400 CLICKS AND... SPLAT!

With the 1Ds Mark III kit now being relatively complete, I decided to give the Canon set-up a test run at the Addison, Texas 4th of July Celebration - Kaboom Town. I had borrowed a Canon 100-400L IS several weeks ago - and it  has been sitting on my desk since the day I borrowed it. To ease my guilty conscience, this was as good as any time to actually use it. It has been a year since I last shot fireworks, so tonight’s show would be a good practice for the Las Colinas show we normally go to each year. I thought I could get a decent line on the air show via a nearby parking lot. That idea did not pan out, so I joined the thousands of other cars slowly inching their way into Addison. This “quick outing” had escalated into a serious effort, but there was no turning back - literally - because the police were closing roads, etc.

I started out with a monopod, but there people everywhere. Futzing with a monopod amongst all the spectators was not working, so the air show images were shot handheld. The air show started at 7:30 PM, but by the time I parked it was already 8:00 and the light was fading fast. And this is exactly why I bought the 1Ds Mark III - ISO 800,  Servo Focus, enable the ring of fire, the 100-400L’s IS in pan mode, and the 1Ds set to 5 FPS. Let ‘em rip!!! Shutter speeds ranged from 1/160 to 1/500 with the 100-400L set wide open. Eventually ISO was increased to 800. Most images were shot with +2 EC since the slightly hazy sky tricked the 1Ds Mark III into under-exposing. And usually wide open lenses tend to under expose too. The viewing position was not ideal for head-on shots, but the sun was to my back, so at least blown out skies were not a problem.

By now just about everybody knows the Canon Mark III series is plagued with focus issues. I have lost track of all the firmware updates and recalls. Even before 1Ds Mark III, I never had great results with Mark II in Servo Focus mode because I used Servo Focus maybe 1 or 2 times a year. Between my lack of skills and the Mark III’s checkered history, Servo Focus was reluctantly engaged. My fears were unwarranted; the auto-focus keeper rate was surprisingly high. Out of 200 frames there did not appear to be any OOFs due to focus errors. The only OOF’s were from my erratic panning. This 1Ds Mark III has been back to Canon Irvine for the auto-focus fix(es), so as far as Canon is concerned - this 1Ds Mark III is 100% healthy. I admit, the 1Ds Mark III did much better than I expected.

PART TWO - AFTER THE AIR SHOW

The sun had set and shutter speeds were dipping below 1/100 even with ISO 1600, so I called it quits and headed back to the car to swap lenses and pick up the tripod for the fireworks pictures. While shooting the fireworks pictures, I played with a range of settings, mostly keeping the shutter times in the 2 to 3.2 second range. If there was just one firework, then 3.2 seconds was good. If there was a cluster, then 2 seconds tended to work better. Based on these times (had the 1Ds Mark III not died tonight) my plan was to shoot in bulb mode and count off “Mississippi’s” depending on the firework composition. But the 1Ds Mark III did die, so that testing that technique will have to wait a year.

I am an not sure why the 1Ds Mark III died when it did. I did accidentally put the camera in the delayed cocking mode, so maybe 200 shots in delayed cocking mode stressed the shutter too much. The ERR99 problem is a known issue and Canon has published an advisory note (click here). A thread on FM had good checklist for determining whether the camera, lens or flash card is at fault (click here). My 1Ds Mark III’s shutter is definitely at fault. Shooting with & without CF card, with different lenses, without a lens, with a fully charged battery, with a depleted battery - all scenarios result in ERR99. Sometimes the shutter can fire 1 or 2 times before faulting. Other times it does it on the first click. Hopefully it will behave the same way for Canon.

JULY 4, 2011 UPDATE

It has been two years since the ERR99 problem. The 1Ds Mark III came back from Canon working fine. Since then, no more ERR99. The last 4 images on this page are from 2011. The Canon 1Ds Mark III and Canon 70-300mm F4-5.6L IS were in direct sunlight and 100F+ temperatures for 3 hours. Not a single problem. More pictures from 2011 here.