Canon 5D MKIII official owners/users thread, anything related to the 5D MKIII

Blimey, that sounds like a nightmare. Hopefully the camera is ok and it was just a one off.

One of the reasons i got rid of my Tamron was because it locked my camera up a couple of times. The camera lot communication with the lens. While i dont tend to shoot much that is critical i didn't want to risk using it when i am.
I dont suppose the ISO thing was to do with using flash was it?

Yeah I had a few issues with my old Tammy lens on the 7D but I managed to shoot over 1000 pics with the 5D & this Tammy lens a couple of weeks back at a wedding with no issues so not sure it's a problem with the lens being 3rd party tbh.

I think all the issues were caused by the flash tbh... I could be wrong but everything worked fine until I attached the TTL cable a few days before this last wedding and it instantly defaulted to ISO 400 the second I did. I'm wondering if this cable has caused some sort of corruption in the camera's settings that have then led to other problems.

I'll test it out thoroughly before my next wedding and see if I can recreate the error or get everything working fine.

If all else fails I may be buying another body (a 6D), sending the 5D MK III to Canon for repair, shooting the wedding with the 6D & 7D, and then flog the 7D once the 5D is back.

Bit of a convoluted way of doing things but hiring a body for a weekend would cost a bomb and I plan on upgrading the 7D to a 6D anyway in the not too distant future.
 
I think my MKIII defaults to ISO400 as soon as a flash is connected and the camera is using auto ISO. It's caught me out a couple of times.

Have you tried flashing the FW, that might put everything back to normal.

I'm glad I still have my 60D. I think I'll get rid of it after the wedding I'm doing but I've kept hold of it just in case I do need it.

As nice as the 6D seems I would have thought its a step back from a 7D as far as features, ergonomics and reach goes, but I suppose if its just a back up you might not miss the 7D much.

Good luck with the MKIII, hopefully its just a glitch.
 
I think my MKIII defaults to ISO400 as soon as a flash is connected and the camera is using auto ISO. It's caught me out a couple of times.

Have you tried flashing the FW, that might put everything back to normal.

I'm glad I still have my 60D. I think I'll get rid of it after the wedding I'm doing but I've kept hold of it just in case I do need it.

As nice as the 6D seems I would have thought its a step back from a 7D as far as features, ergonomics and reach goes, but I suppose if its just a back up you might not miss the 7D much.

Good luck with the MKIII, hopefully its just a glitch.

That's weird as I shot a whole wedding in auto ISO without it ever defaulting to ISO 400 :thinking:

I know the MK II does the ISO 400 thing but pretty sure both the MK III and the 6D don't do this from what I've read.

Are you sure yours is also doing this?

The 6D is FF so the IQ and ISO performance are both much better, it also has the ability to set min & max auto ISO and SS which the 7D doesn't.

Only thing I'd miss about the 7D is the extra reach but the IQ and ISO are both crap above ISO 1600 and it's always been a big source of frustration for me.
 
I just checked my MKIII with my 580EXII and in P mode Auto ISO works as expected, but in TV, Manual and AV it defaults to ISO400, and although I can get it to drop it won't go over this number. Maybe this might have something to do with your camera suddenly locking in to ISO400?

I take your points about the 6D. I guess as long as you have the 5D with all its bells and whistles the secondary camera doesn't have to have everything, but at least the IQ will be constant.
 
I just checked my MKIII with my 580EXII and in P mode Auto ISO works as expected, but in TV, Manual and AV it defaults to ISO400, and although I can get it to drop it won't go over this number. Maybe this might have something to do with your camera suddenly locking in to ISO400?

I take your points about the 6D. I guess as long as you have the 5D with all its bells and whistles the secondary camera doesn't have to have everything, but at least the IQ will be constant.

Now I'm really confused as I honestly shot 90% of a wedding in Auto ISO & AV and it was reaching ISO's of 5000 on many occasions with a flash attached?! :shrug:

Have you checked in the menu's to see what your min / max auto ISO is set to?
 
Also check out page 125 of the manual. There is a table on there and it shows what Auto ISO will do when in different modes.

I'll have a look tonight as don't have it on me... I'm guessing it's going to tell me ISO400 is normal and how I shot at higher ISO's in AV for a wedding only 2 weeks ago is a mystery?
 
Now I'm really confused as I honestly shot 90% of a wedding in Auto ISO & AV and it was reaching ISO's of 5000 on many occasions with a flash attached?! :shrug:

Have you checked in the menu's to see what your min / max auto ISO is set to?

In Av the camera will expose for the background and use flash as a fill, as such if your BG is very dark you'll get huge ISO.
 
There may well be a combination of settings that will allow higher than ISO400 in Auto but i cant find it.
Ive read threads on other forums about this limitation but not sure there was ever a way around it other than to use P mode.

