5D3 + AF assist beam = slower focus

[Carerra911]

Hello All,

While I am new on these forums I have been on the Canon Rumors Forums for a few years now, 

I really wanted to bring this too the attention of you and Canon as it is simply a highly important problem, those of you that don't know, the 5D3 suffers serious focus locking issues when a Canon speedite is attached in Low light, the AF assist beam causes lag with the AF from the 5D3, this makes it virtually impossible to achieve focus in low light when the speedlite is attached, I wanted to bring the topic to this forum, so I have pasted a link to all the discussion we have already had about this problem at Canon Rumors.com - see below

http://www.canonrumors.com/forum/index.php?topic=10275.0

Please help in letting Canon know this is a very serious problem and effects the cameras performance in most working environments when a speedlite is attached and working in low light, conferences, nightclub work, weddings etc, and can stop the photographer completing the job or task.

Regards

Louis

[dll1477]

outstanding!  thank-you canon for saving the day here this is quite wonderful to see your engagment

[dll1477]

May we ask if you have also given study to the use case where NO AF ASSIST BEAM is used -- that is, on-location low light venues where the 5D mark ii  aquires focus significantly faster than the 5D mark iii ?  Perhaps with or without the AF assist beam ,the root cause is still the same and that the firmware fix you are suggesting will fix both scenarios?

[Memdroid]

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@dll1477 wrote:

May we ask if you have also given study to the use case where NO AF ASSIST BEAM is used -- that is, on-location low light venues where the 5D mark ii  aquires focus significantly faster than the 5D mark iii ?  Perhaps with or without the AF assist beam ,the root cause is still the same and that the firmware fix you are suggesting will fix both scenarios?

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I'm sorry but the 5d2 is not in the same ballpark as the 5d3 in low light situations. Your info is wrong and confusing the real issue at hand. The 61 AF point is definitely more accurate and more sensitive than the ancient 9 point AF slow as snail focus system in low light conditions. The 5d2 has its only advantage with the AF Assist beam on. But now hearing from canon that they are fixing this lag on the 5d3, this already monster of a camera will definitely be a whole different beast. Now I can finally get rid of my 5d2 if this fix does what it promises and don't have to carry it everywhere for the instances when the 5d3 fails.

[Carerra911]

I am so super chuffed to hear this, massive smiles! x

[Carerra911]

dll1477 lets hope its apart of the same problem

[ddcoons]

It might be good to hold off on the excitement until we see an actual fix!

It is indeed good to see that Canon acknowledges the problem, but that's only step one.  Now they have to root-cause the problem, determine an appropriate solution, hopefully determine that the solution can be implemented in firmware, implement the solution, test it and then release it.

There's a good chance that they waited until they already knew how to fix it in firmware before acknowledging it.  That would be a sensible thing to do.

[GIlmorePhoto]

This is a positive development and I remain cautiously optimistic.  Thanks, Canon, for acknowldging the problem and working on a fix.  

[digital]

Excellent. I knew that after that previous response Canon was going to have news for us.     

[Rienzphotoz]

Very good news indeed

[David_Hull]

This is indeed good news.  Now how about putting a bug in their bonnet about adding an AF assist lamp to the ST-E3 like what they have in the ST-E2.