Canon UK Stops EOS 1D Mark III Shipments

Bad news if you wanted to purchase an EOS 1D Mark III professional DLSR, as Canon UK has decided to stop shipments and to recall all the units currently on the market.

In what appears to be a letter to retailers, the manufacturer admits there's a quality issue with some EOS-1D Mark III units in the market". The problem can be linked to the adjustment of the AF Sub Mirror, and we believe that this affects only a minority of units in the market at this time, the letter also reads.

Canon also mentions that the phenomenon resulting from this problem, predominantly occurring in high temperature conditions, is that the optimal focus point is uncertain in AI servo mode, or that the tracking performance of AI Servo in not accurate.

Some of the first photographers to get their hands on an 1D Mark III started to notice the issue, which was confirmed by a thorough analysis by Rob Galbraith.

Apparently, there are four major problems with the autofocus module: initial acquirement of focus in a multi-frame burst, subject tracking, focus shifting when the subject isn't moving and extremely quick focus shifting with a moving subject.

What's intriguing is that the 1D Mark III is affected by these problems on warm, sunny days and not in dim-lit place. Normally, autofocus has difficulty acquiring and tracking when there's less light, but in the 1D Mark III's case it's the opposite, the analysis mentioned.

As a quick reminder, the EOS 1D Mark III was announced in late February as a replacement for the EOS 1D Mark II N. The new model offers a 10.1MP CMOS sensor, a whopping 10fps burst speed, 2 DIGIC III processors, a Live View feature, Canon's new cleaning system and a new autofocus system with micro-adjustment and adjustable focus-tracking sensitivity.

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