Auto ISO is set to 100-3200 and min shutter is set to 1/250, although i can see it dropping as i move the camera around the room in AV mode, ISO stays at 400 though.

Yes, it does state Auto ISO is fixed at 400 with flash in the manual.
Very strange. I wonder if its to do with the way you use the flash, on camera, off camera, cord, manual mode etc.
 
In Av the camera will expose for the background and use flash as a fill, as such if your BG is very dark you'll get huge ISO.

Yeah that's the plan, but defaulting to 400 and not going above isn't working how it should or how you'd expect.

I know the 5D MK II does the 400 default and not above thing, but not the MK III and also why it didn't do this 2 weeks ago but now does :thinking:
 
There may well be a combination of settings that will allow higher than ISO400 in Auto but i cant find it.
Ive read threads on other forums about this limitation but not sure there was ever a way around it other than to use P mode.

Auto ISO is set to 100-3200 and min shutter is set to 1/250, although i can see it dropping as i move the camera around the room in AV mode, ISO stays at 400 though.

Yes, it does state Auto ISO is fixed at 400 with flash in the manual.
Very strange. I wonder if its to do with the way you use the flash, on camera, off camera, cord, manual mode etc.

Man I'm sooo bloody confused lol!

I need to have a play around with this before my next wedding as I can't work out how I shot in such high ISO's in Auto ISO and AV if that's not possible
 
In Av the camera will expose for the background and use flash as a fill, as such if your BG is very dark you'll get huge ISO.

I just climbed in to a wardrobe to test this lol, and all i got was a shutter speed of 5 sec and ISO400 still.
 
Man I'm sooo bloody confused lol!

I need to have a play around with this before my next wedding as I can't work out how I shot in such high ISO's in Auto ISO and AV if that's not possible

If you figure it out please let me know.
 
Ok here's the EXIF from one of my wedding shots a couple of weeks back:

Exif data
Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark III
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/2.8
Focal Length 70 mm
ISO Speed 5000
Exposure Bias +2/3 EV
Flash On, Fired
Exposure Program Aperture-priority AE
Sensitivity Type Recommended Exposure Index
Recommended Exposure Index 5000
Max Aperture Value 2.8
Metering Mode Multi-segment
Exposure Mode Auto
White Balance Auto


This shows I shot in AV mode, Auto ISO (exposure Auto I'm guessing is Auto ISO) and flash was on camera and fired.

So we have Auto ISO at 5000 with on camera flash in AV mode.

Here's the pic - seems to look fine so it clearly worked ok:

8634653079_7a6a74dc22_z.jpg
 
Im not doubting you at all, just that its not what im finding and what the manual says.
That shot does indeed look fine (great in fact).
Im not sure where your Exif data is coming from but DPP will tell you if Auto ISO is on or off, that would prove beyond doubt that there is some way of doing this.
 
Im not doubting you at all, just that its not what im finding and what the manual says.
That shot does indeed look fine (great in fact).
Im not sure where your Exif data is coming from but DPP will tell you if Auto ISO is on or off, that would prove beyond doubt that there is some way of doing this.

What's DPP mate?

Yeah it's all very odd... I checked the EXIF as started to doubt myself even though I know I shot in Auto ISO.
 
What's DPP mate?

Yeah it's all very odd... I checked the EXIF as started to doubt myself even though I know I shot in Auto ISO.

DPP is the Canon software that come with the Camera. Its not something i use much (LR4 most of the time) but its handy for this sort of thing.

I do hop your right about this though.
 
DPP is the Canon software that come with the Camera. Its not something i use much (LR4 most of the time) but its handy for this sort of thing.

I do hop your right about this though.

Ahh ok I haven't installed that.

I'm going to have a play around and see what I can work out... I know last time I didn't have an SD card in the 2nd slot, but other than that nothing's changed other than I'd attached a TTL cable.

It would seem I shouldn't have been able to do what I did, and yet I did
 
Can anyone spec me a cable release?

Had a play with the new toy finally yesterday still a lot to learn, Mainly shooting in AV but will get to Manual asap. the 70-200 is outstanding!

Going to do some seascape work with the 24-70 tonight
 
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Now that 7dayshop have stopped shipping their Lithium batteries, where's the best place and the most reliable 3rd party batteries to buy? I've used the ones from 7dayshop on my MK2 before and never had any problems with it, so now looking for another one for the MKIII. :thumbs:
 
I've just been having a bit of a mess about with flash settings using a 580EXII on my 5D3...

P: Auto ISO to all levels but only if the flash is pointed out of the normal horizontal position.
Tv: Auto ISO to all levels regardless of where the flash points.
Av: Defaults to ISO 400 regardless of settings.
M: Defaults to ISO 400 regardless of settings.
 
