5d dies "again"

[sfage]

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I am using my Leica lenses and a fotodiox adapter (with focus confirmation chip) upon my new 5d. I bought it on December 31st. It has already been in once for a main mother board replacement. Now it has to go in again for the same problem.

 

Someone please tell me it has nothing to do with the focus confirmation chip.

 

The problem has happened twice when viewing a photo on screen and magnifying it. The screen flips out and there is just a bunch of digital noise. One can no longer see anything. Just noise.

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[Jamie Roberts]

I am using my Leica lenses and a fotodiox adapter (with focus confirmation chip) upon my new 5d. I bought it on December 31st. It has already been in once for a main mother board replacement. Now it has to go in again for the same problem.

 

Someone please tell me it has nothing to do with the focus confirmation chip.

 

The problem has happened twice when viewing a photo on screen and magnifying it. The screen flips out and there is just a bunch of digital noise. One can no longer see anything. Just noise.

 

Never used the Fotodiox adapter....but I have used many other focus confirming adapters (Optix and no-name ones) on a 5d and now a 5d3. It's highly unlikely that the adapter is the cause of this problem. You've just been unlucky IMO.

[sfage]

As you can imagine, I can't take this thing on the road. There's no way.

[lct]

On the 5D2 i don't know but i've been using chipped Fotofiox adapters for a couple of years on my 5D1 with no problem at all. Now the chip is less useful than a good split image focus screen IMO to the point that i don't use the AF confirm feature any more. If it were to redo i would buy a split image focus screen in the first place and forget about the chips but it's just me.

[sfage]

I guess it's just bad luck. When it comes back this time, if it happens again, Canon are going to start asking some pretty penetrating questions.

[Jamie Roberts]

I guess it's just bad luck. When it comes back this time, if it happens again, Canon are going to start asking some pretty penetrating questions.

 

Highly doubtful. If it happens again they'll look into other things that could cause this ... Power supplies etc. Theres really not much chance in unpowered adapter chip could cause a main board malfunction.

[chris_tribble]

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Never used the Fotodiox adapter....but I have used many other focus confirming adapters (Optix and no-name ones) on a 5d and now a 5d3. It's highly unlikely that the adapter is the cause of this problem. You've just been unlucky IMO.

 

Jamie - off topic, but how did you manage to get the 5D3 so quickly? My current plan is to keep my 5d2 as backup, get rid of my 5d1 and get the 5d3 as my main concert / event long glass body, with the M9s covering everything from 18 through to 50 (with the 90/135 going in the bag for travel when the Canons stay at home).

 

How are you getting on with the 5d3. Really interested to hear your experience. Still shooting alongside the M9 I trust!

[lct]

Is it true that the 5D3 cannot use accessory focus screens?

[farnz]

Is it true that the 5D3 cannot use accessory focus screens?

That appears to be correct from reports I've read on DPReview, LCT.

 

Pete.

[sfage]

I have asked Canon for a new camera. At this point I think it's a fair request.

 

I forgot to mention: the very first day I put the fotodiox adapter on the camera was the day the first mother board died. Yes, I thought this was a complete coincidence but still, rather unnerving. The second time the mother board died, the adapter was upon the camera as well.

 

I know, several people have said it's highly unlikely. It just kinda "weirds me out" if you get my meaning.

[Stealth3kpl]

Can you try the adapter on someone else's 5D?

Pete

[LucisPictor]

I have stopped using AF-confirm adapters when one of those chips made my former 350D "sing". Every time I had that adapter mounted there was a high-pitched sound coming from my camera. Of course, I did not use that adapter. But it shows that it can generate something inside the cam. Who knows which circuits are closed by the chip??

[Jamie Roberts]

Jamie - off topic, but how did you manage to get the 5D3 so quickly? My current plan is to keep my 5d2 as backup, get rid of my 5d1 and get the 5d3 as my main concert / event long glass body, with the M9s covering everything from 18 through to 50 (with the 90/135 going in the bag for travel when the Canons stay at home).

