Canon 1d Mark III troublesome autofocus is a rumour

According to representive from Canon Denmark the troublesome autofocus in the Mark III is nothing more than a rumour. At a Canon pressconference today about the new Mark IV the representive said that she would like to put the rumour about the autofocus to rest once and for all.
Out of more than 23000 units sold 2300 were sent to Canon for focus fix (rougly 10%). Although the representive acknowledges the number of units sent to Canon is too high its still a very small number.

With all due respect what the hell..
How an odd thing to starting claiming at a press conference about another completely other camera.

Edit : Spelling etc.

I guess all of the firmware upgrades and the two hardware upgrades to fix AF issues were all just a rumor too

Have her call me.

Chas

Appears that some Canon employees are duped enough to believe there was no issue. But, those that switched to Nikon must have had problems.

Those coloured dots on MkIII's were Christmas decorations? The whole process was so incredibly out of control they had to use coloured dots, for gods sake! Why do cameras have serial numbers; doh.

It is this type of ignorance that will send a few thousand more defective models to market and guess what! There will be thousands that buy them and complain later.

There are many comments I could make on this topic, but none of them are constructive. So I'll just go back to reading all the glowing market launch materials about the new 1D Mk IV.

No kidding, eh, Royce. I'll skip commenting any further, too. Let's just say I am not lining up to buy the 1D IV until it's been well tested and proven.

It would serve them right if initial sales were in the toilet. I'll be curious to see how many will line up to be Canon's beta testers this time around.

ejmartin wrote:It would serve them right if initial sales were in the toilet. I'll be curious to see how many will line up to be Canon's beta testers this time around.

From what I'm reading around the Internet, there will be plenty in line for the camera from day 1.

A friend of mine who swore he would not early adopt, is - he is going to be my beta tester:) 10% sounds low to me.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

ejmartin wrote:It would serve them right if initial sales were in the toilet. I'll be curious to see how many will line up to be Canon's beta testers this time around.

From what I'm reading around the Internet, there will be plenty in line for the camera from day 1.

It seems like it is always that way, and God help the first person who reports a problem!
I keep thinking this upgrade is a bit "ho-hum" despite the marketing hype and obvious upgrades. I guess it is the AF uncertainty created by the mark3(no matter what side of the fence you are on). If there are reviews to follow this announcement to independently verify the AF system, then I think that would change things.
I think Canon really needs to put the mark3 behind it, and putting a solid AF offering in the hands of professional's is the only way to do it.
I still think Nikon's D3 release strategy is the gold standard, put it in the hands of pro's and let them shoot, post and talk.

I would think that if they just announced they are reverting back to the old 1D Mark IIn AF system there would be a lot more people lining up to buy it.

I might remember it wrong but did´nt all mark III receive a hardware change related to the focus even from the factory?

bias_hjorth wrote:I might remember it wrong but did´nt all mark III receive a hardware change related to the focus even from the factory?

Nope your memory isn't wrong, there were actually two factory fixes for some bodies and several firmware updates specifically for AF.

E.J. Peiker wrote:I guess all of the firmware upgrades and the two hardware upgrades to fix AF issues were all just a rumor too

I'm stunned at your restraint.

One of the fixes, at least for the 1Ds mark III, was for the inability to accurately autofocus static subjects using any focus point other than the center one. This was a problem I had noticed before the announcement, though I kept thinking it was me (maybe I'm not as steady as I used to be, maybe I was slightly inside the minimum focus distance, maybe there wasn't quite enough light, etc., etc.). Thanks a lot for the "rumor," Canon.