News From The Front Lines: Canon EOS 1D MarkIII Defects?

Canon’s new EOS 1D Mark III is finally hitting the market after an unusually long three-month delay between announcement and release. Now that the highly anticipated pro body is getting into consumers hands, there have been some initial impressions hitting the boards and photo shops.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive about Canon’s attempt to go back to the board with the entire design of the camera, improving almost every major component area, including the new vibrating cover plate sensor cleaning system. The camera is by default set to vibrate the cover plate ultrasonically whenever the camera is turned on or off, which makes sense as Canon has a long history of using ultrasonic technology in the focusing motors of their lenses. However, out of the five cameras that have passed through my hands so far, I have had one defective.

The cleaning process is a mostly silent affair, with only a very slight hum audible from the camera’s body. In the case of the defective camera however, the noise emanating from the body sounded like windshield wipers scraping across an icy windshield. When compared side to side with another Mark III body the difference was palpable. The camera is being sent back to Canon for a replacement and it remains to be seen how many issues there will be with the system as the rollout continues. Hopefully it is just an isolated incident.
—Matthew Panzarino