Canon EOS 1D Mark III: One Year Later
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In February 2007 Canon introduced the EOS 1D Mark III the successor to the EOS 1D Mark II N, it was to be Canon’s new flagship camera. With its phenomenal 10 frames per second, new and improved auto focus, 10.2 megapixel images and the ability to shoot at high ISO’s with little noise, this was the camera of dreams.
Shortly after the camera found its way into photographer’s hands, the photo blogs and messages board began to light up with news of a possible major flaw with the camera’s auto focus system. Under certain conditions the camera would not focus on, or track a moving object. This was a major ordeal as many photographers and photojournalists rely on this camera to put food on the table.
It was early August 2007, with high school football season rapidly approaching. The number of shutter actuations of my three-year-old EOS 20D was pretty high, and I wasn’t sure if it would make it through another season. I needed a new camera.
I went to the local camera shop fully aware of the problems mentioned on the Internet about the Mark III. I talked to the owner of the shop, and he too was aware of the buzz on the net. He told me that the local newspaper had bought five of these cameras and none of the photographers had had any such issues. I knew a couple of the guys that shot for the paper and asked them if they’d had any problems with the new camera and they told me quite the contrary, they loved it and had not experienced any problems whatsoever.
I was still skeptical but still needed a new camera as well, one that would stand up to the rigors of shooting baseball and soccer in ninety degree plus heat, football in thirty degree frost, or a basketball game in dimly lit dungeon of a gym. Not only was it an issue of buying a possibly flawed camera, because I am an amateur and not a paid professional it was a financial risk as well. I took the risk and put my name on the waiting list.
I got the call that my camera had come in and I could come pick it up. I was apprehensive yet excited at the same time. I brought the camera to work and charged it up so that it would be ready to shoot once I got home. When I got home I slapped on a lens and began shooting away, trying out all the new bells and whistles this camera had to offer. I couldn’t believe a shutter could open and close that fast, it was painfully obvious that I’d have to purchase bigger memory cards.
The next day was the first soccer game of the year and the first real test for the focusing system under the same conditions that supposedly caused the tracking problem. I went home after the game hoping that I could put my fears to rest. I uploaded about four hundred images and I was simply amazed. The images were breathtaking right out of the camera. I didn’t have to do anything in Photoshop to make them look good. They were sharp, displayed brilliant colors and had nice contrast. I had very few frames out of focus, and the ones that were had more to do with the photographer than the camera.
During football season I got pictures that I couldn’t possibly have gotten with the 20D. I could shoot at 3200 ISO, stop the action and with very little noise in the final image. The autofocus was incredible; it felt like sometimes it knew what to focus on before I did and still very few out of focus frames.
In the month of October Canon issued an official “Fix” for the Mark III that affected certain serial numbers. Lo and behold mine was one of the possibly affected serial numbers. In December I sent the camera to Canon free of charge and got it back four days later. The sub mirror assembly was replaced and the camera was to now be within Canon specs and I got a one-year warrantee from the date that it was repaired.
The first basketball game with the sub mirror fix yielded the same outstanding pictures that I had gotten before the fix. I noticed a very little difference in the focusing capability. Again, I was able to nail photos that with the 20D were just impossible.
Maybe I was just lucky to get a good copy or maybe I’m just a little more forgiving but for me the Canon EOS 1D Mark III lives up to the hype that it received before it was released. I’m not saying that there aren’t Mark IIIs out there that do not function as they should, there are, and that is an utter shame. The cameras that do work simply produce amazing images in all sorts of environments and situations. With the black eye this camera has received I’ll probably take a hit on the resale value but I absolutely love this camera.