It really seems that Canon has had his glory days.Just when we thought everything has been fixed with the recent update 2.0.4 more users are starting to complaint about the new firmware producing errors in manual mode.
Ever since Canon has changed to the new sensors technology that more and more problems have arise from these sensors. And the fact is that Canon is aware of them but will still refuse to make it public nor fix the errors they are prone.
One of the biggest problems was the MarkIII focus issues that were never really fixed, but instead they made some minor adjustments and replacements to try to improve it without much great success.
Then came the actual problem of soft images on most of the recent cameras and this is due o the fact that for Canon to improve the ISO sensibility they needed something that could "catch" a more sensitive light and for that came a big change on their sensor technology. In fact such change has brought us the problem of ghosting or softness in the images. This is not something that you can really do in Photoshop, except maybe try and over sharp your images in order for them to look good, but the real problem is that now, and pay attention to this, you have to (at least) double your Shutter Speed in order to get things frozen or at least in real sharp focus.
YES, YOU HAVE TO, AT LEAST, DOUBLE THE REAL EXPOSURE TO GET A GOOD SHARP PICTURE.
This is something that Canon should mention on their new manuals has this never happened on cameras with older sensors. And when I'm talking old is sensor produced during the line of 1D MarkIIn series. So make this your mark point, every camera Canon has produce prior to the 1D MarkIIn were really good sensors after that all suffer from the ghosting (softness) effect and you will have to raise your Shutter Speed 2 or 3 times more than you were used to.
With this in mind you will then have to lower your Aperture or raise your ISO and here my friends is where your adventure starts.
If you are working on f2.8 and you can no longer lower the Aperture because your 2.8 lens then you have to raise the ISO and you know if your shooting a standing person and your meter will tell you that a good exposure will be 1/200 well that would not not freeze your subject very well, you need at least 1/400 or even 1/800 so it will make a good sharp picture.
Taking in account that you are working at f2.8, ISO 1600, 1/200 (meter readings) and you need the 1/800 to freeze your subject then the only option it will be to raise your ISO in such way your images will became useless for big prints. I know that you can use Noise Reduction on them but the point here is why Canon did not switch the sensors on their new cameras to match a good quality and freeze the action like previous models? Why not put this on the manuals so people could be aware of this matter.
A lot of you, and me, been complaining about soft images in part due to the lenses used but if you are an L user and spend a lot of money in gear you at least expect to have a company that focus on improving the way images are captured. Canon always have been a marketing company and never really care about their consumers, as long as sales go up everything is good.
I had so many complaints about Canon products since my upgrades of my 1D MarkIIn bodies and all due to new sensor and focus issues. Service Center here in Portugal sucks and thank god I have a CPS card that helps me nothing.
I also upgraded the 1D MarkIV to the new firm 1.0.6 only to find out that the camera lost it's ability to focus on low light and the servo mode is much more sensible in a way that it's completely useless. I talked to Canon about it, but they told me no complaints were sent about this, and with much pressure I have managed to returned to 1.0.4. I also found out about a thread at Fred Miranda forum concerning this matter and you can check it out here.
So it seems Canon his loosing ground but always making faulty cameras, let's hope future will come brighter on this matter.
What people at 5D MarkII Team are talking about the firmware 2.0.4 Iris problem:
MALFUNCTION IN 2.0.4 – IRIS issue
Firmware 2.0.4 is really a GREAT update, an extraordinary effort made by Canon engineers. But after some deep tests we have found and confirmed a malfunction in this firmware.
▪ Description of the problem:
When a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens is mounted on the camera and the user manually changes focus (rotates focus ring), the lens changes the iris/aperture “by itself”, even when the camera is in full manual mode.
It is not normal, and should not happen. The tests were made by several users with many copies on many camera bodies, so it’s not an isolated lens problem.
▪ This malfunction always occurs in this situation:
When the camera is set to M (Manual) mode and in Live View mode (Still+Movie – Movie Display), which is the correct mode for “full manual control” in movie mode.
▪ Additional details:
. It does NOT happen with Firmware version 1.1.0
. It happens WHEN recording video and also when NOT recording video
. It happens with ISO and every possible automatic setting fixed to a value, or turned off
. It happens in C1/C2/C3 too (if they are registered as “M” modes for movie recording)
. It happens in PAL and NTSC modes
. It happens in both lens modes: MF and AF mode
. The camera does NOT tell any change in aperture setting (it keeps showing the same value) nor give any kind of advice either
. The iris shifting can be heard (and seen)
. The brightness shifting of the image is visible on the camera’s LCD monitor when the iris/aperture shift occurs
. The iris/aperture usually changes in small values, but enough to make a footage unusable, so using this great lens for movie/video purpose may result impossible
ADDITIONAL REPORTS
We received some additional reports from many users.
Some of them:
. Regarding the malfunction of the Canon EF 100mm 2.8 Macro USM:
“By observing the IRIS as I adjusted the aperture I noticed that sometimes it doesn’t go correctly to the right size. I even noticed that sometimes as I stopped down the aperture for a step the IRIS would actually open a bit instead.”
. Other reports: We also received reports regarding 3rd party lenses experiencing “weird noises” coming from the iris, or iris/aperture inconsistencies when mounted on 5D Mark II with firmware 2.0.4 that weren’t present on firmware 1.1.0.
It seems very possible that these issues also occur with some 3rd party lenses and maybe other Canon lenses as well.
VIDEO TESTS
These 2 videos show the problem when the Canon EF 100mm F/2.8 Macro USM is mounted on the 5D Mark II in the full manual mode for movie mode, and the focus ring is rotated. Remember that this does not happen with firmware 1.1.0.
Please read full descriptions on each video for further details.
(Thank you 5D2Team for the great tip and videos and keep up the pressure)
Let's hope this will have an end soon. Thank god I bought a 5D MarkII digital photo camera to take pictures and not videos or else I would be pi....
I know Canon will fix all this on the next 5D MarkIII "Video" Camera as long with a new AutoFocus and who knows some 40 Mpixel files so we can all have our hard drives full in a snap.
