A few questions for the 5d mk3 owners

[stumac]

Just got myself a 5d mk3 and have a few questions that I can't find an answer to in the manual ( although it may be in there somewhere)

1- am I right in thinking that the metering is heavily focused on the af point regardless of meter or autofocus mode

2- is anyone else getting underexposed images from their camera

3- I changed my dof button to change from one shot to servo which I notice most owners doing but if I'm in one shot mode and then hit the dof button it changes to servo BUT I have to keep my finger on the button to keep it on servo if I let go it automatically goes back to one shot. Is this normal

 

[EdR]

Haven't had mine all that long, however my findings are below:

1. Haven't really noticed (although I guess I will now be looking for that!)
2. Have a slight trend of images to be either slightly underexposed (about 1/3 to 1/2 stop) or correctly exposed. Have seen hardly any overexposed shots (other than the ones of my little boy with his glowing bright green lightsaber filling most of the shot!)
3. That is by design (works the same way on the 7D) - would personally prefer to be able to swap modes with the DOF button, as my dexterity doesn't extend to doing that many things whilst holding a heavy camera & lens combo

 

[stumac]

Thanks for the reply
I tried testing out the metering by
1/2 filling my frame with my living room window and the other 1/2 the wall beside it and when I changed the focus points between the two the camera settings changed by quite a bit, the camera was on a tripod and didn't move at all. So I suppose I've answered my question but was now wondered how accurate it was in day to day use

 

[ChrisJ_SLH]

Just got myself a 5d mk3 and have a few questions that I can't find an answer to in the manual ( although it may be in there somewhere)

1- am I right in thinking that the metering is heavily focused on the af point regardless of meter or autofocus mode

I don't know about 'heavily' but there certainly seems to be some meter bias around the selected af point in Evaluative mode. Other modes don't seem to do this though, and certainly not spot (although it would be good if it did like the 1 series).

2- is anyone else getting underexposed images from their camera

At first I was but I think it was down to what I just discussed above. With the mk2 I exclusively used the centre focus point (where the meter bias was). Using off centre points in the mk3 means that you have to pay more attention to exposure as in anything but evaluative you are exposing with some degree of centre bias. I find myself using the AE lock more than before if I'm not using Evaluative.

3- I changed my dof button to change from one shot to servo which I notice most owners doing but if I'm in one shot mode and then hit the dof button it changes to servo BUT I have to keep my finger on the button to keep it on servo if I let go it automatically goes back to one shot. Is this normal

Yes this is normal, it just changes mode while held. If you select servo with the AF Drive mode then it works the other way too, servo to one shot.

 

[cuthbert]

I think the evaluative metering mode is much more predicable than it was on the 5d2 in as much as bright things in the frame don't confuse it.

That said, I needed to dial in a full stop on my 5d2 to get the exposure where I wanted it and I have to do the same on the 5d3. That's for skin tones mind. For other stuff it varies considerably in both directions.

I would also say that my 500d had this tendancy as well so I think it's just how it works but like I said, the it does vary from scene to scene.

There is nothing wrong with your camera, unless mine is broken too!

 

[ChrisJ_SLH]

I think the evaluative metering mode is much more predicable than it was on the 5d2 in as much as bright things in the frame don't confuse it.

That said, I needed to dial in a full stop on my 5d2 to get the exposure where I wanted it and I have to do the same on the 5d3. That's for skin tones mind. For other stuff it varies considerably in both directions.

I would also say that my 500d had this tendancy as well so I think it's just how it works but like I said, the it does vary from scene to scene.

There is nothing wrong with your camera, unless mine is broken too!

I would agree with this 100%. EC is still necessary on a per-case basis but eval does work much better than before.

 

[stumac]

That's put my mind at rest ... Thanks to everyone for the replys

 

[onform]

All camera's meter for medium grey so unless you meter from a medium grey card you should always dial in +1 to get your whites White.