 

How are you getting on with the 5d3. Really interested to hear your experience. Still shooting alongside the M9 I trust!

 

Off topic Chris, all I did was call my local dealer and say "put me on the list" and I had one on March 23

 

I'm planning on using it alongside the M9 (or M10?! LOL) in the same way: longer lenses (an 85 1.2L in my case), plus all my R glass (which now is a 35 Cron, 50 cron and lux, and an 80 R lux), plus some older (but great) Oly OM lenses for backup.

 

I have to say I love the 5d3 so far, and I haven't even processed RAWs yet. It's the best Canon I ever had; autofocus is really very good indeed and the colour--!!--is outstanding, and I'm just using JPEGs. Here are some comments I wrote to someone else comparing the 5d3 to my late lamented DMR and to my previous Canons (5d1, 1ds2, 1d2):

 

For colour and detail, I think the 5d mark 3 is the best Canon I've ever used. I think it's better than overall than my much beloved DMR, too.

 

• I've used the 5d3 for about two weeks, which isn't enough time for a definitive understanding of the camera. My favourite raw converter (C1 Pro) also does not support the 5d3 files yet, so I'm working with JPEGs.
  
• The color on the 5d3 is--by far, hands down--the best color Canon has ever made, period. It's quite astonishing; it looks more like a Phase back than a Canon dSLR. Does that mean it has the same palette as a DMR? No--the DMR is something special for sure. But I can get to the DMR "look" with a 5d3 more easily in terms of colour than anything else out there, and skin tones, in particular, are exceptionally good.
  
• The 5d3 has an AA filter on it. It doesn't look at all waxy to me but it's not AA-less either and you have to sharpen for output. Evidently in DPP (Canon's own raw program that comes with the camera) there's a software method of removing the AA filter's effects. But I haven't tried that yet.
  
• So I think Canon has struck a very nice balance between lighter AA filtering and detail on the 5d3. So the 5d3 is not as "sharp" out of the box as the DMR, but then it has more than double the resolution of a DMR and can really use what the lenses give it; sharpening makes it obvious to me the 5d3 is a better camera for detail than the DMR. For printing, the extra resolution matters more than the lack of an AA filter, on balance.
  
• I find it actually easy to manually focus my R lenses (and Olympus lenses), which is important since you can't replace the focus screen (the 1dx will be the same way with a slight bit more magnification and an even brighter VF).
  
• As a side benefit, the video I get out of this camera using my Leica R lenses is simply astonishing. Stanley Kubrick would be in tears with this stuff, shooting high definition with an 80 1.4 or with a 21mm f2 (Olympus in that case) by candlelight Though I only shoot stills professionally, I will use this for personal use. Can't do that with a DMR, and Canon have refined the video capability of the camera from the 5d2.
  
• It's really incredibly good up to ISO 3200, and totally acceptable for printing even beyond 6400 IMO. You do get some colour shifting up past 6400 (Canon is using a red channel boost around ISO 12800, I think, to get even lower noise)--BUT THAT"s ONLY A JPEG THING. I need to re-test with raw files; I suspect their colour will stay the same throughout the range.
  
• The "silent" shutter option makes this the quietest dSLR I've used in a very long time. It's as quiet, or maybe even a little quieter, than my M9. That's pretty amazing for a dSLR.
  

 

Hope this helps!

 

Jamie

[farnz]

...For colour and detail, I think the 5d mark 3 is the best Canon I've ever used. I think it's better than overall than my much beloved DMR, too. ...

Wow, that's an impressive recommendation from the Master of Colour!

 

Pete.

[Jamie Roberts]

Wow, that's an impressive recommendation from the Master of Colour!

 

Pete.

