Canon 1Ds Mark III image misalignment fix

Viewfinder Problem fixed under warranty

I’ve reported the problems that I and quite a few others experienced with early Canon 1ds3 Mk3s

My own camera had a very visible 0.4 degree tilt.

I’ve a separate page showing how I measured that, and other people’s problems with the camera.

At lunchtime, Monday 18th August I dropped off the camera at Canon UK service in Elstree…

Thursday lunchtime, 21st August 08 it’s shipped back by UPS, and the camera is back with me. I actually had a mail at end of business Tuesday, to say that the camera was fixed.

Update – May 2015 – After many tens of thousands of pictures I finally start using the 5Ds as my main camera. The 1Ds3 has worked perfectly ever since this repair. I’ve since heard that several people had this problem with early Mk3s, and that all were fixed under warranty.

The 1Ds3 is still a great camera – our UK used photographic items come from MPB – check out their stock

The Repair invoice shows that it’s a warranty fix

“WARRANTY BASED ON PRODUCT LAUNCH Adjusted finder paralax”

A quick check was in order, so I pointed the camera at a straight edge (ruled focusing screen fitted)

This is the view in the finder.

The live view looks fine too (this was obviously tilted before)

A photo, shows that any error is less than 0.1 degree

Given that from previous landscape work I reckon I can spot a horizon tilt of anything over 0.25 degrees in a picture, this is good enough.

This is what it was like

So I’ll consider it fixed…

Or I should say that I consider it perfectly acceptable since there is possibly a very slight residual tilt (maybe 0.05 degree) but it’s difficult to accurately measure, and to be honest it’s well below my personal threshold of ‘bother’. Given the delay in fixing it, you can guess that the 0.4 degree tilt was only in the minor irritation category ;-)

Oh, just one last thing…

One other item appeared on the repair note.

‘Replaced DC-DC converter. Tested all functions’

So, a new PCB inside… presumably some part that’s been replaced/redesigned since the camera launch?