EOS 1Ds Mark III - LCD Screen monochrome 'ghost'

[Steve_B]

I have a hardly used Ds1 mkiii and still getting the hang of things and what it can do. I've noticed that after a shot, and bringing up the screen view, occasionally it has a 'block'  of black with a perimeter of thin white, usually if it's a big area of a uniform shade (such as a plain background to the subject). It follows the shape of whatever is there rather than say a rectangle or square shape, and then after less than half a second resorts back to the actual colors and shades. Is this normal and nothing to worry about?  

[deebatman316]

Can you show us a picture of what's going on so forum members can better assist you.

[Steve_B]

A little troubling...When displayed it alternates. It's the high contrast part that is

[deebatman316]

Your camera is functioning correctly what you're seeing is called a "highlight alert". It can be enabled and disabled from the camera menu. Its designed to show you parts of the picture that are overexposed. Those areas flash in black to show where the highlights are blown out. Check page 118 in the manual. Since this camera is new to you I highly suggest reading the manual. Which I have linked in my post. Other cameras have this feature too not just 1D Series cameras. EOS-1Ds Mark III Manual 

[Steve_B]

Well, everyday is a school day! It makes sense I suppose, Thank you so much for the information 🙂

[deebatman316]

When it flashes it means that parts of the picture are overexposed. The easy fix is to underexpose it. The camera's light meter can easily be fooled by white, black and reflective objects. The camera sees things in gray and will always expose for that. So what you think is correctly exposed by the camera's light meter may not be. So dialing in exposure compensation (or over or underexposing in manual mode) will solve this issue.