Quality gap 5DIII?

[xps]

The institution I am working at, bought some 5DIII in the last weeks. There seems to be still an quality gap between the cameras itself. Our photographers took sample pictures to get used of the camera.
There is an highly visible difference in the quality of the pictures (noise, grain), they took with each of the MKIIIs.
Two of them went back to the selling company, 2 cameras will not be exchanged, although there is big noise >800 ISO.
The MKIII is no 500€ model! Our photographer are upset about this quality gap!
Why is Canon no able to produce Cameras at an constant high quality level?

But how to prevent getting an low quality MKIII an an private user?

 

[nightbreath]

The institution I am working at, bought some 5DIII in the last weeks. There seems to be still an quality gap between the cameras itself. Our photographers took sample pictures to get used of the camera.
There is an highly visible difference in the quality of the pictures (noise, grain), they took with each of the MKIIIs.
Two of them went back to the selling company, 2 cameras will not be exchanged, although there is big noise >800 ISO.
The MKIII is no 500€ model! Our photographer are upset about this quality gap!
Why is Canon no able to produce Cameras at an constant high quality level?

But how to prevent getting an low quality MKIII an an private user?

Can be user issue / firmware / hardware issue. All samples of one camera model should behave equally, otherwise - send them to Canon.

 

[victorwol]

The institution I am working at, bought some 5DIII in the last weeks. There seems to be still an quality gap between the cameras itself. Our photographers took sample pictures to get used of the camera.
There is an highly visible difference in the quality of the pictures (noise, grain), they took with each of the MKIIIs.
Two of them went back to the selling company, 2 cameras will not be exchanged, although there is big noise >800 ISO.
The MKIII is no 500€ model! Our photographer are upset about this quality gap!
Why is Canon no able to produce Cameras at an constant high quality level?

But how to prevent getting an low quality MKIII an an private user?

I'm sure Canon will help, exchange the cameras if you can prove to them it is not a user error... Probably a simple photo showing the issue between the two cameras will be enough to have Canon helping you.

Can be user issue / firmware / hardware issue. All samples of one camera model should behave equally, otherwise - send them to Canon.

 

[SandyP]

Uh. I'd be far more willing to accept that it's just the people using the cameras making errors.

 

[wickidwombat]

there is definately a few dodgy copies around my forst copy was rubbish and the replacement i have now is awesome. its annoying how everyone instantly climbs on board the user error band wagon

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Cameras can and do vary from copy to copy. The sensors are difficult to completely test, and can have issues. Returning a underperforming camera is the best solution. My 5D MK III had a exceptional sensor with very low noise, but I returned it because of the invisible focus points in low light and bought a slightly used 1D MK IV for the same price.

 

[xps]

I talked to our photographers. They took the still shots in one of our studios. With the same lens, using an professional lightning system or the aviable light (that did not change).
They will decide, whether they return all Cameras and make an switch back to Nikon, or they call for an "calibration" that every camera has the same quality. Before we bought the Camera, the representative of Canon spoke about an high quality, calibrated professional product. Afterwards they told us, that we have to accept an "little" gap of quality.
I´ll try to get an sample shot. The noise differs, like you take one shot with 400 ISO, the second one with 25000.... The worst MKIII produces noise, so @800 an black wall changes to an colorful pattern.
As I was one of the persons, that looking for that we buy Canon, I´m very disappointed.

In my opinion, its a shame, that Canon is not able to deliver cameras without an quality gap for business customers.

 

[te4o]

very interesting xps! Could you please post some samples so that we, single camera owners, can benchmark ours against your worst and best copies!

 

[K-amps]

very interesting xps! Could you please post some samples so that we, single camera owners, can benchmark ours against your worst and best copies!

No samples posted? More than one copy in a batch of less than 10? bad? I smell a troll...

If not send it to Canon for fixing.

 

[xps]

To smell a troll? Does that mean, you think thats fake?
Sorry, but it isn´t.
I´ll try to get an sample shot from our photographers. I´m personally no one. But we work together, so I got the information.

very interesting xps! Could you please post some samples so that we, single camera owners, can benchmark ours against your worst and best copies!

No samples posted? More than one copy in a batch of less than 10? bad? I smell a troll...

If not send it to Canon for fixing.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Can be user issue / firmware / hardware issue. All samples of one camera model should behave equally, otherwise - send them to Canon.

Usually for sensor things are reasonably similar, that said, the 7D was quite variable in terms of vertical 7Dgain banding, some had it a lot more than others and the 7D sensors in general seemed to have more variability than most prior.

I have noted some banding differences for 5D3, most are clear at high iso, but one guy's copy seems a bit prone to high iso banding. Mine has a bit worse low iso banding than many.

Usually SNR varies the least and random read noise second to least, but who knows I guess.

One interesting thing is one 5D3 vs 1DX test made the 1DX seem to easily beat the 5D3 for high iso SNR and yet a different pair tested by someone else made them seem much more similar at high ISO. Not sure if it was testing procedure or sensor copy differences.

 

[nightbreath]

Can be user issue / firmware / hardware issue. All samples of one camera model should behave equally, otherwise - send them to Canon.

Usually for sensor things are reasonably similar, that said, the 7D was quite variable in terms of vertical 7Dgain banding, some had it a lot more than others and the 7D sensors in general seemed to have more variability than most prior.

I have noted some banding differences for 5D3, most are clear at high iso, but one guy's copy seems a bit prone to high iso banding. Mine has a bit worse low iso banding than many.

Usually SNR varies the least and random read noise second to least, but who knows I guess.

One interesting thing is one 5D3 vs 1DX test made the 1DX seem to easily beat the 5D3 for high iso SNR and yet a different pair tested by someone else made them seem much more similar at high ISO. Not sure if it was testing procedure or sensor copy differences.

There should be logical answer for this. For example, "using not fully charged battery makes ADCs to not apply some initial / sophisticated noise reduction" or there's difference between different 1Dx / 5D Mk III models, or something else. It's an interesting point though.

P.S. Using different versions of RAW converters can easily reject all other unknown variables in this equation.

 

[wickidwombat]

or in my case the AF was completely off
however even my faulty body was not bad in a studio shooting at f11 since the DoF was so wide it masked the problem

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I talked to our photographers. They took the still shots in one of our studios. With the same lens, using an professional lightning system or the aviable light (that did not change).
They will decide, whether they return all Cameras and make an switch back to Nikon, or they call for an "calibration" that every camera has the same quality. Before we bought the Camera, the representative of Canon spoke about an high quality, calibrated professional product. Afterwards they told us, that we have to accept an "little" gap of quality.
I´ll try to get an sample shot. The noise differs, like you take one shot with 400 ISO, the second one with 25000.... The worst MKIII produces noise, so @800 an black wall changes to an colorful pattern.
As I was one of the persons, that looking for that we buy Canon, I´m very disappointed.

In my opinion, its a shame, that Canon is not able to deliver cameras without an quality gap for business customers.

The problem is that Nikon is just as bad, only it is like pulling teeth to get one fixed.

Sometimes you can't win.