Dave forget everything I said... I installed DPP and I had used manual ISO and just not remembered changing it to that after doing the detail shots in the room, and then spending the day constantly changing the ISO when required :D

How I have forgotten that I do not know! Also even more bizarre is that I must have done that due to the Auto ISO defaulting to 400 and realising I needed to use manual.

I apologise for any confusion and for you climbing up your wardrobe for no reason :)
 
No problem Andy. At least you know part of your issue is a non issue. I've done the same a few times, gone from one and forgot to go back.

It was quite nice in the wardrobe, and I even found some snow at the back lol.

Si. I'm not sure how you are getting all ISO's in TV mode, mine is still stuck on ISO400 max (as per the manual) no matter what speed I set. Even going in to HSS makes no difference.
 
I've just had a quick play with my mine with a 600 ex-rt and mine defaults to 400 ISO too, it's a bit of a bummer really as I like using auto Iso and setting a minimum shutter speed.

Ive just noticed in the manual it states minim shutter speed is ignored when flash is used (page 128).
 
Just found this in the manual:


*3: When using bounce flash with an external Speedlite in the <A> and <d> modes, the ISO speed will be set automatically within ISO 400 - 1600.

Yeah, thats on page 125 with the other speed limitations.
 
Can I ask what settings you guys would use for children that never sit still? I have tried single focus points and expanded points and but I always seem to struggle to catch my monsters on the move. I have always struggled with moving targets! Recent illness has meant I've lost some fitness so maybe lugging around my 70-200 wasn't a good choice for my first outing in a while. I generally use AI Focus to switch from when they're stood still (a rarity) to when they run around.

Any tips greatly appreciated.
 
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I think AI Focus is a no no. I've never read anything good about it. I must admit to never using it but from what I've read it's not reliable (and never has been).

Other than that, it will depend on the lighting. I tend to keep my shutter speeds quite high, maybe 1/300+ if shooting my kids moving around a lot. I have the DOF button set to switch between one shot and AI servo when its led in, and do use it if I have to follow them with the camera, but I find the shutter speed to be fast enough to capture them in one shot most of the time.
Most of the time I just use the normal single point AF although I have used the expanded points as well. I've not noticed any difference between the two, the AF is pretty good anyway.
 
Can I ask what settings you guys would use for children that never sit still? I have tried single focus points and expanded points and but I always seem to struggle to catch my monsters on the move. I have always struggled with moving targets! Recent illness has meant I've lost some fitness so maybe lugging around my 70-200 wasn't a good choice for my first outing in a while. I generally use AI Focus to switch from when they're stood still (a rarity) to when they run around.

Any tips greatly appreciated.

Can't help with the subjects in matter as I don't have any :D

One thing for sure though,I've never had any luck on any of my bodies with AI Focus.
Always given it the benefit of the doubt at least once on each whenever I've upgraded but always resorted to using Servo.
 
Hi Marsha, use AI Servo with fast shutter speed and depending on light, f/5.6-f/8? Start with 9 AF expansion center AF or center point only AF. If you shooting your kids running towards you, try set your AF characteristics to case 4 or case 6. Try it out and good luck

Can I ask what settings you guys would use for children that never sit still? I have tried single focus points and expanded points and but I always seem to struggle to catch my monsters on the move. I have always struggled with moving targets! Recent illness has meant I've lost some fitness so maybe lugging around my 70-200 wasn't a good choice for my first outing in a while. I generally use AI Focus to switch from when they're stood still (a rarity) to when they run around.

Any tips greatly appreciated.
 
It really will. Wont be such a shock to the system. I am used to using a Mark II and a 1D IV.

Still this one will be mine all mine :D

Even going from a MKII to MKIII will be nice. On the few occasions I borrowed a MKII I thought it felt quite old compared to my 60D.
 
Can't help with the subjects in matter as I don't have any :D

One thing for sure though,I've never had any luck on any of my bodies with AI Focus.
Always given it the benefit of the doubt at least once on each whenever I've upgraded but always resorted to using Servo.
They are awkward little buggers to catch on camera, great respect to all toggers that regularly photograph small people for a career!

I always struggled with AI Focus on my 7D, just thought it was me! Sometimes it seems to work fine, other times not so fine!

Hi Marsha, use AI Servo with fast shutter speed and depending on light, f/5.6-f/8? Start with 9 AF expansion center AF or center point only AF. If you shooting your kids running towards you, try set your AF characteristics to case 4 or case 6. Try it out and good luck

Thanks Robin, I'll try that. Running towards me has always been my biggest focus failure with any kind of moving subject. When I get home from work I'll read about AF case 4 and 6 then try them out next time I get a chance.
 
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