Canon 1D Mark III review

Welcome to my Canon 1D Mark III review.

I’ve been the owner of a 1D Mk3 since early December 2007 and this review comes about a month in after many thousands of actuations. For those of you who are not familiar with my background, I have shot Canon for some time now (having transitioned over from Nikon) and shoot a variety of subjects including sports, portraiture, street and what I call narrative photography. For examples of my work, you can click on the galleries to the left (or simply follow this review).

The Canon 1D Mark III has had quite a ride. Released as part of Canon’s 20 year EOS anniversary strategy it was both highly anticipated and widely applauded when it was announced. From the outset it has arguably generated more noise (of the vocal kind) than any other camera in the market today, with the possibly exception of the Nikon D3. Leading the emotionally charged opinions on the camera have been photographers from all walks – some highly respected professionals, some skilled amateurs, some hopeful hobbyists and typically, an even greater number of users who have never touched this particular camera. The 1D has been heralded as everything – from the greatest sports and photojournalism camera in the world today, to a huge disappoint and failure. Even in the already emotional and divided world of camera equipment forums, the Canon 1D Mark III has shown an extreme example of split opinon.

So in my review, I hope that I will be able to shed some light over the issues and questions that have been floating around for some time and provide a comprehensive, impartial and reality based overview of the camera. The review will consist of a large number of samples and writing / thoughts. When I review gear, it tends to actually take little work as it’s really just a diary of what I do to become familiar with any new body. I write quickly, pretty much as fast as I think and as such you’ll find my writing style fairly informal. As I only give my work a brief single proof read one time before publishing, I’m sure you’ll find a few typos (so be warned).

For those people who have come here specifically looking for information regarding the much publicized performance of the camera’s AF system, feel free to skip ahead – there’ll be plenty to read.

For the record, my own reasons for purchasing a 1D were because of three main features it’s ability to acquire focus lock in Single Focus mode as quickly as possible (the mode I shoot in the majority of the time, including for the sports I tend to shoot), for its frames per second for short bursts (I almost never shoot 10fps for more than 5 frames) and for its touted high ISO performance. Because I shoot in Single Focus mode 95% of the time, the news of the AI servo issues left me largely unaffected but most certainly not uninterested. I actually saw the reported issues as an opportunity to familiarize myself with the 1D’s AF system in a more detailed way than I would have done otherwise and it was mostly for that reason that this review was undertaken.

A Controversial Birth (and rebirth)
Among those who have been following the camera’s short lifespan, the 1D Mark III could be said to have almost had two release dates. The first was when the camera was made available on the market and the second was after the much publicized AF fix that Canon announced and then quickly implemented. The second event was of such significance that its been impossible to ignore, even if you remain unaffected by the issues it resolved. The background to the AF issue has been widely documented, but still misinformation exists about what exactly the problem is. As Auto Focus performance is one of the primary benefits that Canon uses to tout this particular camera, I think it only fitting to begin by summarise exactly what this issue is before we move on to the other aspects of the camera.

Lets start at the beginning.

Essentially most cameras have two modes for auto focus (or variations based on two modes); Canon calls these two modes “single shot” and “AI Servo”. Single shot is when the camera will focus on the chosen subject and will lock its focal length. If you want to focus on a different subject, you have to reengage the AF system. If you hold down the shutter button in order to fire a rapid series of images (without reengaging the AF system), then the focal length will be the same for each image irrespective of whether this is “correct” for a given scene or not. The vast majority of photographers use Single Focus for the vast majority of the photographs they take.

In contrast, for sports shooters and other related disciplines, AI Servo is often the preferred choice. Here, the focus never actually locks – the camera’s AF system continues to monitor what the focal length should be based on the subject and adjusts it between shots, even if the subject is moving between a rapid fire sequence of images. To put it simplistically, single focus is likely what you would use if your subject was stationary whereas AI servo would be a likely choice if your subject was moving rapidly (e.g. towards or away from you).

Canon have excelled (and in fact dominated) in both areas for some time. It’s one of the reasons why to date, sidelines of major sports events are littered with white Canon L lenses rather than the black lenses from other brands.

So coming back to the 1D. When the latest incarnation, the Mark III, was announced it promised among other things, the greatest AF system that Canon had ever produced. What happened after the camera was put in the hands of many people however sometimes was in conflict with this promise. It didn’t effect every user, and it didn’t appear in every situation. But for some users, some of the time, the following issues occurred:

• With the firmware that was released with the camera (containing the software algorithms for the AF system) and still with subsequent releases, users reported that the camera does not focus as accurately or quickly as the previous version of the camera (the 1D Mark IIn) under certain conditions. Those conditions were when the camera was shooting in:
  • Bright sunlight.
  • AI Servo mode

The problems exhibited varied for individual users but basically covered a range of issues such as the AF system jumping too regularly from the subject to the background or an unacceptably high number of frames out of focus when tracking either a still or a moving subject. In the earliest versions of the firmware, it was even reported that some issues (e.g. focus shift when in AI servo mode when the subject was not moving) occurred even without the bright sunlight trigger.

• In certain copies of the 1D Mark III, cameras denoted by a specific serial number range (501001 to 546561 to be specific, with a few exceptions), a flaw existed in the camera that meant under warm conditions (particularly above 30 degrees Celsius), the issues from point 1 were exacerbated .

In response to the above two issues, Canon released several version of updated firmware (with improved AF algorithms) and a warranty supported fix for issue 2 which required users to send their cameras back into the service center..

The camera which I own and will be reviewing was a body that:

• Fell within the affected serial number range
• Exhibited the AF issues described above
• Has been sent in for the fix
• Is now running on the latest Canon firmware 1.1.3

From here, this review is divided into ten parts:

1. Introduction
2. Design, Controls, Timings
3. AF Introduction
4. AF Part 1, Single Focus mode, All Conditions
5. AF Part 2, AI Servo Mode, Bright Sunlight
6. AF Part 3, AI Servo Mode, Cloudy Conditions
7. AF Part 4, AI Servo Mode, Low Light Focusing
8. Image Quality
9. Image Samples
10. Conclusion

Hope you enjoy the review.