No Focusing Screens for 5D MIII?

[Stebs]

I have to say the fixed focusing screen is my one real rub with the Mark III, as I have grown to love the EG-s screen in my MKII. I might try shooting some head shots wide open but use the Live View on the Mark II to see if that is a doable work around for me.

What are the chances, the autofocus will be accurate enough to negate the need to manually focus when shooting <f/2 ? Was the AF accurate enough in the 1 Ds MKIII or the 1 D MK IV?

 

[BL]

i think accuracy of AF and knowing what to focus on are two different things.

i have all the faith in the world that the mkIII with the completely revamped AF will be able to focus quickly and accurately. the question is, will it know it's the eye i'm trying to nail at 1.2



what a bummer, the only thing keeping me from upgrading as i usually roll with a 24/35 1.4 and a 85 1.2

 

[fotoray]

Looks like the standard screen that it's going to come with is a grid-style focusing screen... thank g-d. I shoot architecture, and without a grid, I'd be dead meat, and this would have been a deal breaker.

No, the standard screen has no grid. The grid is part of the 'intelligent viewfinder' and is a feature that can be turned on/off. It's generated by the transmissive LCD that sits next to the focusing screen. The 7D and 1D X have a simliar feature - unlike most cameras, you can actually completely turn off the AF points displayed on them.

I thought the "intelligent viewfinder" is a 1DX feature not included with 5DIII?

 

[Loswr]

Looks like the standard screen that it's going to come with is a grid-style focusing screen... thank g-d. I shoot architecture, and without a grid, I'd be dead meat, and this would have been a deal breaker.

No, the standard screen has no grid. The grid is part of the 'intelligent viewfinder' and is a feature that can be turned on/off. It's generated by the transmissive LCD that sits next to the focusing screen. The 7D and 1D X have a simliar feature - unlike most cameras, you can actually completely turn off the AF points displayed on them.

I thought the "intelligent viewfinder" is a 1DX feature not included with 5DIII?

Think again.

 

[dr croubie]

Oh well, just pulled the trigger on the KatzEye for my 7D. Got the split prism with Plus, Optibrite for the edges, and Portrait crop-lines for the hell of it.
Just a smidge under $250 shipped to Aus, but the $US is so low these days it's cheaper once converted to real money. (Actually, my FL 55 f/1.2 cost less).

I'll let you guys know how well it works in a few weeks when I get it. I'll presume they're also planning on making the same for the 5D3, it won't be any harder to install than the 7D version...

 

[tt]

this is really starting to bother me.. I don't do a ton of MF but I like to see the DOF of my ridiculously priced L primes, and I hate the 1 series form factor..


I wonder what Jeff Ascough thinks of this.. I read that he MF a lot, and he uses the 50L... Maybe Canon will make a special 5D3 just for him...

I'm not sure what he uses day to day, but at Focus he mentioned using the 24-70 I, a 135mm and sometimes when needed a 70-200mm.

I think that wedding photographers with a style that uses primes will have a lot to weigh in about the lack of focusing screen. If the focus works, ok, but if not, and it's much harder to MF (and also when doing video), then it makes it pretty hard for shallow depth of field shooting.

 

[chito]

this is really starting to bother me.. I don't do a ton of MF but I like to see the DOF of my ridiculously priced L primes, and I hate the 1 series form factor..


I wonder what Jeff Ascough thinks of this.. I read that he MF a lot, and he uses the 50L... Maybe Canon will make a special 5D3 just for him...

I'm not sure what he uses day to day, but at Focus he mentioned using the 24-70 I, a 135mm and sometimes when needed a 70-200mm.

I think that wedding photographers with a style that uses primes will have a lot to weigh in about the lack of focusing screen. If the focus works, ok, but if not, and it's much harder to MF (and also when doing video), then it makes it pretty hard for shallow depth of field shooting.

This is where I got it from

http://photo.net/learn/wedding/wedding-photography-tips-with-jeff-ascough/

It's from a couple of years ago, so he might have changed the way he works, these are some quotes from the article:

"I’ve always loved 50mm lenses. My Leica Noctilux was my absolute favourite. The Canon 50mm f/1.4 was ok but I broke three of them, so I used a 35 f1.4L for a long time instead. When the 50 f/1.2L came onto the scene, I was able to get back to the 50 and that has been my favorite lens for ages now. My first L lens I bought was the 28-70 f2.8L and that was the lens I cut my teeth on, I had a tear in my eye when I sold it last year."

With the 5DII:
"I use the center focus point and I manually focus quite a lot."

He will probably be tempted to use the Leica M10 which is rumored to debut on Photokina this year, if it's as good as it should be.