 

Pete! LOL

 

There really are masters of colour out there. I'm not one of them in the slightest. But I am picky

 

The 5d3 really does show 1) a thinner AA filter than I'm used to on either Canon or Nikon bodies to date and 2) out-of-camera colour that belongs, more or less, more to the family of cameras produced in Europe than Japan

[adan]

@ sfage - sorry to add to the sidetracking of your thread (FWIW, my 5D2 has had no problems in 18 months, but I use an unchipped Fotodiox R-adapter - my "focus confirmation" is a split-image 1Ds screen converted by Haoda. )

 

@ Jamie - I notice you "skipped over" the 5D2 in your Canon pilgrim's progress. Have you had any experience with 5D2 color as compared with the 5D3? It took me a while to profile the 5D2 to my satisfaction (including other Adobe defaults such as Sat, not just the calibration pane), but the color has been good since then. I'm interested to know if the "3" is better yet.

[Jamie Roberts]

{snipped}

@ Jamie - I notice you "skipped over" the 5D2 in your Canon pilgrim's progress. Have you had any experience with 5D2 color as compared with the 5D3? It took me a while to profile the 5D2 to my satisfaction (including other Adobe defaults such as Sat, not just the calibration pane), but the color has been good since then. I'm interested to know if the "3" is better yet.

 

Hi Andy--you're right; I did "skip" the 5d2 generation of Canon cameras. I was using Nikon (a D3) for those years, since I tried a 5d2 and felt its auto-focusing was essentially the same as the 5d original's focusing. The D3, on the other hand, was in a different league on that score.

 

To answer your question, though, yes--I feel the 5d3 is better than any Canon's straight output I've seen to date.

 

I thought the colour progression from 5d to 5d2 era Canons was evolutionary, though I didn't have a lot of time with the 1ds3. But it would have taken time for me to dial in the 5d2, to be sure. I have a lot of friends who shoot them, though, and get excellent results from them.

 

To me, the 5d3 is a surprising step over both what I'm used to in the original 5d, what I saw of the 5d2 and, of course, much better than I had with the D3. I'm still just playing with JPEG output and I'm constantly surprised at how good it is, really. It will live a lot more congenially, as far as colour goes, alongside the M9 than the D3 ever did

[michali]

Someone please tell me it has nothing to do with the focus confirmation chip.

 

I'm quite sure it may have something to do with the focus confirmation chip. My son borrowed my Sony Alpha 850 and used it with his Contax 135mm F2.8 Sonnar which he has converted with a Leitax mount and focus conf. chip. After 5 or 6 shots, the camera died. The problem was a cooked circuit board. Sony confirmed there was no question that the chip was the culprit. Despite this, they very kindly replaced the camera for me no charge. Agree with LucisPictor, who knows what circuits are closed/shorted out?

 

FWIW I don't use focus chips with my converted R lenses.

[farnz]

... FWIW I don't use focus chips with my converted R lenses.

Me neither.

 

Pete.

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[sfage]

I'm quite sure it may have something to do with the focus confirmation chip. My son borrowed my Sony Alpha 850 and used it with his Contax 135mm F2.8 Sonnar which he has converted with a Leitax mount and focus conf. chip. After 5 or 6 shots, the camera died. The problem was a cooked circuit board. Sony confirmed there was no question that the chip was the culprit. Despite this, they very kindly replaced the camera for me no charge. Agree with LucisPictor, who knows what circuits are closed/shorted out?

 

FWIW I don't use focus chips with my converted R lenses.

 

See, this is the thing that drives me nuts. That's a pretty nice thing that Sony did. It's almost "too" nice, if you get my meaning. In other words, was 'really' the chip's fault, or was the camera somehow defective and Sony didn't want to admit to it?

 

I can see that happening, quite frankly.

 

As we have read in this thread, there are a whole waft of people that have used the chip that I am using without a problem.

 

I have been informed that my machine is on its way back. I don't know if that means they've actually replaced the camera or just put "another" new motherboard in it. Now I am "all paranoid" about using the stupid thing.... which pisses me off... because using my R lenses was the entire point of buying the camera.

 

Also, remember, my camera didn't die while shooting with it. It happened while reviewing images. I magnified one image to check focus (et cetera) then used the thumb wheel to go to the next and previous image (like any photographer would do). That's when the camera locked up.... not while shooting with the camera.