Yet another 1DmkIII service notice.

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whiteflyer

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Canon USA has issued a service notice for Canon EOS 1D Mark III and Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III owners.

Service Notice: EOS-1D Mark III/EOS-1Ds Mark III: Oil Spots on LPF Surface

Thank you for using Canon products.

We have discovered that images taken by some EOS-1D Mark III and EOS-1Ds Mark III digital SLR cameras may exhibit ring-shaped spots. We would like to convey the details and our service policy.

We offer our most sincere apologies to customers using these products who have been inconvenienced by this issue. Going forward, we will spare no effort in our quality management to make sure our customers can use our products with confidence. We hope our efforts will earn your understanding.
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Much more info at http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-News/
 
I had that, just after getting it back from canon service recall. Took it in the following week for a free sensor clean. Now I know what has caused it. I've yet to check since I got it back. been using my other body. I've started not to trust it.
 
I haven't seen any instance of this with mine so far. Obviously I rather hope that I don't.
Has there been any similar notice from Canon UK?
 
Heres an image of mine with the area highlighted in red. It shows up on most pictures.
NJHA_14561.jpg
 
i doubt many pros will be too bothered about this. id have thought sensor cleaning would be done regularily, unless it something different:shrug:

prob a good way to claim for every sensor clean since you bought it though
 
not exactly the end of the world though is it, i mean how can you honestly tell what is oil from this "problem" and whats just general sensor crud?

my 20D sensor is dirtier than all of the test shots above lol
 
Dust marks are dark. The marks I have, show up on dark, light, middle.
Heres a crop from one of my shots. you can see the oil mark on the right and a dust mark on the left. Oh and it's a pain when you have to send your shots of as quick as possible ready for print, dust somehow doesn't quite create the same headache, in fact most of the shots I need to get out quickly the dust spots don't show, but this spot does.

NJHA_14566_-_Version_2.jpg
 
right i get you, didnt see any difference in the previous pics.. still im not sure why its caused so much fuss, youll all need to clean your sensor at some point anyway.

sorry if im getting the wrong end of the stick, im just trying to understand the reaction.
 
i think the reaction is based on it being the third or fourth recall on this camera. they need to release a fully functional and reliable 1d mkIV soon.

couldnt you get canon to pay for every sensor clean you have had as they have deemed it worthy of a recall and simply solved by a sensor clean??
 
Not another, Canon's credibility is on par with our politicians :thumbsdown::thumbsdown:
 
I was a bit sloppy with my arctic butterfly and managed to drag a bit of oil across the sensor glass. Eclipse fluid removed it in seconds. I'll just take this as something to be aware of and look out for.
I doubt if I shall be sending the body back to Canon just yet.
 
Trappe said:
I was a bit sloppy with my arctic butterfly and managed to drag a bit of oil across the sensor glass.
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Nikon D3 bodies are not immune to the same fate. My brother in law shoots Nikon and had the same thing happen to him and his D3. Do Nikon users get up in arms about it?

D3 thread - http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1021&message=31544228&changemode=1.

This all seems like a storm in a teacup to me. Many of these bodies are getting on now - a year or two old - and only now these spots of oil are a problem? Give me a break. If you haven't noticed them in two years there really isn't a systemic problem. My body was manufactured last September and I've had the camera almost five months. I don't stop down much but I do shoot BIF against clear skies and I can't say I've ever noticed a problem with my camera. In all honesty I don't know what posessed Canon to make all this fuss. It seems they've opened a can of worms needlessly.

The only reason I can see for ringing the alarm bell on this is if during the most recent round of AF checks/fixes some nutcase went around applying liberal amounts of oil in every service department across the USA. Is there an equivalent notice for Canon elsewhere in the world? I'm not aware of one.

As people have said, sensor cleaning is one of the joys of DSLR ownership.

Here's a sample image shot this morning with my 1D3 at f/32 with no edits. If you try hard enough you can spot the odd blob against this plain background but they aren't exactly showstoppers and who shoots at f/32 with a crop body anyway?

20090516_095348_7173_LR.jpg


Here's the same image with exposure pumped up by 2 stops in Lightroom and the blacks darkened substantially, to emphasise the sensor spots.

