an asterisk next to the serial number boxes. Of my lenses, only the 35L and 100-400L (1998) and 135L (1996) fall into that third category. The 28-300L (2004) falls into the second category, no idea where between 1998 and 2004 the dividing line falls c