1. they(Canon professionals, Korean amateurs, photography related
professionals, etc) tested with 5 bodies both in-doors and
out-doors to simulate the field environments.
2. they used many lenses, not only 50mm f1.8.
I think Mr. Solo misunderstood the messages in the BBS. One of the
member announced that in this official test, shooting the rulers
with 50mm f1.8 had very little thing with actual field test because
many bodies including 1D which showed focus variation at ruler test
showed very sharp images at real field tests. Maybe this paragraph
gives him some translation error.
3. They together shot 279 pictures. Still it is not very clear
whether the 6.8% of focus errors are from AF module, user error or
circumstances. It may be some issue but nobody(except Canon) is
very confident about this. I could read from the board that Canon
actually prepared and presented many hidden internal technical
information - therefore all of them were forced to sign on
non-disclusure agreement - all of them agreed that AF module could
never be 100% percent perfect.
2. Of 1D, 1Ds and 10D, 10D, according to Canon, 10D sensor has the
highest AF sensitivity, which doesn’t mean it’s better [I couldn’t
quite understand this point].
Because 10D has smaller CMOS area, Canon should have developed
'more accurate AF sensor' to meet technical AF standard of better
cameras, meanins 1D and 1DS. Although AF sensor itself was made
more accurate, due to smaller CMOS, it does not mean 10D has better
AF functionality - that is what I understood. Do you?
One of the main problem until this test - which is very exceptional
one I believe - was that the distributors could never provide
satisfacatory services to their customers. They adjusted lenses
and bodies without any standard tool from developers which
amplified the bad effect. Canon and the distributor admitted this
problem and they are now building a new(?) standard of calibration
and offered 2 years warranty to customers who purchased 10D before
this event to compensate miscalibrated bodies and lenses - in the
mean time Canon declared that the AF module of any software is not
changed or will not be changed before and after this event.
The above is all based on my personal understanding to help you to
see the facts of the test.
regards...
driveway
I haven’t had a chance to browse through the forum to see if anyone
else already posted the news. But, here’s an update on what
happened at the official testing of AF issue among the Korean SLR
club that began to boycott 10D.
The test was done in the presence of 5 SLR club member, Canon
technical team, and LG reps. The test equipment was one 1Ds, one
Nikon D100 and five 10D. Of the five 10d’s 3 of them had already
gone through service and 2 of them had not. Apparently all five
10Ds tested were presented by SLR club as defective or problematic
even after recalibration [Correct me if I am wrong, my Korean is
very rusty].
Here’s a brief summary of the result
1. Out of 279 shots taken using 50mm f/1.8, 17 shots failed to nail
the focus point. That translates into 6.8% focus error, which
Canon concluded as an acceptable range.
2. There was no correlation b/w focus failure and serial number of
the camera tested. The serial numbers of the 10Ds included
0330-,0530-,0730-.
3. The three recalibrated 10Ds produced much sharper results than
the non-adjusted.
4. The Canon’s position after the test was that there is no
focusing issue with 10Ds in production.
5. SLR club members seemed to agree on this point as well, at east
on an official note.
Here are some other tidbits that came out of this meeting.
1. On average 10% of Korean 10D users went back for service.
According to Canon, this number is much higher than those seen in
any other countries.
2. Of 1D, 1Ds and 10D, 10D, according to Canon, 10D sensor has the
highest AF sensitivity, which doesn’t mean it’s better [I couldn’t
quite understand this point].
3. Firmware 1.0.1 has nothing to do with any AF issues.
4. According to the test, 10D demonstrated higher focusing accuracy
than Nikon D100 [no quantitative test results were given].
5. LG/Canon stated that any focus recalibration after this meeting
would be done using a standard body and lens shipped from Canon,
Japan to avoid any further compatibility issue between different
lenses and bodies.
6. Another surprising outcome was that LG would extend their
warranty service to 2 years from the date the camera goes through
service.
Now, my personal conclusion!
1. There apparently exist some 10D with focusing problem, but they
seem to fall under the manufacturer’s acceptable quality control
error.
2. At least in Korean DSLR user circle, the majority of focusing
issues reported on their site were more psychological than factual.
3. Here’s the last but not the least. We should stop posting or
reading about this AF woes and go out and take pictures. Once
there was a time when this forum was about photography and not
photo gear.
Happy clicking….
Solo
