One of the great new features of the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III is the backlit buttons, it has been a feature that has been a long time coming for Canon's flagship professional body.
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Gotta save something for the EOS-1D X Mark IV
Can I dim that light for astro work? My first job with every new Canon body is to put black duck-tape on the red lights as they are extrem bright when doing night/astro photography. Until now I've used luminescent tape to make the most important buttons visible at night. That works well and makes the camera look older (=less interesting for thieves).
Nuh, the rest of the buttons illumination will be available via a service centre upgrade at charge.
It will also require a battery upgrade to accomodate for an increased power consumption levels due to additional LEDs.
It is all over Internet this morning. So must be true.
If I had to pick though, I'd rather have a tactile differentiation than illumination, but hopefully both come eventually. The dimpled ISO button is really helpful to "centre" where my fingers are in the dark. The DOF and MFB2 buttons on the front are similarly differentiated by feel.
I'd love it if some of the back buttons got that treatment too.
Airplanes have many labelled and backlight controls, but for safety reasons, some key controls are decidedly different tactfully, rotational knob vs switch or button for example. After the NH510 issue in September 2011, where a co-pilot attempted to let the captain back in the flight deck, but accidentally changed the rudder trim, the Transportation Safety Board reviewed whether the cockpit door control (a knob) and the rudder trim (a nearby knob) needed some other form of differentiation so that a mistake couldn't be made.
Tactile differences are way more functional IMO than illumination, but both are nice!
Have you tried tactile differentiation through gloves, not cotton gloves, proper winter gloves? It doesn’t work well! :unsure:
Cheers, Graham.