20090516_095348_7173_LR.jpg


Now the spots are clearer but this is so far removed from a "real world" shot as to be ridiculous. Nonetheless the spots are there. Inspecting the image at 100% they pretty much all look like dust to me, certainly not the oily donut things that the notice mentions. Even if a few of them were oil, if the spots bothered me then the sensor needs a clean regardless, oil or no oil. Like I say, it appears to be a rather foolish storm in a teacup.

p.s. I have never wet cleaned this camera or even used a Rocket blower on it. I have relied solely on the dust shake thingy to keep it clean. Whether Canon cleaned it when it went back for AF checks I do not know, but that was around two months ago and I've shot over 1,000 images with the camera since then.

EDIT : I now see that Canon Europe has issued the notice as well - http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/news/EOS_oil_spots.do.
 
Had a large oil blob on my sensor about a year ago. It's not a new phenomenon.
 
Well lets get them out of the way, I still haven't sent my 1ds for the focus fix as I can't do without it. So may as well save them up and get them all done at once when I'm on holiday.

Problems aside the 1ds3 is the best camera I've ever owned :)

Dust on the sensors are a problem of digital cameras, I'd much rather spend a few minutes in PS retouching a few spots than get tram lines along all of the negatives.
 
Am i the only one that finds it refreshing that these companies hold their hands up and say yes we have a problem and we will fix it for you. Look how poorly Microsoft handled the disc scratching issue and red ring of death, it tooks forever to get any hint of an apology and that it was a fault of the equipment and then a chore to get it fixed.
 
ppp said:
Am i the only one that finds it refreshing that these companies hold their hands up and say yes we have a problem and we will fix it for you. Look how poorly Microsoft handled the disc scratching issue and red ring of death, it tooks forever to get any hint of an apology and that it was a fault of the equipment and then a chore to get it fixed.
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Refreshing, absolutely, and I fully support full disclosure of cock-ups when they are made. But admitting to a fault when there isn't one is just plain stupid, IMHO. It doesn't help the company, the customers or the market. Why do it?

Maybe I'm the one lucky SOB who has a perfect camera, and all the others are the duffers. Is that likely? Probably not. What is the scope of this notice - US only, certain batches/serial number ranges? Anything sent in for service in the last 3 months? Does the US market get a different production line in Japan from the rest of the world? I just don't see how it is a problem that needs national, never mind international, recognition. I dare say Canon knows more about the problem than I do, but from where I sit there is no problem. Then again, I've never had a problem with my Xbox 360, and between four Canon bodies, ten Canon lenses and thousands of shots I'm not sure that I have ever seen an ERR99 message. Perhaps I should play the lottery :)
 
Not had this problem with mine, and if I do I will gust send it in, make a load of noice about it and get some more freebies.:D
 
tdodd said:
Nikon D3 bodies are not immune to the same fate. My brother in law shoots Nikon and had the same thing happen to him and his D3. Do Nikon users get up in arms about it?
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No, but I suspect that they would if this was the 4th recall for a camera that's has problems from day one.

I personally know of pros who were die-hard Canon shooters who have moved wholesale because of the seemingly endless problems with the 1D III. Problems that they personally experiences btw. Those people are well into double digits in terms of numbers and that's just other wedding shooters I know.

You only get a few chances to keep your customers when your products are the ones they depend on, and for many the 1D III was just too much.

The best thing for Canon to do is to put the thing down and get the 1D IV out fast - with proper and full QC. I'd say exactly the same if this was Nikon and the D3.
 
Guy, that's pretty much my point about this "recall". It's Canon shooting themselves in the foot. There was a systemic problem with the AF and the forums and blogs were alive with complaints. It needed fixing.

But where is the outcry about oily blobs? Some bodies have been in use for two years and (generalising wildly) nobody has mentioned this as a problem. Now the first we hear of it is from Canon, blowing the whistle on themselves. I didn't really pay enough attention but I thought the last AF recall included a bit of a cleanup as part of the service, simply as a courtesy. Now we are told the cameras may need cleaning again. This new recall doesn't make any sense at all to me.
 
Honestly, I think they have no choice. After the AF fiasco which took them months to admit to, and the subsequent blue dot et al recalls they have to front up to everything now. Damned if they do, damned if they don't..
 
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