 

[tt]

Thanks chito - will have a read
50mm 1.2 and others are some great glass used well

 

[te4o]

If you look precisely into the focusing screen chamber access of the 7D and the 5D3 there is a difference.
I hope the 5D3 will still have the same ease of access. Actually, they can't change it a lot, can they? Servicing / cleaning of the focusing screen is performed quite often.

 

[te4o]

Does anyone use a rear LCD loupe for MF. I know it chews the battery but is this an option instead of screwing parts in and out of a newly purchased 5D3? Zakuto, Hoodman etc? They'll have to make them 3.2" now, probably twice the price . Anyway, still waiting and doubting...

 

[Stebs]

I wonder if te4o is onto something. Has anyone here used one of the lcd focusing loupes for pulling critical focus during video? Is this a possible work around for the times you need to see your focus point < f/2.8? I just dont see myself having the screen swapped out on a $3500 body unless it was designed to be swapped out. At that point it is time to look at other camera bodies.

Although, if the new focus system is advanced enough, this is all moot.

 

[Loswr]

Although, if the new focus system is advanced enough, this is all moot.

I wouldn't say moot. Nailing focus is only part of it. Seeing what's within and what's outside the DoF during composition is also helpful, and AF doesn't help there.

 

[sagittariansrock]

I read on this post that the AF points can be completely turned off for the 7D, and I know that the advertisements said the same. I am talking of turning off the black boxes, not the focus confirmation red ones. But I couldn't find out how to do on the manual, and their technical support guy said (after extensive search) that it cannot be done. I am still hoping he was wrong- but has anyone actually done it and can share the information? Many thanks in advance...

 

[7enderbender]

Just picked up a Eg-S screen after reading all this. How depressing. It makes things with my 135 and 50 slightly better (but I'd still say dimmer than with the Eg-A). With f/2.8 things start to be borderline. My 24-105 becomes way to dark for indoor shots. So this is not the solution and it's very frustrating when comparing it to my AE-1p (even with an f/4 lens). Why is this? Why can't Canon build their viewfinders as big and bright as they did 25 years ago?

So the sad conclusion is: manual focus is no longer a viable option and I have to live with a bunch of AF points centered around the middle (even on a newer model it seems). They work, but it still feels like a step back.

Let me know if anyone is interested in the brand new Eg-S screen. I'll have to see if the store takes it back.

 

[ratnev]

If you look precisely into the focusing screen chamber access of the 7D and the 5D3 there is a difference.
I hope the 5D3 will still have the same ease of access. Actually, they can't change it a lot, can they? Servicing / cleaning of the focusing screen is performed quite often.

Well, I must say: it's easy to access. I can even confirm it, but without illustrating the whole procedure on my own body, because I'm a bit afraid to do it myself.

First of all: DON'T YOU EVER TOUCH YOUR FOCUSING SCREEN WITH ANYTHING. USE ONLY AIR BLOWER TO REMOVE VISIBLE DUST ON IT.

As for my experience: don't even use a blower, because you may make things worse, as I did it with my copy of 5D Mk III.

A little story here:
About a week ago I noticed some speck on my focusing screen while looking through the viewfinder. Firstly I didn't plan to do anything with that. But whom I'm fooling around?! It was annoying every time I looked through the viewfinder. Well, I decided to try a blower (damn it).

2 pushes on a blower, then another 2 and another and finally it (the speck) was gone. I was happy for 2 seconds or more before I noticed new participles from the other side of the focusing screen. I tried to blow them away but nothing helped. It was under the focusing screen.

The things got worse when I tried a sensor cleaning swab. My bad. It didn't helped either. As a service guy said I had scratched my focusing screen. :

As you've already know I went to service. The screen was scratched but not noticable in the viewfinder. I asked them to try to clean it from visible participles. As they said it was easier to replace than clean it.

But as it's a newer model, the new focusing screen will take for about 2 month to get shipped.

I was begging them to clean it, just to try, and the service guy said OK.

I must mention that this was not an authorized canons service centre. In my country (Ukraine), the service under warranty is not so good and professional as the paid one, with "real" engineers working there.

The service guy took my MKIII and invited me to come with him just to watch the whole process (madness). He unscrewed two little black screws (as on the pic) and pulled out the bracket, which holds the focusing screen chamber.

The chamber opens by clicking the lock, as on the 7D's focusing screen replacement procedure (http://www.focusingscreen.com/work/7den.htm), and then the screen was exposed. The service guy took the focusing screen out with tweezers and pushed some air on it. It was cleaner than before, with less dust but some specks were "glued" and didn't want to fall of. So we ended up with ordering the new focusing screen. And now I'm waiting it to get shipped in two months.
That's the whole story. Sorry for such a long one.....